Subject Root Tag

As IT budgets begin to recover, storage and file recovery are hot items.

As the rulemaking phase of the Dodd-Frank Act continues, insurers are looking to shape the rules to determine which companies constitute a systemic risk to the larger economy.

Farmers Insurance was recognized for its claims handling system, which is driven by Pega technology from Pegasystems Inc., a Business Process Management (BPM) and customer centricity software company. The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) awarded Farmers a Silver Award as part of its 18th Annual Global Awards for Excellence in Business Process Management and Workflow.

Regardless of external factors, companies engaging in M&A activity generally outperform the Global MSCI Index by 2.9 percent based on year-to-date statistics from 2011.

The insurance industry experienced decent top-line growth, fairly resilient margins and increased capital management in 2011. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods expects it to continue into 2012 and stocks will be traded more in line with fundamentals next year.

New survey shows savings from cloud computing are barely making a dent in corporate IT budgets. Is it time to rethink the approach?

GlobalOptions will serve as the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) provider to Argo Group US Inc., an international underwriter of specialty insurance and reinsurance products to P&C markets, and its subsidiaries.

JEVCO Insurance Co., a specialty insurer, is in production with ClaimCenter, the claims management solution from Guidewire Software, a provider of core system software to P&C insurers.

Talend, an open-source software company, says BF&M Insurance, a Bermuda insurance group, has added ESB Enterprise Edition to its portfolio of Talend integration solutions.

Agencyport Software (formerly Sword Insurance), a provider of software and services to the global insurance and reinsurance industries, has released the latest version of its automated solution for migrating entire books of business, BookSmart 2.3.

EagleEye Analytics Inc., a provider of predictive analytics solutions to the insurance industry, has appointed Roger Burkhardt as president and CEO. EagleEye says that, after successfully establishing itself in the market, the company now is launching into the next phase of growth and bringing in a proven CEO to lead this effort.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) responded to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) call for a national ban on the use of cell phones while driving by commending the attention being given to the issue of distracted driving. The association also asserts the fact that cell phones are only one source of distraction for American drivers.

Swiss Re predicts that 2011 will rank as the most expensive year ever for the insurance industry. The insurer's sigma team estimates total insured losses for the global industry from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters will reach $108 billion. This is more than double 2010’s losses, which were $48 billion.

After its first public event, the magnitude of the task facing the Federal Insurance Office becomes apparent.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) may be heading for another lapse, subsumed in high-stakes political brinkmanship.

A report issued by the consumer group Center for Justice and Democracy at New York Law School claims that carriers are planning to price-gouge buyers of insurance, particularly commercial lines insureds. The report, “Repeat Offenders: How the Insurance Industry Manufactures Crises and Harms America,” asserts that insurers are in collusion to create a hard market in which commercial lines insurers can target their customers with large rate increases.

Keeping property repair rates down requires not only proper initial assessment, but occasional re-evaluations from an underwriting perspective as well.

Helga Jung, head of Allianz SE’s Group Mergers & Acquisitions has been appointed to the Board of Management. Taking on the role as of Jan. 1, 2012, Jung will be responsible for the insurance business in Spain, Portugal and Latin America, for Strategic Participations, Mergers and Acquisitions, plus Legal and Compliance. And, she is the first woman to be appointed to the boardroom of the group holding company in its 121-year history.

After looking at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's 2012 Top Safety Pick list—the longest ever at 115—it’s clear that automakers have made vast design improvements during the past year. Sixty-nine cars, 38 SUVs, five minivans and three pickups earn the designation for 2012. Eighteen of the recipients—10 of which are Honda/Acura models—are new to the winner’s circle. And again this year, every major automaker has at least one winner. At 15, Toyota/Lexus/Scion has the most winners for 2012, followed by General Motors with 14, Volkswagen/Audi with 13, and Ford/Lincoln and Honda/Acura each with 12.

Credit and information management firm TransUnion released end of third-quarter results of its proprietary Auto Insurance Risk Index, noting a slight increase of 0.03 percent after four consecutive quarterly declines. The index now registers 98.85, three basis points higher than Q2 2011; 31 basis points lower than a year ago at this time; and 73 basis points lower than its recessionary peak in Q2 2009.