Jersey City, N.J. - The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry's net income after taxes dipped to $15.8 billion in first-quarter 2007 from $16.7 billion in first-quarter 2006 and $17.7 billion in first-quarter 2005. Reflecting the declines in net income, the property/casualty industry's annualized rate of return on average policyholders' surplus (statutory net worth) dropped to 12.9% in first-quarter 2007 from 15.5% in first-quarter 2006 and 17.9% in first-quarter 2005, according to Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO Properties Inc. and Des Plaines, Ill.-based Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

Brussels – Under a new measure that may be proposed as early as July 10, insurers within the European Union that conduct business across various borders may be supervised by regulators representing larger groups. EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is expected to propose Solvency II, a law designed to help regulate how insurers set aside money to cover risk and provide increased policyholder protection while creating a more competitive insurance marketplace. But Peter Skinner, who is expected to steer the measure through parliamentary channels, said lawmakers were already considering a "plan B" if no deal is reached on the supervisory aspects of Solvency II. Conflicting news reports state that the Solvency II deadline may be moved to 2010. Currently, multinationals such as Allianz, Generali, Aviva and Axa, account for 85% of total premiums in Europe, and represent 14 of the bloc's 27 member countries. The fear, say analysts, is that if a new measure is passed, national watchdogs could be given a limited role as supervisors in London, Frankfurt and Paris, home to many of the big groups, take charge. Lawmakers say that the assembly and EU states have joint say on Solvency II. A 28th regime would likely be a voluntary scheme outside existing legislation in the 27 EU member states. Skinner reportedly wants home regulators to be responsible for approving an insurer, with local watchdogs keeping a day-to-day eye on how much capital groups have locally to cover domestic risk. Sources: Reuters, The Insurance Insider

Cedar Rapids, Iowa - A recent online survey on P&C insurance technology reveals that leading carriers have become adept at dealing with customers and business partners online. However, virtually all carriers recognize that there is room for improvement and that they must continuously improve their underlying technology to better serve their customers and enhance their competitive position. The results from a survey conducted by Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based technology provider Fiserv Inc. indicates critical business needs and the projects and technologies insurance carriers have underway to address them.Seventy-five percent of respondents agreed that one of their next three large-scale projects would involve their core system for maintaining insurance coverage information. Access to complete and immediate information allows the carrier to respond more effectively and efficiently. Sixty-seven percent said an agency interface or comparative rating system would be on their list of projects planned. Billing and claims projects to make things smoother for the customer tied at 42%.

Roughly a decade after insurance carriers began adding customers' credit scores to the stew of statistics used to set premiums for auto and homeowner's coverage, negative reaction and feedback appears to be waning.Opponents still contend that credit scoring tends to raise premiums overall, that it doesn't correlate directly with risk and that it may serve as a proxy for racial and ethnic discrimination, because some minority groups have lower incomes and are more likely to have credit problems.

In 2006, Auto Club Group (ACG) found that its document composition capabilities were highly inflexible and, faced with a legacy environment, it could not manipulate its print stream-at least without contracting additional workers.The Dearborn, Mich.-based company was unable to deal with spikes in mailings, which occurred when it had to send bulk materials to a large credit union, for example. And yet, employees and equipment often sat idle during lighter mailing periods.

In the world of programming, what does the future hold? This was one of the questions a panel of industry experts at the IASA 2007 Educational Conference and Business Show pondered during the IT Town Hall meeting session. The future doesn't look very bright unless some labor changes are made. One panelist said that 30% of his staff is eligible for retirement in 3-5 years and he can't find the COBOL programmers necessary to replace them. And, there just aren't experienced programmers entering the workforce.As insurance companies migrate away from COBOL, how will they maintain the applications written in the legacy code? Gone are the days of COBOL classes. The next generation has little interest in COBOL, as XML and other standards allow them to talk to existing code (such as COBOL or RPG).

Identity theft, long the bane of IT departments, is also providing insurance companies with opportunities to offer a new kind of coverage and score some marketing points at the same time.Carriers are hiring third-party services to restore policyholders' stolen identities. In general, here's how it works: The victim calls the insurer to report the ID theft. After establishing the validity of the claim, the carrier transfers the caller to the vendor's call center. The third-party vendor swings into action, drawing upon relationships with credit rating agencies and other institutions to refurbish the victim's credit. Meanwhile, the insurer can track the case until closure.

BANKS SHOULD SET SIGHTS ON RELATIONSTo entice customers to buy more financial products and services, financial services companies need to focus on improving their relationship strategies, according to Gartner Inc., a research firm headquartered in Stamford, Conn.

ISTREAM TO INCLUDE NEW FUNCTIONALITYWhitehill Technologies Inc., Moncton, New Brunswick, announced new functionality in the IStream document automation suite, including IStream Publisher and IStream Document Manager. The IStream suite is designed to enable business users to create 'model documents' that control the language, layout and look of complex files, such as policies and contracts. IStream can be used to create and control virtually any kind of insurance document, from contracts to welcome kits to group booklets. New functionality includes add-ins for Microsoft Word and Adobe Reader, letting users create complex documents in a familiar, easy-to-use, interactive environment. As data or standard wordings change, users can automatically update their documents to reflect those changes. Leveraging industry-standard applications gives insurers the power to create and update documents easily as part of their normal processes.

