Policy adminstration

Aon Corporation has agreed to pay the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) approximately $16.3 million as part of a settlement related to charges of foreign bribery.

Priority Data has added four township mutual partners in Minnesota. In October, Priority Data launched Farm and Home quoting for North Branch Mutual. The company says it also has signed agreements with Sverdrup Mutual, Madelia-Lake Crystal Mutual, and Has San Lake Mutual to launch quoting, rating and underwriting solutions in the first quarter of 2012.

David Woods, former NAIFA CEO, discusses the virtues of learned lessons and the flaws of asking for perfection.INN is pleased to present, with permission, this video from the Wealth Channel, an online resource for financial services professionals.

The industry's struggle to assess and implement the right technologies at the right time.

With the stroke of a pen on Saturday, President Obama signed a continuing resolution that bought the troubled National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) another week of funding.

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?

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.

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.

Torus, a specialty insurer, has acquired First Sealord Surety Inc. to augment the development of a new platform, Torus Surety. The transaction is expected to be finalized in January 2012, pending regulatory approval.

Emergency Physicians Insurance Company RRG (EPIC) and Echo Ridge Partners have implemented iCatalyst, a policy and claims management system designed to streamline processes and improve customer service throughout an entire policy lifecycle.

Amica Mutual received the top honor for overall excellence from InsuranceQuotes.com’s inaugural Insurance Quality Awards.