Core systems

Greenwood Village, Colo. - Great-West Healthcare, a division of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co., is launching a pilot program with E-Duction Inc., a Philadelphia-based provider of payroll deduction solutions, to issue the CLEAR Card, a payroll deduction credit card for employers with consumer-driven or other high-deductible health care plans.The CLEAR Card, which is processed like any other credit, debit or check card, is a tool designed to help members pay out-of-pocket health care expenses. The pilot program will be rolled out this month to various clients nationwide.

Kansas City, Mo. - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has formally approved enhanced disclosure requirements for insurers that utilize reinsurance with limited risk transfer features, also known as finite reinsurance.

New York - The Insurance and Actuarial Advisory Services (IAAS) practice of Ernst & Young LLP has released its quarterly outlook identifying the need to take risk management beyond legislative and regulatory compliance to the next level.Enterprise risk management (ERM) is beginning to move to the top of the "CFO to-do list" as companies become increasingly sensitized to the heightened need for enhanced risk governance, management and measurement, according to Ernst & Young. This includes an acknowledgment that there needs to be a more disciplined approach to risk measurement and risk management.

San Francisco, Calif. - Esurance, a California-based direct-to-consumer auto insurance company and subsidiary of White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd., says it's the first such company to enhance its Web site with the addition of PayPal as a payment option. The move is seen as a larger corporate objective to enhance the online policyholder's experience. The Esurance Web site provides customers with the ability to obtain instant quotes, view comparison quotes, buy an Esurance policy, and print their proof of insurance card. Esurance also offers policyholders the ability to make policy changes and file claims instantly online.

Chicago - Safeway Insurance Group, Westmont, Ill., is improving its networking infrastructure with an Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) from AT&T that integrates Safeway's headquarters in Westmont, Ill., with nine offices across the southern and western United States. Based on Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology, the networking solution provides a standardized networking platform with increased bandwidth and secure, high-speed access to Safeway's proprietary applications, e-mail and other operational functions.

Omaha, Neb.- Insuractive, Inc., an Alexandria, Va., insurance e-commerce marketing company, and Omaha-based Senior Market Sales, Inc. have entered into a definitive merger agreement to create a high-technology insurance marketing company with products geared to the senior market.

Kansas City, Mo. - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) today announced that the Market Analysis Review System (MARS) is now available for use by all state market analysts. This technological enhancement, which reflects regulators' focus on market regulation, is designed to automate the market analysis of companies, including a state's Level 1 analysis review.

New York - Complying with the PATRIOT Act is a top concern for boards of financial services firms, according to a survey of 210 board members conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers at its 2005 Financial Services Audit Committee Forum, held last week in New York. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed were audit committee members or chairs, who serve a crucial governance role in corporate oversight of compliance in today's post-Sarbanes-Oxley world.The PATRIOT Act, passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, requires financial services companies to enhance customer identification capabilities, monitoring systems, and suspicious activity reporting (SAR). The expanded obligations required by the Act, increasing scrutiny by regulators, stiff penalties paid by many institutions for non-compliance, and the increase in Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filings, has made audit committee members particularly concerned about how their organizations manage compliance with the law.

Pearl River, N.Y. - ACORD, eEG7 and CSIO today made public the release of a harmonized data dictionary for the insurance industry. This marks the completion of efforts by this international standards bodies coalition, which includes ACORD, the European forum for the development of e-business standards for electronic communication (eEG7) and the Canadian-based Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO), to harmonize their existing data dictionaries as part of a United Nations initiative.

Chicago - Although insured losses from Hurricane Katrina are estimated at a record high $34.4 billion, the property/casualty insurance industry will weather the storm of more than 1.6 million claims spread out over six states without the market disruption that occurred following 1992's Hurricane Andrew, the previous record-setting storm, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), Chicago.

Boston and Plano, Texas - Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS) have amended their eight-year contract by $125 million in additional information technology (IT) services from EDS. The contract began in January 2004 and the relationship between the two companies originated in 1969."Over the course of our long relationship, EDS has developed a deep understanding of our business, and the EDS team has demonstrated their commitment to our constant goal to improve health care service," says Carl Ascenzo, BCBSMA's chief information officer. "The solutions provided by EDS will provide greater flexibility for our members, account and health care providers while controlling our overall IT costs."