Insurance carriers need product development flexibility and "speed to market" to maintain competitive advantage. To help accomplish those goals, INN asked Doug Roller, CEO of Bolivar, Mo.-headquartered Duck Creek Technologies Inc., to describe his "product in a day" concept.INN: How would you define "product in a day?"

Most it executives never think of service-oriented architecture (SOA) as applying to batch applications. How could they possibly fit?But SOA is about reuse. And a business function used in online transactions may be the same business function used in batch processes, so organizations should think about their IT modernization strategy and consider SOA as a standardized application integration mechanism if nothing else.

The founders of Boston-based Homesite Insurance Group came together nearly a decade ago to create a progressive homeowners insurance company. In the quest to make their dream real, they got some help from software that links risk to geography.Today, Homesite sells in 43 states, and its underwriters evaluate the risk associated with each potential policyholder's address, says one of the founders, Manuel Rios, who now serves as Homesite vice president and chief underwriter. They do it with GeoStan geocoding technology from Group 1 Software Inc., a Pitney Bowes Co. in Lanham, Md.

XL GLOBAL TO USE INTERCEPT TO MANAGE PROCESSESStamford, Conn.-based XL Global Services Inc., a part of the XL Capital Ltd. group of companies, will use Intercept Studio, a flagship product from Baltimore-based AVIcode, to manage business processes worldwide.

Converting a book of business to a new system can be viewed by some as the riskiest part of a new system implementation. However, with proper time and resources, conversions need not be feared. They are all part of the system migration, which is to enable the company to improve its ROI and competitiveness. Each company needs to assess the cost, time and benefits, and if sufficient resources and time are allocated, success is manageable.In single-phase conversions, all data is converted at one time with two options. Sufficient history levels (number of years) are converted that enables the discontinuance of the existing system. And the latest versions of data are converted to allow the new system to be used for all future transactions. The existing system is retained for a period of time for inquiry purposes into past transactions.

Boston, Mass. – Insurers around the country are making changes to their technology areas with the naming of new executives. Three such examples are Liberty Mutual Group, The Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America and NYMagic.James McGlennon has been appointed vice president and CIO for Liberty Mutual Agency Markets, a strategic business unit of Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group that consists of property/casualty and specialty insurance carriers that distribute their products and services primarily through independent agents and brokers.

Waltham, Mass. - Failure to properly terminate a policy tops the list of reasons property/casualty insurers are found to be out of compliance during market conduct exams, according to research from Waltham, Mass.-based Wolters Kluwer Financial Services' Insurance Compliance Solutions group. On the life/health side, failure to acknowledge, pay or deny claims within specified time frames is the most common market conduct compliance criticism for life/health.

Ipswich, Mass. - When it comes to the larger issues of Web site usability, communication and trust, Progressive and GEICO lead the way, according to consumers answering a survey for the Customer Respect Group (CRG), an international research and consulting firm that focuses on how corporations treat their online customers. This marks the fourth study in a row in which Progressive is ranked at the top. The Ipswich, Mass., firm released findings from its second quarter 2007 Online Customer Respect Study of the Automobile Insurance Industry. The study evaluated the Web sites of a representative sample of auto insurance companies. Using a common set of criteria, it analyzed corporate performance from an online customer's perspective. A directly comparable customer respect index (CRI) is provided for each company. The CRI is a qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis and independent measure of a customer's experience when interacting via the Internet, reports CRG. Comprising six sub-indices that factor into three meta-concepts identified by customers as their critical concerns when using Web sites, the CRI includes: * Site Usability - How usable is the site to a wide range of users? This includes simplicity (ease of use) and attitude (accessibility). * Communication - How willing is the company to engage in a one-on-one communication to answer specific questions? This includes responsiveness (quality of e-mail replies - both speed and helpfulness -- response tone and other communication methods). * Trust - Can this site be trusted with your personal data? This includes transparency (clarity and comprehensiveness of privacy policies), Principles (respect for data privacy, cookie explanations) and privacy (respect for data privacy, clarity and comprehensiveness of privacy policies). The average rating for the industry was 5.4 on the 10-point CRI scale. This score represents an improvement since the last report, notes CRG, primarily in the area of privacy policy transparency and responsiveness to e-mails. As a result, auto insurers have moved up to the mid-range of all industries from the bottom quartile previously. The industry provides better and more concise information about policies and practices. GEICO and Progressive tied to lead the table, marking the fourth study in a row in which Progressive came out on top. GEICO showed improvement from its fourth place spot in the previous evaluation. American Family showed the most improvement overall from the previous study.

