Core systems

South San Francisco - Financial services firms and banks have a far less clear picture of their business, and the factors that will ensure their future success, than they imagine, according to a report authored by Bernard Marr, a world expert in Strategic Performance Management and research fellow at the UK-based Cranfield School of Management. The report, 'Managing Strategic Performance in Banks and Financial Services Firms; From Going through the Motions to Best Practice' was published by Actuate Corp. a South San Francisco provider of intelligence, performance management and reporting applications, takes an in-depth look at 15 of the world's leading banks and financial services firms (including retail banks, investment banks, universal banks, one central bank and a mutual financial services firm) and their approaches to Performance Management to determine where firms are going wrong. At each company, between two and eight different principals, from MD to COO and CEO, were interviewed at great length about their Performance Management strategies. The report shows that many banks and financial services firms have been lulled into a false sense of security through over-reliance on historical financial information as their guide. They are failing to measure and manage the likely drivers of future performance - such as reputation, talent, customer relationships and organizational culture. Distracted by irrelevant and misleading performance indicators, or worse, failing to observe any of these indicators at all (despite being at pains to gather the data), organizations are selling themselves short by charging ahead with new business strategies, without bringing the rest of the business with them, or ensuring that every part of the firm is aligned with its current goals. This new report reveals that banks and financial services firms typically fall into three common traps when they approach Performance Management: measurement, compliance and risk - regardless of how formally they are managing performance, or the sophistication of the tools they are harnessing. Bernard Marr explains, "Despite being overrun with supposedly valuable performance data, many organizations appear to be plodding on regardless of the results. Already bloated Performance Management systems are being further obscured by compliance-related measurements, even though these might have little bearing on the future health of the business as measured by revenues, profit margins, competitive positioning and customer perception." Bernard continues, "Risk management activities, so vital in the financial services industry, are further clouding the picture. When these are not considered in the context of the wider goals of the business, organizations find themselves held back unnecessarily - or exposed to far greater risk than may be worth it for the business." In addition to identifying the challenges that organizations are facing, the report offers a series of best practices which include the effective application of Performance Management techniques, as well as the importance of measuring the factors that matter - not those which can be monitored most readily. These best practices are intended to guide firms toward success as they create a clearly focused, company-wide strategic performance culture. "Avoiding the traps identified in this research will guide banks in implementing a leading-edge Strategic Performance Management approach to keep them at the forefront of an increasingly competitive sector," said Richard Stark, director of Performance Management Solutions at Actuate. "Put Performance Management squarely in the context of the future of your business by measuring reputation, talent and customer relationships - use the results to improve behavior right across the organization and the results can be extremely powerful." To download the Cranfield report titled 'Managing Strategic Performance in Banks and Financial Services Firms; From Going through the Motions to Best Practice' please visit http://www.actuate.com/info/performance-mgmt-cranfield.asp. Source: Actuate Corp.

Toronto, Ontario - Pink Elephant, provider of IT management best practices, plans to launch ISO/IEC 20000 Essentials, a new course that will help organizations understand the benefits of adopting a quality approach to IT, as defined by the first global standard for IT Service Management, ISO/IEC 20000. Published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2005, ISO/IEC 20000 is directly linked to the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), the best practices framework that focuses on aligning IT with the business, resulting in greater productivity and reduced costs. Despite the many strategic advantages, implementing ITIL has also been met with several challenges; primarily, gaining both management and staff support for a process improvement project. "By demonstrating a commitment to quality IT service provision, organizations can gain a competitive edge through ISO/IEC 20000 registration. We're seeing more RFPs that include this standard as a prerequisite," says Pink Elephant president David Ratcliffe. "ISO/IEC 20000 also plays an important role in preparing organizations for audits. With these two benefits alone, the executive team and IT staff can make a clearer connection between ITIL and how it addresses actual business pressures and concerns." The new ISO standard also allows the organization at large to receive recognition for following ITIL best practices, whereas before only individual ITIL certification existed; therefore, ISO/IEC 20000 represents a level of excellence that can be felt across all departments and is not limited to IT or its ITIL-certified practitioners. Pink Elephant's ISO/IEC 20000 Essentials is aimed at: * IT department staff of an organization that is considering or is already ISO/IEC20000 certified, so as to understand the breadth, depth and integration between the processes; * Contracts managers looking to construct RFPs to include ISO/IEC20000; the course will help explain what is involved in the standard; * Senior IT Managers, who will understand the importance of adopting a quality approach to Service Management and understand the value of ISO/IEC20000 accreditation; * Anyone involved in service provision; this course will show how ISO/IEC20000 will enable you to transform the service provision using best practice from ITIL and ISO9000. More information about course dates and locations, and in-house deliveries, will be available soon. Please visit www.pinkelephant.com for the latest updates or call 1-888-273-7465. For more information about ISO/IEC 20000, please visit www.iso.org. Source: Pink Elephant

