Core systems

As the number of claims mount, insurers are in a scramble to manage risk management issues surrounding property/casualty coverage of faulty Chinese drywall. Yesterday, Louisiana became the first state to openly challenge insurers, passing a bill stopping insurers from increasing premiums or canceling homeowners and commercial property coverage because of such claims.

The Qatar-based reinsurer signed a three-year contract with RMS to manage earthquake risk in Asia.

XML-based Thunderhead NOW is designed to simplify the process of making changes to data, eliminating the need for IT involvement.

Despite failure to reach a bipartisan deal, Republicans and Democrats unanimously agreed to allow the debate to move forward on the Senate floor.

But the logjam may allow a full debate to proceed.

Although efforts are underway to harmonize certain areas of insurance regulation, such as solvency margins and the regulation of control and management, until there is overall harmonization of international insurance laws, sellers, producers and buyers of multinational programs face certain challenges. So says Suresh Krishnan, general counsel, Multinational Client Group at the ACE Group of insurance and reinsurance companies, in a new report. The challenges, says Krishnan, involve making sure companies are not inadvertently assuming risks under local insurance and tax laws in the various jurisdictions implicated by their programs.

Gartner analysts predict that 95% of organizations will support a blended approach to enterprise architecture by 2015.

AIG is continuing to repay its debt to the federal government, but much of the progress reflects the numerous exchanges of debt that AIG owed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Revolving Credit Facility.

The National Flood Insurance program, which has limped along on a series of temporary extensions, may be due for a more substantial resolution.

Online tool enables single, uniform reporting to multiple entities.

American Association of Insurance Services data center is designed to allow member companies access to its traditional premium and loss data, plus geographic, demographic, weather, crime and other types of data collected from public and private sources.

Despite the setback, Democrats remain convinced they do not have to compromise very much on the bill to get it passed.

Recovering equity markets may foretell consolidation in the insurance industry, a new report says

Report says P&C insurers' combined ratio improved to 101.2 in 2009, down about 3.0 percentage points from 104.0 in 2008.

A dialogue is necessary to identify emerging risks and help risk managers achieve full value from their ERM investments, says RIMS report.

A.M. Best revises State Farm General Insurance’s outlook to positive from stable, S&P places Reserve National Insurance on CreditWatch with negative implications.

A model is needed that better reflects the tension and compromise inherent in making insurance technology decisions, concludes Celent.

New York Life says 64% of its record $1.9 billion in fixed immediate annuity sales last year was to women purchasers.

Sen. Dodd's bill calls for dozens of studies on important topics, including the debate over a federal insurance charter.

Insurers’ predictions that, as a result of the volatile economy, consumer fraud would steadily increase, may cringe at the latest fraud-related stories—committed by agents—that are making headlines.