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With the onslaught of Big Data and more sophisticated business intelligence and analytics, data quality will be more important than ever to insurers in 2012. The experts say you can't get there without clean, accessible data. Poor contact data affects a variety of operations, from underwriting to policy service. But from a cost perspective, inaccurate contact data can have a significant impact on insurers. In a September 2011 report "Why is Data Quality Important for Insurers?" Deloitte lists four reasons:

If IT spend is any indication of insurers' intentions, consider the planned major strategic projects such as core system replacements or enhancements proof that modernization is a continuous process.

The economic crisis of the past few years has given P&C and life insurers new reasons to be competitive, and new reasons to be concerned. During this period, consumer spending on insurance dipped, while spending on personal technology reached an all-time high. In fact, experts say that we have entered an era that marks a turning point for consumer technology-for the first time, the combined shipment of smartphones and tablets is predicted to eclipse that of PCs, notes International Data Corp. (IDC), giving customers the power to access information and transact business at any time from any place. Just from 2010 to 2011, the number of mobile devices shipped is expected to increase from 305 million to 472 million, the company says.

Life insurers need to craft mitigation strategies for a prolonged low-rate environment.

Of all the trends set to impact the insurance industry in 2012, the wide use of business analytics across the enterprise was likely the easiest to foresee.

Daily, there's news affecting health insurers. What's becoming clear is that transparency is a demand from consumers and regulators that health insurers are going to have to keep up with.

Fraud is on the rise in the United States and globally, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’s 2011 Global Economic Crime Survey, with cyber crime making the most significant increase in the two years since the firm’s last survey.

Commercial lines carriers focused on risk mitigation tied to business continuity have reason for additional concern. According to a newly published survey, 85 percent of companies reported at least one supply chain disruption over the last 12 months, with 40 percent of analyzed disruption originating below the immediate supplier. The survey, sponsored by Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) and conducted by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) Caversham, United Kingdom, queried companies from across 62 countries.

Glatfelter Insurance Group, a multifaceted insurance broker and MGA/program manager, and SPARTA Insurance Co., a property/casualty carrier dedicated to writing program business with Program Administrators as well as retail agents, share few things in common.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has released the latest version of its ARC Logics for Financial Services offering. The enterprise risk management (ERM) solution suite draws upon actionable, industry-specific regulatory intelligence and Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ domain expertise. Wolters says this helps financial organizations bring transparency, traceability and efficiency to managing compliance, operational and financial risks as well as to the audit function.