Security risk

On the heels of reports coming out of Washington on the government’s scramble to protect the country’s power grid from cybercriminals, CSC reports the launch of an Insurance Cybersecurity Advisory Council for life insurance and annuity providers and property/casualty insurers. The goal of the council is to facilitate the development of best practices and technology strategies that effectively mitigate the risk of cyber attacks on the insurance industry.

The International Underwriting Association has established an enhanced lobbying presence in the Americas, the group reports.

Risks continue to outweigh the benefits when it comes to implementing technologies of convenience behind the wheel.

Given the tough pricing environment, skittish capital markets and litany of catastrophe losses seen in 2011, it’s hard to regard the present as a golden age for reinsurers.

Experts say thanks to a dearth of Federal support, it isn’t a stretch to imagine a power grid cyber attack that takes out the Internet, grinding communications and businesses to a halt in the process.

ingenie is a new online car insurance brand targeting young drivers in the United Kingdom, aged 17 to 25, who have been priced off the road by rocketing car insurance costs. Those costs have seen the 17 to 22 age bracket now paying a typical annual premium of £2,431 ($3,805), up 64 percent when compared to 2010 figures.

With another expiration of funding for the National Flood Insurance Program looming, a continuing resolution to keep the program afloat has passed the Senate by unanimous consent.

In 2012, the U.S. life and annuity insurance industry will be challenged to find ways to manage both capital and risk in an economically and politically uncertain year, while continuing to lay the groundwork for future growth, according to Ernst & Young's new Global Insurance Center U.S. Outlook report.

American Fidelity Assurance Co. has chosen Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ NILS INsource and NILS INcompass offerings to help monitor and implement regulatory changes.

As a teetering Euro threatens more disruption in world financial markets, a new survey reveals widespread concern among those responsible for risk management at U.K.-based insurance companies.

Even though they know it’s dangerous and, depending where they are, against the law, drivers continue to text behind the wheel, and Allstate Insurance Co. and Manitoba Public Insurance are doing their part to put an end to it.

Property/casualty insurers may well be relieved that the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season officially ended this week. This year, the season counted 19 tropical storms, 7 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes (Category 3 or above on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) resulting in insurance claims.

1. Risk Management/ Climate Control

When the landmark Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed in 2010, it was widely assumed that the following year would entail some regulatory uncertainty as the rule-making and implementation processes unfolded. For the insurance industry, the regulatory landscape in 2012 looks to be a sequel nobody wanted to see. "It's rather unfortunate that more than a year has passed since the passage of Dodd-Frank, and things are still very uncertain," says Howard Mills, director & chief advisor, Insurance Industry Group, Deloitte LLP.

Life insurers need to craft mitigation strategies for a prolonged low-rate environment.

Daily, there's news affecting health insurers. What's becoming clear is that transparency is a demand from consumers and regulators that health insurers are going to have to keep up with.

Fraud is on the rise in the United States and globally, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’s 2011 Global Economic Crime Survey, with cyber crime making the most significant increase in the two years since the firm’s last survey.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has released the latest version of its ARC Logics for Financial Services offering. The enterprise risk management (ERM) solution suite draws upon actionable, industry-specific regulatory intelligence and Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ domain expertise. Wolters says this helps financial organizations bring transparency, traceability and efficiency to managing compliance, operational and financial risks as well as to the audit function.

Sponsored by Swiss Re, a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) finds risk management practices surrounding renewable energy projects wanting.

The introduction of telematic technologies will help improve overall road safety, new data from U.K.-based The Co-operative Insurance shows.