MELVILLE, N.Y. -- AutoOne Insurance, a Limited Assignment Distribution (LAD) servicing carrier accepting assigned risks on behalf of client insurance companies, announced today that they are expanding their LAD services into other states and new markets. Assigned risks are those drivers who are unable to obtain automobile insurance in the voluntary market. AutoOne currently offers LAD services to automobile insurance companies in New York and New Jersey.

Seattle-based Safeco Corp. and Aon Risk Services have introduced an online interface designed to improve communications between the two companies, thereby improving service for risk managers and contractors.By making it easier to report new bonds, and eliminating errors in the renewal and billing of in-force bonds, Aon and Safeco will reduce the day-to-day involvement of risk managers and contractors without compromising their control.

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), El Segundo, Calif., has signed a seven-year agreement with Trinity Universal Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Chicago-based Unitrin Inc. CSC will support Unitrin Multi Lines Insurance's commercial lines of insurance with business process outsourcing (BPO) and Internet-based services.A CSC client since 1982, Unitrin Multi Lines Insurance, which provides insurance products in 30 states, used CSC's technology to establish its X-Sell-A-Rate agent Web site two years ago. Under the new agreement, CSC will help Unitrin extend its Web capability to include a full range of commercial insurance services to more than 2,000 independent agents.

AIG Technologies Inc. (AIGT), Livingston, N.J., has expanded its Web-based Automobile Liability Insurance Reporting (ALIR) system to support South Carolina's recently announced automobile liability reporting mandate.AIGT's ALIR system enables insurance carriers nationwide to electronically report personal and commercial automobile insurance verification and cancellations.

Newark, Calif.--Prospects for an active hurricane season in 2004 reinforce the need for sophisticated storm tracking and modeling capabilities, Risk Management Solutions (RMS) said today.

A few years ago, when senior executives took to the podium to report their companies' earnings, no one really questioned if they were telling the truth. Today, because Enron, WorldCom and other companies have so blatantly duped investors, the federal government is hovering over them, saying "Prove it."With the threat of criminal penalties, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) holds senior executives personally accountable for the accuracy of their companies' financial statements. The law also requires publicly traded firms, including insurers, to document and test their internal financial controls, and report within 48 hours any "material" events or weaknesses that may affect their earnings.

For most insurers, there's a natural inclination to settle claims swiftly, particularly to satisfy customers who might take their business elsewhere. But as insurers improve claims processing time, ironically, many are paying a high price.To their chagrin, efficiencies surrounding claims settlement can actually produce negative results. Ultimately, many carriers find themselves dispersing dollars that shouldn't have been paid in the first place, due to claims fraud.

With public concern about credits scores far from extinguished, 11 state insurance departments-dubbed "the coalition of the willing"-are planning to conduct their own multi-state study of the effects of credit-based insurance scoring on consumers.The 11 states-Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia-have issued calls to insurance companies for individual policyholder data in order to conduct their research on the effects of scores, which insurers use to price auto and homeowners policies.

When it considered the various ways to comply with the security rule included within the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Chattanooga, Tenn.-based BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee identified its "incident response" capabilities as a viable compliance strategy.More specifically, the Tennessee Blues plan formed an incident response team (IRT) to respond to information systems incidents that could potentially compromise the security of personal or protected health information of its customers. The Blues plan can now better respond to information systems incidents as a cohesive team and minimize impact of incidents on its business and customers, says a security analyst at the company.

BLOOMFIELD, Conn.-- CIGNA HealthCare and WebMD Health today announced a multi-year agreement that will offer help to millions of CIGNA HealthCare members in making vital health care decisions and in understanding and using their health care plan. Under the agreement, CIGNA will integrate WebMD Health's comprehensive suite of online health information and decision support tools into myCIGNA.com, the personal health benefits Web portal for CIGNA HealthCare members.

Uniondale, NY--OnlineBenefits Inc., provider of Internet-based HR solutions, announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire Captiva Systems, a producer of agency management software for group insurance brokers.

NEWARK, Calif.-- Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world's leading provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, today announced that it has released a new data formatting tool called the RMS Data Wizard. The tool is designed to help clean up and convert data about insured locations into a common format for use by insurance buyers, agents, brokers, insurers, and reinsurers.

NEW YORK--AIG Technologies, Inc. (AIGT), a member company of American International Group, Inc. (AIG), today announced the launch of WINS Now, a Web-based insurance processing system designed to streamline policy administration and increase speed to market for Managing General Agents (MGA) and small property-casualty companies, including start-up and virtual insurers.

COLUMBIA, S.C.-- Following health insurance scams that have hit South Carolina recently, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina has added new tools for consumers to use to report fraud.

Data standards are critical to streamlining the financial reporting process, according to industry sources. And a new add-in to Microsoft Office 2003--to be released this summer by the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant--may be the missing link in the concept of "straight-through reporting."The Microsoft add-in will provide XBRL support within Word and Excel, and it will enable companies to automate manual tasks associated with using Word and Excel for financial reporting, says Mike Willis, founding chairman of XBRL International and partner at New York-based PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Rating agency demands (71%), financial reporting issues (55%), shifting product preferences (55%) and changes in regulatory requirements (48%) are driving the industry's need for improved risk and capital management practices, according to life insurance company CFOs surveyed by the Tillinghast business of New York-based Towers Perrin in its latest CFO survey.As a result of such pressures, 86% of the CFOs surveyed say they are paying more attention to risk and capital management practices. Four out of five (81%) of the executives polled are going one step further; they are proactively implementing them.

It's no secret that for insurers, aligning technology staffs and business units into a full partnership has been challenging. Frederick Matteson, the newly appointed chief information officer for Novato, Calif.-based Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., isn't able to fully grasp the automation-related woes that have bedeviled insurers. That's because Matteson has deftly been able to avoid them himself.Having spent a number of years as an executive in the brokerage industry, Matteson championed the concept of total alignment between IT and business long before it became commonplace. A proponent of disciplined strategic scenario planning, Matteson has a keen sense of determining early on whether to expand or reduce a corporatewide initiative, including those centered on information technology.

When it comes to inefficiencies surrounding information technology security practices, global corporations are discovering that to err is human.A survey conducted by Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based global trade association Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) discovered that human error-defined mainly as a lack of adequate certification and training-is the root cause of lax IT security at most corporations.

Many corporations are catching flak these days for various operational inconsistencies.For instance, a recent survey indicates that companies, including insurers, have implemented seemingly effective, written IT security policies, but have not optimized these efforts by providing proper training and certification to its people.

Compromise legislation establishing a federal role in insurance regulation is likely to emerge from the House Financial Services Committee early in May. A hearing in late March yielded strong support for the measure from an industry divided on the issue.At the same time, the principles involved constitute the strongest support yet for greater uniformity in insurance regulation.