ACORD OPENS INTERNATIONAL OFFICES

ACORD has opened new offices in London and Brussels and has expanded staff to handle the recently acquired Rinet Standards.

ACORD opened new offices in London and Brussels on July 1. These new offices represent the second step in ACORD's takeover of the joint venture (JV) and Rinet standards for reinsurance and large commercial lines of business.

The first step in the takeover process was to hire additional staff to support this new undertaking. The new UK-based office is located in the London Underwriting Centre, which will place ACORD in an office building housing representatives from the reinsurance community. The Brussels staff is in a temporary location and will be moving this summer to a permanent address.

The newly hired staff is not new to the JV or Rinet standards. In fact they have been managing those standards for several years and are quite familiar with the new global member companies.

Work on the JV standards commenced in 1992, at which time the development was instigated by a joint venture set up between European, UK and USA standards bodies. The JV was originally started by four organizations: Brokers & Reinsurance Markets Association (BRMA); Insurance Value Added Network Services Inc. (IVANS); Reinsurance Association of America (RAA); and Worldwide Insurance Electronic Commerce (WISe). JV standards have been developed for all parts of the reinsurance business cycle, from placement to accounting, claims and settlement. The standards are available for download from the JV Standards Web site that can be reached by clicking on the link on ACORD's site-www.ACORD.org-and also serves as a source for those interested in learning more about the business flows of the JV standards.

Those already familiar with ACORD, will notice a slight change in ACORD's logo when visiting the Web site. The logo now includes the tag line, "ACORD, Global Insurance Standards" to more accurately reflect the organization's broader focus.

Under ACORD's management, the JV and Rinet standards will be maintained and supported through the same Standards Operating Procedures protocol that maintains the other standards for life, property and casualty and surety.

For more information about ACORD, call 845.620.1700 x 506 for Customer Service or by email at [email protected]. You can also visit ACORD at www.acord.org.