Security risk

The question still remains whether a critical mass of consumers will actually purchase insurance online-not just research options and get quotes. But 21st Century Insurance Group is betting they will.Even with that belief driving its e-commerce strategy, however, the Woodland Hills, Calif.-based personal auto carrier hasn't been passively waiting for consumers to get accustomed to the idea of buying their policies online.

Who knows what the future holds? While the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is actively investigating terrorist communications and activity to prevent possible attacks, insurers are beginning to understand the necessity of taking a new, more proactive approach to assessing their own risks of loss related to people, processes, technologies or external events.These "operational risks," as defined by the Bank of Inter-national Settle-ment (BIS) in its proposed Basel II accord, are exemplified by events and failures such as Enron and WorldCom, the power outage in the Northeast last summer, the continual stream of computer viruses infesting the Internet, and, of course, the September 11 terrorist attacks.

For years, administration of workers' compensation insurance at Boston-based OneBeacon Insurance Group was viewed as an occupational hazard-a bona fide accident waiting to happen.With antiquated operating systems trying to support the effort, OneBeacon, which sells $40 million in workers' compensation coverage a year, had a difficult time furnishing transactional data for workers' comp insurance to the state rating bureaus and statistical agents in the states that it wrote workers' comp insurance.

Two General Motors Corp. subsidiaries are partnering to create new products for their joint customers.

Although nearly half of the states have passed laws allowing insurance companies to use credit-based insurance scores to assess and price risk-albeit with some restrictions-a new study reveals that the practice disproportionately harms low-income and minority policyholders."There was a tremendous demand to know what happened to low-income folks and protected classes like minorities when you use credit scoring," says Randy McConnell, communications director for the Missouri Department of Insurance (MDI), which conducted the study. "It struck people as disingenuous whenever the credit-scoring vendors were saying, 'There's no relationship between credit scoring and income.'"

As insurers hatch strategies to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), a new report suggest that they should view the law "as a catalyst for much-needed and long-delayed business transformation objectives," triggering "long-overdue investments in technology they have been putting off for years."The report, by Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup, says that Sarbanes-Oxley should not be viewed as a burden but as an opportunity. In the report, "Technology Considerations for Sarbanes-Oxley: A Catalyst for Long Overdue IT Upgrades," Virginia Garcia, TowerGroup analyst, writes that the act "blows the cover off inherent weaknesses in hodgepodge IT architecture typically found in U.S. financial institutions today.

Although lobbyists on Capitol Hill remain optimistic that the asbestos liability malignancy can be resolved through legislation, it appears unlikely that the gaps in current talks toward an alternative dispute resolution mechanism for asbestos claims can be bridged this year.Indeed, even if the considerable differences between the private parties can be resolved, two key barriers remain toward a resolution: There's no sense that asbestos liability is a crisis, and, given the optimism Democrats have for winning the White House this fall, they appear unlikely to allow Republicans to take credit for major legislation that the Senate Republican legislation leadership is already dubbing a "jobs creation" bill.

There's no way around it: It takes a long, long time to develop the software programs for a new underwriting and billing system. Then throw into the mix the risk of the internally built system not working properly, taking longer to implement, and perhaps even draining cash flow."I've been in the business for about 30 years," says Mark Gire, vice president of information services for Norcal Mutual Insurance Co. "I've never seen it take less than four to five years" to develop a solution internally.

The Consumer Federation of California (CFC), a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, has awarded Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. an A- for its privacy policy, the highest grade assigned to any property and casualty insurer doing business in California.Novato, Calif.-based Fireman's Fund, a provider of homeowner's insurance in the state and commercial insurance to middle market businesses, was among only eight companies to receive an A- or better. Following a survey of 55 financial institutions, the CFC gave two thirds of the companies low or failing grades, including many major property and casualty companies.

Worcester, MA--Kemper Auto and Home's Syracuse office and Blue Cod Technologies, Inc. of Worcester, MA announce the signing of a contract under which Blue Cod will be responsible for providing outsourced application and technical support for Kemper's New York Assigned Risk Automobile business. Blue Cod will host Allenbrook's Phoenix policy processing solution and provide it to Kemper Auto and Home over the Internet. Blue Cod will also build and maintain a number of interfaces to various external applications.

The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co. (HSB) has launched HSB InstantQuote, an online tool that provides a quick way to quote and bind equipment breakdown coverage in as little as three minutes. A two-minute animated demo of InstantQuote can be viewed at www.hsb.com.HSB InstantQuote is designed to provide new business equipment breakdown quotes for small commercial and middle-market firms with individual location values up to $10 million for manufacturing and $20 million for non-manufacturing.

Newark, Calif.--Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world's leading provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, has announced that it is providing funding for the first visiting research fellowship to be established at the new International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research. The Centre is based at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and was officially inaugurated on February 20 by Wong Kan Seng, Minister of Home Affairs in Singapore.

Conshohocken, PA--eMoney Advisor, a leading provider of holistic wealth planning solutions, today announced the availability of AdvisorPlatform Version 3.5. The new version offers significant upgrades to Version 3.0, which was released in January 2003, including streamlined data entry through the Fact Finder, simulated sales of an asset, "what if" scenarios versus base facts, and additions to the Client Financial Home Page. In addition, the new version includes an updated user interface for greater ease of use.

ATLANTA--Ebix Inc., a leading international supplier of software and e-commerce solutions to the insurance industry, announced that it has completed its acquisition of LifeLink Corp. Inc., adding hundreds of brokers and approximately 35 life insurance companies as customers.

Salt Lake City, Utah--Castle Data Services has signed an agreement with Allied Insurance Company, a member of Nationwide, to provide them with replacement cost data through the use of Castle's online replacement cost estimator.

SAN RAMON, Calif.--ADP Claims Services Group, a leading provider of integrated business solutions for the property and casualty, collision repair and automotive recycling industries, announced today Frontier Adjusters, Inc., a national provider of independent adjustment and appraisal services, has chosen PenPro as its auto appraisal software provider.

Nearly 2,700 American technology workers in 12 states will receive advanced information technology job training in the coming months in programs administered by CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.CompTIA has received two grants totaling $6 million from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration. The H-1B Technical Skills Training Grants are intended to train U.S. workers in specialty occupations such as computer science, information technology, engineering and advanced manufacturing technology.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A report issued by the Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) on the use of credit-based insurance scoring found no basis for any conclusion that credit history is skewed toward ethnic minorities or low-income individuals.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. today announced the acquisition of R. P. O'Brien & Co., Inc. of White Plains, New York. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Cambridge, MD--G. Philip Feldman, CEO of technology insurance provider ISG International, announced today that the company has launched breakthrough technology on its CCBsure Web site that provides Businessowner's Property and Casualty (P&C) Liability insurance coverage to independent computer consultants, in real time, over the Internet. No insurance provider has ever offered immediate, automated P&C business insurance coverage before.