Basking Ridge, N.J., - Allstate Insurance Co., Northbrook, Ill., has deployed Internet protocol (IP) telephony solutions from Avaya Inc. (NYSE:AV) in new locations in the United States and Canada.Allstate is using Avaya's IP-based contact center applications, powered by the Avaya Customer Interaction Suite, to manage customer calls and route them intelligently based on customer-entered criteria. Allstate links its contact centers and manages them as a single, virtual organization--routing customers to the employee best able to handle a claim or inquiry based on language or area of expertise, regardless of where the call originates. As part of the implementation, Allstate has deployed more than 10,000 IP endpoints across its organization.

Warren, N.J. - The Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. has created an online system that is designed to make it easier for agents and brokers to quickly obtain a rate, quote or binder for contractors' equipment risks with schedules up to $5 million.Contractor's Equipment Express, or CEQ Express, is available to agents and brokers through @chubb, the secure Web site that provides agents and brokers access to Chubb products and services.

A new study that purports to pinpoint the economic losses stemming from state-by-state regulation of the life insurance industry finally provides the smoking gun that advocates of optional federal regulation say they need to bolster their case before Congress.Commissioned by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), the study contends that life insurers could save more than $600 million annually, or $6 billion over 10 years, if a federal regulatory charter option were enacted.

U.S. financial service providers (FSPs) are expected to spend $65.7 million on IT services in 2005. However less than 30% will outsource any strategic projects by the end of 2006, according to Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn."Most FSPs currently use outsourcing tactically to augment staff for faster project turnaround or to reduce operational costs, rather than for strategic value," says Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, research vice president at Gartner. "FSPs should now begin outsourcing strategic projects in order to gain larger-scale, enterprisewide value."

Insurers sell promises, and after Hurricane Katrina, they certainly have a lot of promises to keep.At press time, the economic loss from what appears to be the worst hurricane in U.S. history-along with subsequent flooding of New Orleans-was expected to exceed $125 billion, according to Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a Newark, Calif.-based catastrophe management technology and services provider.

Verbalizing its intent to become the No. 1 customer relationship management (CRM) applications company, Oracle Corp. at press time had announced it had agreed to buy Siebel Systems Inc., San Mateo, Calif. The deal is valued at approximately $5.85 billion, or $3.61 billion net of Siebel's cash on hand of $2.24 billion."Siebel's 4,000 applications customers and 3,400,000 CRM users strengthen our No. 1 position in applications in North America and move us closer to the No. 1 position in applications globally," said CEO Larry Ellison from Oracle's Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters.

San Diego, Calif. - According to a recent report issued by San Diego-based messaging security developer Akonix Systems Inc., some 25 new viruses were reported on corporate IM networks during the month of September.

Boston - In 2003, Allianz Life transformed its Individual Insurance Group Call Center with key features including a single converged voice and data network, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phones, simple and understandable 800 number access for agents and policyholders, and intelligent call routing.Allianz's new call center has produced both financial and nonfinancial benefits, according to a report from Celent Communications Inc., titled "Upgrading Call Center Technology at Allianz Life." Productivity (measured by utilization of internal sales reps) has increased from 85% to 92%. Current year sales are up 78% year-over-year with essentially the same staff count. Management has a much better ability to track performance both real-time and retrospectively. Perhaps most importantly, the introduction of skill-based routing has facilitated the matching of calls to sales representatives.

Mayfield Village, Ohio - One million consumers have heeded the call of the Drive Insurance from Progressive marketing campaign and visited driveinsurance.com to find out more about the benefits of buying auto insurance through an independent agent or broker, including personal service and advice, competitive rates, and choice.The Web site was introduced in December 2004 as part of the launch of the Drive brand, which promotes the more than 30,000 independent agencies that sell Drive Insurance products across the country. The Drive Group of Progressive Insurance companies is the country's number one writer of private passenger auto insurance through independent agents and brokers.