Schaumburg, Ill. - Zurich announced the debut of eZ Transition, an online tool that bolsters the effectiveness of Zurich's return to work (RTW) program and supports a wide range of employers' RTW practices. According to a company statement, employers can use eZ Transition to generate customized RTW policies and procedures, create job description profiles with physical job demands, develop temporary transitional work assignments, develop RTW implementation and training materials, and access Americans With Disabilities Act information and state-specific Family and Medical Leave Act data. "Effective RTW programs like Zurich's can save 10-40% of workers' compensation medical costs and 14-25% of wage replacement costs," said John Kelm, President, Zurich Corporate Customer, North America. "With disability costs projected to increase 37% this decade due to the growing number of workers aged 45 to 64, an effective RTW program and tools like eZ Transition are now more important than ever to a company's bottom line. " The tool's design reflects the input from Zurich specialists in many facets of its operations, including claims, managed care, risk engineering and underwriting. It enables the creation of a customer-specific RTW profile and the implementation of preventative loss controls that will help reduce lost workday cases. The eZ Transition tool is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to Zurich's workers' compensation customers through www.zurichna.com. Armand Fernandez, Risk Engineering Field Operations executive for Zurich, added that eZ Transition is flexible enough to adapt to employers of all sizes and program complexity, and complements Zurich's Absence Management consulting services. "Smaller employers are often unprepared for workers' compensation claims and even larger employers, with established RTW programs, frequently need assistance with physical job demands and transitional work assignments," Fernandez said. "Zurich's overall RTW program adapts to employers of all sizes, and provides the tools and directions they need to develop a comprehensive RTW solution for their specific needs, helping return their operations to normal as soon as possible." Source: Zurich, Schaumburg, Ill.

New York - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) launched a comprehensive public education program yesterday to assist small businesses with information about business risks and insurance options. Under the banner of "Insure U for Small Business," the campaign includes an online education site, public service announcements in English and Spanish, and community outreach by public information officers of state insurance departments. The Insure U for Small Business curriculum, which is available at www.InsureUonline.org/smallbusiness, includes six categories of vital information to small businesses: workers' compensation; group health and disability; business property and liability; commercial auto; group life and key person life; and home-based business insurance. After reviewing the curriculum's helpful explanations, tips and considerations, small business owners and managers can test their knowledge about insurance issues by taking an online quiz. Upon successful completion, they can download an Insure U for Small Business diploma. "Small businesses are a major engine for our national economy, employing millions of Americans and generating immense economic activity," said Walter Bell, NAIC President and Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Insurance. "Small business owners need to understand the array of business risks they face, as well as how to protect themselves with the right insurance coverage. Insure U for Small Business - supported by state insurance departments across the U.S. - will help small business owners and managers make smarter insurance decisions." Research conducted by the NAIC in March revealed that many small businesses - defined as those with fewer than 100 employees - are exposed to serious risks that could be mitigated by a better understanding of insurance options, according to Catherine Weatherford, NAIC Executive Vice President and CEO. Key findings of the research show: * Only 47% of small businesses offer heath insurance to their employees. Of those, 24% report changing the fee structure, deductibles or other components in the past year to offset the rising cost of premiums. - * Only 59% of small businesses with fewer than 20 employees have workers' compensation insurance, which state law requires for most companies. Workers' compensation insurance protects business owners from claims by employees who experience a work-related injury or illness. * Only 35% of small businesses have business interruption insurance, which covers expenses like payroll and utility bills that often continue after a major event (e.g., a fire or storm) shuts down a company. Because rebounding from a disaster can take a considerable amount of time, small businesses need to understand this risk and the available insurance options. * Only 48% of small businesses carry commercial auto insurance. The others apparently rely on personal auto insurance. However, personal auto insurance policies typically have lower liability limits and may even exclude business-related liability. * While 71% of small businesses say they are very dependent on one or two key people for their success and viability, only 22% have Key Person life insurance, a type of policy that enables a business to weather the death of a key employee or buy out the key person's heirs if ownership rights are involved. * Among home-based businesses - 22% of the NAIC survey - 48% depend on their homeowners insurance to protect their businesses. However, most homeowners insurance policies severely limit coverage of business property and may totally exclude business-related liability claims. "Insure U for Small Business represents a major commitment by the NAIC and its members - the chief insurance regulatory officials of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories - to help small business owners," Weatherford said. "It builds on the momentum of the NAIC's Insure U consumer education program introduced a year ago." The U.S. Treasury's Financial Literacy and Education Commission has embraced Insure U and made the program part of its National Financial Education Network. In addition to launching Insure U for Small Business, the NAIC is expanding its efforts to help insurance consumers avoid being taken advantage of by insurance scams. Fighting fake insurance is the focus of newly updated English- and Spanish-language television public service announcements (PSAs) encouraging individuals to call their state insurance department prior to purchasing an insurance policy to confirm that they are dealing with a company or agent authorized to do business in their state. Individuals may also call the NAIC's toll-free telephone number to find consumer representatives in their home state insurance departments. The number is 866-470-NAIC (6242). For more information about insurance, consumers can visit www.InsureUonline.org or, for the Spanish-language version, www.InsureUonline.org/espanol. Source: PRNewswire

