Digital Platforms

Insurance Networking News and other SourceMedia editors pool their predictions for 2009 and beyond. Survival amidst extraordinary competition will determine the winners.

Insurer questions continue over India-based Satyam’s viability.

Insurers drops Wausau brand, says it will serve middle market through brokers and agents.

A new agency/carrier survey reveals overall personal lines improved, outscoring commercial lines, which is on the decline.

The economic downturn may swell the ranks of uninsured motorists.

The goal of the appropriation is to expand the use of electronic health records.

The Pennsylvania-based life insurers say the anti-competitive fears that helped sink the deal are unfounded.

The new publication will offer technology expertise across a host of vertical markets, including insurance.

KPMG survey finds deficiencies in key areas, including technology.

Forrester Research finds that while global IT purchases look grim in 2009, the insurance industry has a much better growth outlook, with P&C and health leading the charge.

In a new report, Ernst & Young says carriers need to account for a changing landscape in the year ahead.

The risk specialist says property losses from 37 catastrophes last year were the fourth-highest cost, and highest frequency in the past decade.

An industry analyst points to the U.S. insurance/reinsurance market as one of the few places where something positive might happen during 2009.

DecisionMaker Rating set to provide consolidated rating across multiple DTRIC systems.

Association creates special committee and hires Washington firm as fight over federal regulation looms.

A coalition of insurance companies file suit to block implementation of Rule 151A.

State Farm terminated its contract with the Mumbai outsourcing technology giant Satyam in the latest fallout from the fraud scandal involving the vendor’s chairman, confirmed a spokesperson for the Indian outsourcer. Reuters reports that Satyam would issue a statement later today.

With budgets essentially flat, business execs and CIOs turn to improving performance, “harvesting enterprise investments.”

Both insurers promise to fund a new database and stop using UnitedHealth’s controversial technology that, according to New York State authorities, skewed reimbursement rates.

Investment firms are dampening the cautious optimism displayed this week by insurers at the Insurance Information Institute’s 13th Annual Property/Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum.

A new report from TowerGroup says the financial meltdown represents unique interdependencies and negative forces that insurers must be ready to deal with when it comes to litigation.

An Insurance Information Institute forum assesses the year past and the year ahead.

Expectations of mounting regulations may well signal a boon for solutions for risk management and compliance.

Association selects former Iowa insurance commissioner Vaughan for top post.

A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that fatalities per capita among older drivers has decreased 35% since 1975, and is at its lowest level.

Consultant Watson Wyatt says risk management and reform are among life insurers’ key concerns this year.

Bill wants companies receiving bailout money to trim executive compensation.

Supporters of state regulation say the new study comes short of advocating federal charter for insurers.

A yearly report on annuities shows carriers have a way to go when it comes to leveraging cost-cutting technologies such as STP.

The content management and workflow systems provider is teaming with INSTEC and OneShield on separate projects.

The two insurers are now able to become thrift holding companies, and receive money from the government's financial rescue program.

A new report from the National Research Council found that the clinical information systems in a number of medical organizations lack comprehensive decision support.

In an effort to achieve a nationwide electronic health information network, the former American Health Information Community brings together public-private sector members.

Specialty lines carrier will use the technology to protect personally identifiable information customer information.

The commission unveils full text of ruling that reclassifies annuities as securities.

Report on financial modernization includes a call to reassess the federalization of insurance regulation.

The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies sent members of Congress and state insurance policymakers a report, analyzing the causes of the nation’s financial crisis.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman says that the agency has given regulators until Jan. 15 to finish processing any remaining holding applications for non-banks seeking government capital.

The firm estimates that reinsurers will enter 2009 with 15% to 20% less economic capital than in 2008.

The financial crisis for the life and annuity industry began in earnest in the fourth quarter of 2008, but what does the future hold?

Company closures, layoffs, cost cutting, outsourcing and retirees who have had to return to the job market because of investment portfolio losses have combined to make it hard on today’s IT professionals.

Allianz says the long-term demand for retirement services is strong despite the current economic climate.

The insurer’s use of technology to track customer experience garners honors for excellence in insurance operations.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank says his bill would require the Treasury Department to use the money for foreclosure relief, institute lending requirements for banks that receive capital from the program and strengthen executive compensation requirements.

The insurance exchange says that rates may increase in a year.

The insurer appointed Russell Johnston president and CEO of AIG Environmental, one of the largest pollution liability insurance providers.

The organizations will demonstrate ways to implement the 5010 HIPAA transaction standards through existing testing tools, best practices and public-private collaborations that are already broadly recognized within the healthcare industry.

In a collection of essays, actuaries ponder the role of risk management in the financial crisis.

Spun off from Fiserv, the well-known insurance tech giant will take the name StoneRiver—a brand signifying “strength and transformation,” and akin to its adoptive parents, Stone Point Capital LLC.

According to a new Impact Forecasting LLC report, approximately 86% of Californian homeowners do not have earthquake coverage, despite most of them having mortgaged their homes.

The industry won't be without challenges, maintains Willis, as access to new capital in 2009 will become more difficult and expensive because of the current economic climate.

For the time being, tech takes a back seat to cost minimization and operational efficiency, which are at the top of the operational agenda for many in financial services, according to the New York research firm.