Digital Platforms

Mobile and microfinance are just two of the technologies transforming financial services, according to recent report.

The market has been driven to a place where insurance-linked securitizations work from a pricing perspective, say experts at a recent S&P conference.

The scholarships were awarded in four categories: Certified Insurance Counselors, Certified Insurance Service Representatives, Certified Risk Managers and Certified School Risk Managers.

Allianz Life, Aviva USA and New York Life are the top three contributors to the increase.

Investment accounting providers see 445-percent growth in insurance clients; CEO credits SaaS approach.

Prices for all standard commercial insurance lines rose for the fifth consecutive quarter, with commercial lines increasing 5 percent in aggregate, according Towers Watson’s “Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey” (CLIPS), which compared the Q1 2012 prices of policies with those of the same period last year.

With a median salary of $49,700 to $51,000, these professionals are in demand by financial services organizations—including insurance—according to finance and accounting staffing firm.

Penalty settles allegations AIG wrongfully tried to avoid paying state residual market assessments and taxes.

Comparatively light catastrophe activity since the beginning of 2012 has strengthened balance sheets for reinsurers, increased already plentiful capacity and moderated pricing trends, according to a briefing from Guy Carpenter, a provider of risk and reinsurance intermediary services.

MiAgents iPad application is designed to enable OMI's agents to spend more time in the field gathering intelligence, which is then analyzed through the app for actionable intelligence.

The year-end figure is comprised of redundancies in personal lines, commercial property and commercial liability, offset by deficiencies in workers' compensation and financial guaranty.

Exigen Insurance Solutions, a provider of core solutions, introduced at this week’s IASA conference an International Business Insurance product designed to give insurers operating in global markets greater product flexibility and agility.

Industry-wide first quarter annuity sales reached $53.1 billion, which is down about 2.5 percent from $54.5 billion the previous quarter, according to the Insured Retirement Institute.

A new report from Novarica anticipates a widening analytics gap between large and mid-sized insurers.

The MarketScout report for May outlines upward adjustments for both personal and commercial lines.

A dynamic atmosphere prevailed at an IASA technology session as insurers debated the challenges and possibilities of innovation.

Students from St. John's University, University of Wisconsin, University of Central Arkansas, East Carolina University and five other schools were named recipients of the 3rd annual program.

Aite Group Senior Analyst Stephen Applebaum outlines the many social media initiatives insurers are embarking upon from this year's IASA conference in San Diego.

CloudProtect designed to reimburse losses due to the failures of cloud service providers.

Illustration Integrator is designed to provide Southern Farm Bureau’s agents illustrations with iGO e-App to deliver a unified selling experience, according to iPipeline. Agents will leverage their existing e-signature solution, in a combined signing process, for the illustration and e-application along with e-submission.

Continued slow economic growth places a new priority on servicing distribution channels and improving service to agents, according to a new report.

Allstate, Esurance, GEICO and Travelers perform well in J.D. Power insurance website shopper satisfaction study.

Aragon Research forecasts extinction for most paper documents.

Four other insurers also recognized for making their content accessible and understandable to consumers.

Jackson to pay $621 million in cash for SRLC America Holding Corp.

Non-traditional and non-insurance activities and interconnectedness categories to weigh more in determining global systemically important insurers.

For employers, HRI says the net impact of the 2012 increase could be as low as 5.5 percent after accounting for changes in benefit design by purchasers. For health insurers, the decrease in spending and costs may be an opportunity to recoup expenses from the decreasing margins of previous years.

Celent, Novarica and Strategy Meets Action garner top spots in 2nd annual insurance technology analyst survey.

Valen’s predictive analytics product designed to enable underwriters to score policies on two fronts.

With one day left until National Flood Insurance Program expires, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a 60-day extension last night, acting quickly on the Senate’s approval of the measure last Friday.

While many companies have invested in financial reporting systems, much of the investment has been ad hoc, leading to ineffective solutions and a lack of visibility, quality and confidence in financial data, new report states.

Onboard connectivity monitors and communicates mileage to insurer.

The survey, entitled “Big Data – Extracting Value from Digital Landfills” consisted of more than 400 responses to an AIIM member survey conducted in March and April. Less than 10 percent reported that it is already an “essential capability” for business and about 15 percent expect that it will be essential. On the flip side, nearly 15 percent reported they weren’t really aware of what big data is yet and about 20 percent were merely more than curious about its potential. As far as data analysis, reporting and BI across structured data sets, only 4 percent are developing advanced analytics and big data tools, while most still opt for spreadsheets and ad hoc reports (30 percent) and reports in individual business systems (29 percent).

Fannie Mae hopes to banish banks from any involvement in the purchase of force-placed insurance under a plan to lower the cost of the product, according to a copy of a request for proposals obtained by American Banker.

While income plunges, balance sheets remain strong due to growth in net premiums earned and increases in net premiums written.

Research reveals the best practices found for teleworking among technology- and insurance-related professions.

A recent report outlines how improving prices and environmental conditions will ease the burden of catastrophe coverage this year.

Justin Kern

Study from Prudential and CFO finds majority of executives are looking to move to employee-choice models for benefits.

Insurance branch aims for quicker product launch and broader distribution channels with software purchase.

U.S. House of Representatives expected to take up legislation next week, when they return from holiday recess.

Consultancy provides a forum for chief risk officers to discuss trending practices and hot-button issues in risk management.

One-third of insurers currently are replacing or plan to replace their policy administration system, according to the recent Novarica Market Navigator reports, which profile 58 property/casualty and 25 life/annuity/health policy administration solutions.

Ken Fraser will also lead the company's international insurance practice and global broker network.

Executives list data initiatives as top priorities, yet rarely recognize IT as leaders in new digital business plans.

While the anticipated FIO report on how to modernize and improve insurance regulations in the United States is, after missing its initial deadline of January 31, still in progress, McRaith delivered testimony last Thursday, but was only made public today, before a House Committee on Financial Services meeting titled, “U.S. Insurance Sector: International Competitiveness and Jobs.” In McRaith’s testimony, he outlines some of the FIO’s activity in lieu of the report, including the addition of four more professionals this month to bring its team up to 15.

Java-based application contains tools to define custom business rules and design payment, collection and delinquency plans.

The annual Contents Claims Index (CCI) by property insurance software and service provider Enservio found that the number of jewelry items claimed grew 57 percent compared to 15 percent growth in the electronics category for the same year. The average price per piece of jewelry claimed increased by 11 percent with jewelry claims more prevalent on the West Coast of the United States.

The Chartered Insurance Operations Professional Institute honors Crawford & Company and Union Mutual of Vermont for outstanding leadership throughout the insurance industry.

AIR to provide catastrophe modeling services to support FM Global risk management activities.

New feature provides several different views of a property, enabling virtual assessment during underwriting process.

Financial advisors are so uncomfortable speaking about life insurance that more than half, 56 percent, simply don’t do it, according to a recent survey by consultancy Saybrus Partners Inc. Further, almost one-fifth (18 percent) said they were “uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable” recommending life insurance policies to their clients. Just a third (34 percent) of the financial advisors surveyed said they were “very comfortable” recommending life insurance to their clients.