Chicago - Multinational corporations are facing increasingly diverse, complex and exotic risks, and may not have all the resources in place to manage them effectively, according to a global risk management survey conducted by Aon, a Chicago provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. More than half of the survey's respondents said they weren't prepared for the risk they rated as most worrisome -- damage to reputation. "Executives now see reputation as a major source of competitive advantage," said Ruth Joplin, Aon Global Risk Consulting managing director. "While intangible, reputation is one of the most important corporate assets and one of the hardest to protect," she added. "The lack of preparedness reported for this and other key risks is both surprising and somewhat worrying." Joplin says it should come as no surprise that business interruption was cited as the second key risk. "Preserving earnings power is clearly one of the top priorities of senior management," she said, "and there is a growing realization that the resulting loss of income following an event could pose a greater threat than the physical damage itself. While 70% of respondents reported being prepared, it is perhaps even more telling that 30% are not." Survey responses suggest that third party liability risk concerns have arisen as a result of the encroachment of U.S.-style litigiousness into other geographies. "The 'compensation culture' is gaining a stronger global foothold," Joplin said. Rounding out the top five risk concerns, based on the survey's results, is distribution or supply chain failure, and market environment. Lack of preparedness for these risks is reported at 37% and 65%, respectively. What does this mean? "There is clearly more work to be done," said Joplin. "Dealing with these and future risk trends will require innovative, forward-looking solutions." Other top ten risk concerns rated by survey respondents are, in order, regulatory changes, failure to attract or retain staff, financial risk, physical damage and mergers and acquisitions and disaster recovery plan failure are tied for tenth place. Ranking Risk/description 1 - Damage to reputation 2 - Business interruption 3 - Third party liability 4 - Distribution or supply chain failure 5 - Market environment 6 - Regulatory/legislative changes 7 - Failure to attract or retain staff 8 - Market risk (financial) 9 - Physical damage 10 - Merger/acquisition/restructing 11 - Failure of disaster recovery plan Joplin says that that Americas is the only region where technology failure and loss of data are cited as a major risk concern, while Europe uniquely cites mergers/acquisitions/restructuring and Asia/Pacific is highly concerned with weather/natural disasters. Risk managers in the Americas tend to rely heavily on senior management intuition and experience to identify major risks as compared to other regions that rely more on business unit registers. The survey also indicates that corporate boards recognize the criticality of risk management and are engaged in the review of risk issues. Respondents reported identifying and understanding their risks is a top priority and many planned to take a more enterprise-wide approach to risk within the next two years. "By taking a more integrated, systematic approach to managing risk," Joplin said, "organizations can begin to actively start turning risk into opportunity." Aon's Global Risk Management Survey 2007 was conducted in late 2006 and early 2007 by Aon Global Risk Consulting, and is based on responses from 320 organizations in 29 countries. The Web-based survey, aimed at risk managers, CFOs, treasurers and others responsible for risk, addressed both qualitative and quantitative risk issues. Insight is provided by region, revenue and industry. Source: AON Corp.

