Security risk

By converting from paper to e-billing, companies can reap appreciable cost savings, achieve significant efficiencies, hasten incoming payments, gain greater accuracy in accounting and invoicing systems, and reduce labor operations.But only a relatively few carriers have thus far converted to e-billing, also known as Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP).

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) gathering Dec. 3-6 in Chicago includes a full and varied agenda, but the American Insurance Association (AIA), a Washington, D.C., trade association, is giving catastrophe funding top billing. The group says it will participate in a three-hour public hearing on catastrophe issues as regulators consider the idea of creating a national catastrophe fund.

Zurich, Switzerland - Swiss Re has agreed to acquire GE Insurance Solutions, the fifth largest reinsurer worldwide, from General Electric Co. (GE) in a $ 6.8 billion (U.S.) transaction.The acquisition is designed to add a strong franchise to Swiss Re, complementing its own strengths. After the closing of the transaction, Swiss Re would have estimated combined revenues of CHF 46 billion (based on 2004 figures) and assets of CHF 265 billion (as of June 2005) and a highly diversified business globally.

Washington, D.C. - The American Insurance Association (AIA) is urging insurance regulators to go slow in considering a national catastrophe insurance program, affirming support for catastrophe modeling technology but discouraging federal and state governments from storming through private sector business practices.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. - Chicago-based ISMIE Mutual Insurance Co., has become the latest carrier to adopt online education designed to help emergency medical professionals reduce their liability claims.

New York, N.Y. - The Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc., New York, has launched an initiative to become the premiere resource for Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). The launch follows a survey of more than 1,000 members that revealed that nearly two-thirds of respondents are either involved in the development of an ERM or are considering it. The Center, which will be housed on the RIMS Web site, will be constantly updated with relevant Internet links, articles and professional development opportunities.

New Orleans - McGlinchey Stafford PLLC, a law firm based in the Gulf Coast region, has developed a weblog for companies with business interests in hurricane-affected areas. The blog, found at www.hurricanelawblog.com, features up-to-date information about post-hurricane legal issues, including insurance, real estate, healthcare, environmental, finance and litigation.The blog, which was created in response to client needs, offers businesses a single location to find information regarding legislation, litigation, and regulatory issues in and affecting Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama. McGlinchey Stafford's hurricane blog will serve as a central repository for relevant information from both federal and state organizations, legislative bodies and courts.

Kansas City, Mo. - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has selected CooperKatz & Co. to promote a major national public education program focused on teaching consumers how to select the right type of insurance coverage to fit their needs and how to protect themselves from buying worthless policies from fake insurance companies."We chose CooperKatz for their broad knowledge of insurance issues and deep experience in consumer public relations," says Catherine J. Weatherford, NAIC executive vice president and CEO. "They demonstrated a combination of solid strategic thinking, outstanding creativity and great enthusiasm to help us achieve our goals."

Horsham, Pa. - NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Quality Systems Inc. has completed a pilot project with Empire Medicare Services, a fee-for-service Medicare contractor, and the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) Foundation to facilitate the use of electronic attachments between a health plan and its providers.The pilot program, which was funded for Empire Medicare Services and WEDI by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), tested the use of electronic claims attachments in accordance with HIPAA's transaction code sets, including ANSI 275 and 277.

In 16 states and the District of Columbia , independent agents and brokers now can go online and quote complex package operations (commercial property and general liability insurance combined) with the same ease as writing a Safeco businessowners policy (BOP). That's because Seattle-based Safeco has fully automated the sale of commercial insurance packages to more than 800 classes of small- and mid-sized businesses.Accounts such as manufacturers, restaurant chains and auto mechanics can be quoted online in as few as 15 minutes, with the first price being the right price, the company claims.

Boston and Bothell, Wash. - SC-integrity and Lexington Insurance Co., a member of American International Group Inc. (AIG), are working together to encourage motor carriers and shippers to reinforce their risk management activities to concentrate on the issue of cargo theft.SC-integrity, a Web-based technology and data solutions company, and Lexington believe a significant reduction in theft losses can be achieved through a combination of security driven loss prevention techniques and a new cargo theft protection device. Called SC-tracker, the state-of-the-art tracking and monitoring technology is a rechargeable, portable tracking unit that is buried within the cargo and not installed on the trailer, which allowis the cargo to be tracked from point of origin to point of destination remotely over the Web. While in transit, the tracking unit reports its location every 30 seconds for over a week. The monitoring system will immediately notify security personnel if the cargo is being stolen.

Boston - As the congressional battle to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) gets into full swing before the law's December 31, 2005, expiration, a new Web site launched by Liberty Mutual is designed to helps commercial insurance policyholders take an active role in securing an extension for this critical federal insurance backstop.Risk managers can use the site to encourage their federal legislators to support TRIA's extension, they can distribute the site's link to help their company's senior management push for the extension, and they can use the site to involve employees at all levels.

Brookfield, Wis. - Fiserv, Inc. has acquired Xcipio, Inc., a Web-based insurance rating and automation solution provider. The acquisition will allow the Brookfield, Wis., company to provide Web-based comparative insurance rates directly from insurance carriers to producers in real time. Details of the transaction, which closed November 1, were not disclosed.

Just when insurance companies were feeling better equipped to solve the puzzle of requirements presented in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), the United Kingdom and the 24 other member states in the European Union (EU) are now commenting on the EU Commission's proposed regulations on solvency that could be finalized as early as 2008. Called the Solvency II proposal, the regulations are not unlike the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and could add more layers of regulatory reporting for insurers.American carriers and reinsurers need to get up to speed on Solvency II, say analysts, because down the road, the regulations could impact U.S. accounting and insurance standards.

Since the promise of further USA PATRIOT Act promulgation by the U.S. Treasury Department fell away in June, life insurance and annuity companies have been holding their breath, waiting for an imminent vote by the 109th Congress that could add even more regulatory compliance requirements for carriers.And while the final version of Section 352 of the USA PATRIOT Act may be looming, what it will mean for the life insurance industry is still in question.

Des Plaines, Ill. - Ernie Csiszar, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) is calling on insurers to re-think their approach to regulatory reform, saying that the issue will be a top priority for PCI in 2006. Csiszar made his remarks during the opening ceremony of the association's Annual Meeting in Chicago today."Because of our inability to make meaningful changes to the regulatory system, perhaps it's time to reassess our tactics and try an entirely new approach," said Csiszar. "All of us have been pointing out the flaws in the regulatory system for the past decade. It's disjointed, inefficient, stifles competition, expensive and antiquated. Most importantly, it is untenable in the long term and must change."

Hartford, Conn. - On Oct. 22, The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. will unveil Select Customized Pricing, a predictive underwriting model designed to bring agents a highly refined policy price at the beginning of the submission process for its Spectrum business owners' policy, commercial auto, and workers' compensation insurance."We've turned a multi-step process into a single step for agents by pulling in several unique business characteristics upfront and using the results to differentiate one business customer from another," says Jim Ruel, senior vice president of Small Commercial business at The Hartford.

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.

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.