San Francisco - Mergers and acquisitions have become the norm in the insurance industry, and two recent acquisitions prove this. More than a month after Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group announced its acquisition of Fairfield, Ohio-based Ohio Casualty Corp. for $44 per share in cash, Wells Fargo Insurance Services Inc., a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., announces it will acquire Universal Insurance Services Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich. The acquisition is expected to close July 1, 2007, according to Wells Fargo.

Chicago - The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), Chicago, has established physician and employer advisory groups to further enhance the market development of its Blue Health Intelligence (BHI) initiative, the nation's premier healthcare database comprised of de-identified claims information from up to 80 million lives. "The addition of these groups will help BHI maintain its leadership in healthcare informatics," said BCBSA President and CEO Scott Serota. "We look forward to working with this esteemed group of employers and physicians. Their hard work will result in a database that will enhance the quality of information available to consumers, providers and employers." Launched in 2006, BHI will provide sharper insight into healthcare trends, delivery and best clinical practices, and information about the efficacy of treatments and new medical technologies. BHI compiles, analyzes and organizes data, which can then be used as benchmarks to conduct comparative analyses across a range of healthcare components. The first sets of benchmark data were released to participating Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies in December 2006. "The advisory groups will provide high-level strategic counsel and recommendations that will help us provide insight into important health issues," said Bob Greczyn, Jr., president and chief executive officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, and co-chair of the BHI board. The employer and physician advisory groups will be responsible for contributing research-based insights into issues critical to the public's health. In addition, they will monitor new market initiatives in the areas of healthcare costs and quality data, and track healthcare literature and trends in practice and technology. With this knowledge, these advisory groups will help identify opportunities for BHI to form new healthcare solutions in quality and transparency for employers, providers and consumers. "This input from the groups will guide BHI as it continues to establish itself as the most comprehensive collection of healthcare information in the industry," added Alice F. Rosenblatt, executive vice president, integration and information management officer and chief actuary, WellPoint Inc., and co- chair of the BHI board. The groups will meet separately with the first meetings convening this summer. Members will serve one, two-year term. The following is a roster of BHI's employer and physician advisory groups. BHI Employer Advisory GroupMember / Title / Company-- Delia Vetter, Senior Director of Benefits, Employee Services & Programs, EMC Corporation-- Bill Greer, Vice President, Benefits, Kellogg Company-- Mike Stoll, Vice President, Benefits, The Kroger Co.-- Greg Heaslip, Vice President, Benefits, Pepsico-- Bob Ihrie, Vice President, Compensation and Benefits, Lowe's Cos. Inc.-- Steve Lampkin, Vice President, Benefits Department, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.-- Mark Cullen, M.D., Professor of Medicine & Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine; Senior Medical Director, ALCOA-- Jeanne Denz, Director, Global Benefits, General Mills-- Martin Storey, Director of Benefits, Michelin North America-- Tom Jecklin, Manager, Healthcare Benefits, State Farm-- William Strahan, Vice President, Compensation and Benefits, Comcast-- Daniel Green, Deputy Associate Director, Center for Employee and Family Support Policy, Office of Personnel Management-- Anna Fallieras, Program Leader, Health Care Initiatives, GE Company-- Pascale Thomas, Director, Benefits, Corporate Human Resources, Verizon Communications Inc. BHI Physician Advisory GroupName / Employer / Contact, Title / Company-- H. Frank Farmer, Jr., M.D., Chairman and Practicing Physician, Florida Board of Medicine-- David Blumenthal, M.D., MPP, Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, Harvard Medical School; Director, Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System-- Thomas Henry Lee, Jr., M.D., Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Network President, Partners HealthCare System-- Joel Bender, M.D., Ph.D., Corporate Director of Health Services, General Motors Corp.-- James R. Claflin, M.D., Specialist, Oklahoma Allergy and Asthma Clinic-- Kelly Kelleher, M.D., MPH, Professor, Ohio State University; Vice President for Health Services Research, Children's Research Institute, Columbus, Ohio-- David Filipi, M.D., MBA, Vice President, Medical Affairs for Methodist Physicians Clinic, Methodist Physicians Clinic, Omaha, Neb.-- William L. Roper, M.D., MPH, Dean, School of Medicine and CEO, UNC Health Care System, University of North Carolina-- Alan M. Garber, M.D., Ph.D., Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor; Director, Center for Health Policy; Director, Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Stanford University; Staff Physician, Department of Veterans Affairs-- Jonathan B. Perlin, M.D., Ph.D., MSHA, FACP, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Quality, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)-- Frederick L. Brancati, M.D., MHS, Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology; Director, Division of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University-- Mark Cullen, M.D., Professor of Medicine & Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine; Senior Medical Director, ALCOA-- Allan Korn, M.D., Senior Vice President and CMO, Office of Clinical Affairs, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Source: Blue Cross Blue Shield

Washington - On-the-go consumers prefer to handle an increasing number of transactions themselves through self-service devices, and are more likely to do business with companies that make it easier to for them to do so, according to a new study conducted by BuzzBack Market Research for Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp. One exception though, according to the study, is insurance customers.