Chartis has named Murli Buluswar its new Chief Science Officer, a newly created position responsible for establishing research and development operations that enhance the insurer’s global commercial and consumer business strategies.

Forrester's Global Tech Market Outlook for 2012 and 2013 finds the next 24 months marked by a pair of transitions: a temporary spending slowdown following a post-recession bounce; and an accelerating shift of spending from old to newer technologies.

Farmers New World Life Insurance Co., the primary life subsidiary of Farmers Group, is in production with LifeSuite Automated Underwriting solution, a product of StoneRiver Inc., an insurance technology partner with solutions across multiple business lines.

A survey at the Insurance Information Institute’s (I.I.I.) annual Property/Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum finds respondents somewhat sanguine about the industry’s financial prospects.

Although China's total insurance premiums in 2011 rose 10 percent to 1.43 trillion yuan ($226.64 billion) from a year earlier, many insurance companies have not kept up with "the profound changes in the external environment," according to the country’s regulatory body.

As the industry faces shrinking distribution, profitable growth is a top priority for life insurance executives in 2012. This is the essence of LOMA's annual industry forecast, which includes the results of executive interviews conducted on topics such as sales, distribution, use of technology and social media, as well as the effects of regulation during the next 12 months. LOMA is an industry group comprising life insurance professionals.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through data analytics, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness, is celebrating 100 years in 2012.

Progressive announced it received a fourth patent for system technologies used with its Pay As You Drive, Snapshot usage-based insurance program.

Propertycasulaty insurers got some more bad news this morning, this time from Ernst & Young, which predicted their ongoing struggle to succeed against a tide of further economic ills.

Small business owners prefer to speak to financial advisors of the same sex, with men exhibiting a stronger gender bias than their female counterparts, notes study results released today by The American College, a non-profit educational institution devoted to financial services.

Control over end user devices, once a given at so many companies, is loosening. Employees insist on being able to use their Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices for work and being able to access all their apps and files however they want to. Along with smartphones, consumers are adopting tablets such as Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Nook, Apple Inc.'s iPad, and Amazon Inc.'s Kindle.

Many positive ways to look at this proactive approach to preventing fraud conducted over social media sites.

Consumers want more technology in their vehicles, both for safety and infotainment purposes, and they expect it to appear in all vehicles, not just luxury lines, according to a new study from Accenture.

Global professional services company Towers Watson has released updated versions of its RiskAgility MoSes enterprise financial modeling software and RiskAgility Economic Capital (EC) Aggregator software.

This morning, A.M. Best made a number of announcements regarding the outlooks of many segments of the insurance industry.

The top marketing executive at a sizable US retailer recently found herself perplexed by the sales reports she was getting. A major competitor was steadily gaining market share across a range of profitable segments. Despite a counterpunch that combined online promotions with merchandizing improvements, her company kept losing ground.

A new report that provides an analysis of residential building codes in the 18 hurricane-prone coastal states along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast was released today by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). The IBHS is an independent, nonprofit, scientific research and communications organization supported by the property insurance industry. Intended to increase the safety and integrity of structures, thereby reducing deaths, injuries and property damage from hurricanes and a wide range of other hazards, building codes are relied upon by property/casualty insurers as one of several pieces of data used to qualify risk.

The U.S. insurance industry saw a 3.3 percent increase over November’s jobs figures, adding 3,300 jobs in December, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Insurers are warming to the notion of standardized product approval according to a report from consulting and actuarial firm Milliman Inc.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued an interim final rule to require adoption of standards and operating rules for electronic funds transfer and remittance advice HIPAA transactions.