Digital Platforms

While not yet a hurricane and still days away from landfall, Tropical Storm Isaac now poses a threat to the Republican National Convention, scheduled to begin on Tuesday in Tampa.

Insurer turns to software firm for improved investment accounting, reporting and analytics solution.

The federal bank is selling off the last $3.4 billion of its Maiden Lane III LLC portfolio, ending its four-year bailout of the insurer.

Rating agency predicts positive rest of the year despite the slight deterioration of interest coverage and leverage ratios during the first-half of 2012.

Platform designed to enable insurers to control appetites by state, line of insurance and SIC in real time.

Risk Analyzer Homeowners product enhanced with by-peril rating rules, which have been approved in 13 states.

Magazine rates companies’ growth since 2008 and ranks them accordingly.

With the business intelligence product, the broker expects to be able to drill down into its data while analyzing the business from many different perspectives.

Deal furthers global relationship between the two companies.

How a start-up telematics insurer is allowing U.K. insurers to look at young drivers completely differently.

Hartford CEO Liam McGee continues divesting units in the wake of billionaire investor John Paulson pressuring him to narrow the company's focus.

Aetna joins competitors WellPoint Inc. and Cigna Corp. in making acquisitions as the U.S. government expands medical coverage.

The 1994 Honda Accord was the most-stolen vehicle; key code thefts a growing concern, according to NICB.

Allianz, Aviva, AXA Equitable, Great American and Jackson National are a few of the carriers named as top-selling indexed annuity and/or life insurance carriers for the second quarter.

Latest report from Gartner serves as a call-to-arms and guide for insurers putting off analytics, business intelligence and big data investments.

In a Forrester survey of 90 enterprise customer analytics practitioners, including insurers, social analytics is the most popular analytics program companies are looking to pilot in the next couple years.

Suite of coverage enhancements to be offered through network security and privacy product.

Of the 14 life insurance firms monitored by Corporate Insight, Liberty Mutual and USAA were cited as having the strongest social media performances and were awarded top grades.

Overall, deal volume in software and Web-based offerings were both down for the second quarter of 2012.

Free informative app, called WreckCheck, designed to help consumers protect property, identities with accident reports.

During the first half of 2012, 58,523 questionable claims were referred, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Deloitte's new report outlines two types of fraud: the deliberate faking of an accident and fabrication of a claim, called hard fraud, and exaggerated values on legitimate claims or misrepresented information in an attempt to garner lower policy premiums, labeled soft fraud.

Michael Palmer will lead the analytics team in Bermuda and help develop the company’s understanding of all aspects of catastrophe risk.

Aviva is looking for 5,000 UK drivers with Android smartphones to test its RateMyDrive app.

Bank-owned life insurance (BOLI) assets reached $145.6 billion in the first quarter of 2012, an 8.7 percent year-over-year increase from the reported BOLI assets of $133.9 billion for the same period in 2011, according to the Michael White/Meyer-Chatfield Bank-Owned Life Insurance Holdings Report.

Specialty branch within Munich Re adds a front-end risk management and planning component to its data breach coverage.

Falling costs largely attributable to decrease in medical benefits for injured workers, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Terri Vaughan will step down during the first quarter of 2013; National Association of Insurance Commissioners officers will conduct a national search later this year to fill the position.

CLASIC/2 Version 14.0 introduces the ability to model builder’s risk policies for the AIR earthquake and hurricane models for the United States. AIR designed the updated version to support the policy conditions that characterize commercial insurance, enabling companies to assess catastrophe loss potential from the portfolio level down to the individual location level.

Second half of 2012 will likely test reserves, balance sheets and underwriting acumen—Keefe Bruyette & Woods expects Ace Ltd., Chubb Corp., Marsh & Mclennan Cos. and Proassurance Corp. to pass those tests with strong reserves and quality franchises.

21st Century, Argo, Infinity, EMC, Manulife, Tower and XL Group all released their second-quarter results.

Multiple billing systems to be consolidated to cloud-delivered STG Billing solution.

The specialty insurer looks to the claims management software to support its goal of increasing effectiveness and efficiency of payments.

The showdown came at a hearing held by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on the controversial product, which is a kind of property insurance policy that banks purchase when mortgage borrowers stop paying for homeowners insurance. Banks receive a portion of the premiums through commissions, reinsurance deals and other payments from the specialty carriers that offer it.

New survey hints that organizational understanding may be more important than appropriate technology products when it comes to gleaning social insights.

International regulatory measures, including Solvency equivalency, highlight the AIA’s talking points heading into the weekend.

After purchasing ClaimCenter from the provider five years ago, the insurer is also implementing Guidewire's billing, client data management and policy administration systems.

Coverage Counselor is designed to help consumers understand how their personal circumstances impact their insurance premium and enable them to compare different levels of coverage.

One way to practically screen for potentially significant threats is to evaluate prospective ones against an insurer's exposure concentrations.

In July, severe drought and heat waves effected great swaths of the United States, causing billions in insurance losses, according to Aon Benefield’s “July 2012 Global Catastrophe Recap.” Up to 64 percent of the continental United States is experiencing at least moderate drought, according to the National Climatic Data Center, and half of all U.S. counties have been declared disaster areas.

Spreadsheet Workbench purchased by insurer in an effort to meet Solvency II requirements.

The number of insurers looking to increase staff is now at the highest level since July 2009, according to “The Mid-Year Insurance Labor Market Study,” produced by Jacobson Group, an insurance staffing company, and Ward Group, an insurance consultancy. The majority of insurers, 54.5 percent, intend to increase staff this year, compared to 51 percent in January; and the number expecting to increase revenue is 78.4 percent, up from 69 percent for the same period.

Insurance is among the industries found to have significant scanning requirements due to a continued reliance on paper, according to a recent survey.

Announcement of another state review comes days before NAIC's hearing on force-placed insurance slated for Thursday.

Many insurers currently don’t offer self-service Websites to support customers, but that will change by the end of 2013, according to the phase 1 results of iPipline’s “Surveying Customer Servicing in Life Insurance: Insights into carriers’ operational tasks, priorities and technologies.”

Nina, the new customer service virtual assistant from Nuance, is designed to understand what is said and who is saying it.

This month’s MarketScout report cites a stable personal lines market with a composite rate growth of 2 percent for August, while composite commercial P&C rates were also noted as steady at four percent.

Upgrading claims systems is a high priority, ranking among the top three projects for 41 percent of large property/casualty carriers and 23 percent of midsize carriers, according to “Novarica Market Navigator: US Property/Casualty Claims Solutions 2012.” This year, insurers will select between 65 and 75 new systems, compared with 50 to 60 claims systems last year.

Insurers’ recent SEC filings indicate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is continuing its investigation into whether mortgage insurers are complying with federal real-estate law.

The technology challenges business models by potentially eroding premiums and profits, but also offers an opportunity for differentiation in a market historically driven by price.

Job numbers in all IT sectors grow as CIOs look to turn temporary positions into openings for full-time IT professionals.

Net income at Allianz rises 23 percent in the second quarter.