Washington - Two Washington-based groups are pushing a set of common principles to Congress as it prepares to take up legislation that would renew the federal backstop for terrorism risk insurance. The Coalition to Insure Against Terrorism (CIAT), and the American Insurance Association (AIA), are passing their message to The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises chaired by Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), who will hold a hearing on this issue tomorrow (April 24). A critical issue that must be resolved by the new legislation, according to CIAT and AIA, is the separate treatment for nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological (NBCR) attacks, which would recognize the unique characteristics of these events. Reports issued last year by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the President's Working Group on Financial Markets confirmed that the private market has not provided coverage for NBCR attacks outside of workers' compensation lines. Insurers are required by state law to provide the coverage for workers' compensation. To address this issue, AIA and CIAT agree that the new legislation should contain a mandatory "make-available" provision that would require insurers to follow the standard workers' compensation model. The organizations' joint principles stress that the make-available provision must be accompanied by a clear acknowledgement that the federal government is responsible for NBCR terrorism losses above primary insurers' individual NBCR retention levels. Additionally, TRIEA's insurer co-pay requirement for NBCR would be eliminated. "Importantly, the CIAT/AIA joint principles call for the new legislation to be permanent, for the distinction between foreign and domestic acts of terrorism to be eliminated and to recognize the extreme nature of NBCR attacks through a lower deductible and certainty with respect to the role of private insurers in managing NBCR terrorism risk," said Marc Racicot, AIA's President. "These principles represent a set of parameters that we believe should be considered as part of any TRIEA extension bill." Martin DePoy, coordinator of CIAT's steering committee, notes that the organizations are gratified by the broad-based, bi-partisan support Congress has shown for continuing the terrorism reinsurance backstop, but says policyholders and insurers alike believe that new legislation should address some important issues that were not fully resolved by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act and its extension. "We believe the new program should end only when Congress determines terrorism no longer is a significant threat," said DePoy. For more information, visit http://www.insureagainstterrorism.org Source: American Insurance Association

Pearl River, N.Y. - China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. became the first Chinese domestic insurance company to join the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD) as a member.ACORD members participate directly with their peers and partners in the standards process regarding development, maintenance and management of ACORD standards. Members participate in working groups and committees, which manage and develop, and then vote on new standards specifications and maintenance requests to support both international and local business requirements.

Charlottesville, Va. - SNL Financial LC, a Charlottesville, Va.-based business intelligence provider, reached an agreement with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Kansas City, Mo., to acquire and publish statutory insurance data through SNL's database products.Statutory insurance data consists of detailed financial and operating data filed quarterly for more than 5,000 public and private insurance companies, including: line-of-business results, market share and geographic exposure, relevant calculated ratios, investment portfolio statistics, loss triangles, reinsurance relationships and more.

Indianapolis and Washington - During the past few months, legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to repeal or alter the existing limited antitrust exemptions afforded under the McCarran-Ferguson Act.Many associations and organizations have publicly opposed the repeal. Among those are the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA).

Stamford, Conn. - Public and private companies—more than 66% of respondents—have received a record number of inquiries from potential board members who are concerned about their current directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance, an increase of 16% from 2005, according to the D&O Liability 2006 Survey on Insurance Purchasing and Claims Trends conducted by Towers Perrin. Nonprofit respondents received similar D&O inquiries from approximately 32% of their boards, up slightly (3%) from 2005.At the same time, the survey, which included 2,875 participants, shows that companies are responding to these inquiries by providing broader personal liability protection for directors and officers. In fact, 14% of those surveyed purchased Side A-only coverage in the past year. Side-A coverage provides D&O coverage for personal liability when they are not indemnified by the organization.

Hartford, Conn. - With the recent sale of a small business policy to Creative Music Adventures of Seattle, Wash., The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. now maintains one million small-business policies in force across the country."This is an outstanding achievement for The Hartford," says Jim Ruel, senior vice president of small business insurance at The Hartford. "For years, we've been listening to what small business owners want, and then developing the right products and services to help our agents meet their clients' needs. Reaching this milestone in such a competitive market is a testament to our company's leadership and expertise in this field. As the number of small businesses in this country continues to increase, The Hartford will continue to find new ways to serve them."

Reston, Va. - The year 2006 represented the tipping point for using the Internet to buy auto insurance, says comScore, Inc., a Reston, Va., company that measures commerce in the digital world.

Criminals can imitate public or private Wi-Fi services to lure unsuspecting consumers and businesses into an ID theft nightmare, says TraceSecurity, a Baton Rouge, La., provider of security compliance management.

Stamford, Conn. – Insurance carriers in North America and Western Europe need to become more customer-oriented to remain competitive, according to a study by Gartner Inc., the research company based here.

Atlanta - A disk containing the personal information of 2.9 million Georgia residents has gone missing, state health officials say.

Bethesda, Md. – A self-described socially responsible mutual fund has withdrawn formal objections to the way two major insurance companies have handled climate change.

New York - New York City-based New York Life Insurance Co.’s consumer Web site was best in the nation among insurance and annuity companies in the fourth quarter of last year, according to Dalbar Inc., a Boston-based company that tracks Internet innovation.

New York - Parents can track the whereabouts of teenage drivers with the help of a global positioning system about to undergo testing by New York-based AIG Auto Insurance.

New York - Senior insurance executives are concerned about governing and managing the crushing volume of data their companies maintain these days, especially in light of stricter reporting requirements.

Edwardsville, Ill - Florists' Mutual Insurance Company (Hortica) has announced the loss of a locked shipping case containing backup computer tapes with personal information.