Policy adminstration

A mixture of new technologies and business imperatives are causing insurers to redefine the boundaries of data security.

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals foresees insurers returning to outsourcing as a means to recapture innovation and provide flexibility in 2010.

Howard Schmidt will be responsible for orchestrating cybersecurity activities across the government and coordinating efforts to better protect private information networks.

Out-of-state residents are charged with insurance fraud after providing false information.

In an effort to boost sub-par fixed-income annuity sales, AIG has renamed one of its subsidiaries in an effort to distance the brand from its tarnished image.

New York-based Fitch Ratings has published two documents updating the criteria the firm uses to assess insurance companies.

IT workers are facing an increasingly tough job market, a new study from Park City, Utah-based Janco Associates finds.

A.M. Best, and Moody’s Investors Service released ratings updates. The following are some of the most recent:

Auto insurers hoping to keep rates under control can look forward to a happy new year. As Jan. 1, 2010 quickly approaches, Illinois, Kansas, New Hampshire and Oregon are all preparing to enforce stronger laws regarding cell phone use and texting, says Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group, through its wholly owned subsidiary Liberty Insurance Company (LICL), will establish a branch in Zhejiang, thanks to approval by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).

The top 10 risks facing business today may be largely elusive to corporate leaders, according to Joe Plumeri, Willis Group Holdings Limited. At a Town Hall meeting in Los Angeles this week, the global insurance broker’s chairman and CEO called on businesses to step up and acknowledge and respond to the risks facing business.

John Healy resigned his position as CEO of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) to pursue other interests, and Susan Waters, EDM, CAE has assumed the position of Acting CEO, the association announced.

Aon Corp. launched Aon Broking, a broking strategy for clients of the firm's retail brokerage operation. The new strategy is designed to ensure that Aon Risk Services’ clients benefit from the broking resources Aon provides, and gain access to solutions and markets for their specific needs.

Many of us are trying hard to see positive trends for the coming year, but employment remains the only meaningful bellwether of change.

President Obama signed HR 3326, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which includes a law that lengthens the duration of the COBRA subsidy from nine months to 15 months for eligible employees and their dependents. It also extends the subsidy to those Americans who lose their jobs on or before Feb. 28, 2010.

Bank of America Corp.'s lawsuit against MGIC Investment Corp. reflects escalating tensions in the industry over mortgage insurers' denials of claims that lenders submit for defaulted home loans.

Countrywide Financial Corp., now owned by Bank of America Corp., will have to reimburse as many as 17 million victims of the breach free and offer credit monitoring as a result of a settlement that was approved by a U.S. District Court Judge Thomas B. Russell in Kentucky. The Associated Press reports that the settlement calls for Countrywide give the victims, including anyone who obtained a mortgage and anyone who used Countrywide to service a mortgage before July 1, 2008, free credit monitoring and up to $50,000 in reimbursements per instance of identity theft, provided they actually lost something of value, were not reimbursed and can prove the loss more likely than not stemmed from the Countrywide breach.

Boston-based Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company is closing its recently formed MassMutual Retirement Income (MMRI) unit, according to a report in Investment News. The unit was formed in April 2007 to deliver “advisor-focused solutions for customers’ accumulation and guaranteed lifetime income needs.”

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking information as it launches an initiative to analyze health information technology standards to better focus resources on those that facilitate health information exchange.

After days of procural votes, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act finally passed in the Senate early Thursday morning by a margin of 60-39. The sweeping reform legislation now moves to a conference committee where Senate and House negotiators will forge a single bill that each chamber must once more vote on before sending it on to the President for final passage.