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News & Commentary
Content posted in December 2012
Zurich Taps Pegasystems for Commercial Underwriting Process Solution
News  |  12/21/2012  | 
The global insurer seeks to reduce the complexity of its employee work environment in order to enable staff to better serve customers.
5 Ways Solid Portals Help Customer Centricity
Commentary  |  12/21/2012  | 
Web services help insurers stay connected to their customers even while back-end legacy systems undergo long, arduous replacement efforts.
Data Security Will be 2013's Story of the Year
Commentary  |  12/19/2012  | 
Channel and device proliferation, as well as hunger for big data, mean insurers must be more vigilant than ever about securing policyholders' personal information.
Despite Sandy, CAT Claims This Year Half of 2011: Swiss Re
News  |  12/19/2012  | 
The insurance industry looks set to absorb about $65 billion in catastrophe claims this year, down from a near-record $120 billion in 2011, reinsurer Swiss Re said.

Insurance & Technology’s Top 10 Stories of 2012
Slideshows  |  12/19/2012  | 
Mobility and consumerization initiatives were popular themes in I&T’s most-read stories this year. But technologists also flocked to stories about the workplace, including communication tips, innovation examples and salary outlook.
What Fuels ERM? More Data
News  |  12/18/2012  | 
You'll never get enterprise risk management right until you analyze enough data to make informed decisions.
The Downside Of Enterprise Risk Management
Commentary  |  12/18/2012  | 
As insurers get closer to managing risk across the enterprise, they could face some unexpected legal challenges.
The Top 3 Areas of Claims Investment
Commentary  |  12/17/2012  | 
Accenture's Michael Costonis concludes a two-part series on claims needs with the areas in which the company finds the most investment coming.
What Keeps Claims Execs Up at Night
Commentary  |  12/17/2012  | 
In part 1 of a two-part series, Accenture's Michael Costonis discusses what a company survey found were claims executives' pain points.
Setting the Stage for Innovation, Part 3: Leverage Next-Gen Technologies
Commentary  |  12/17/2012  | 
In the final part of a series on encouraging insurance IT innovation, SMA's Deb Smallwood talks about how technology can be an enabler of new ideas.
Setting the Stage for Innovation, Part 2: Create a Collaborative Working Environment
Commentary  |  12/17/2012  | 
In part 2 of a series on encouraging innovation in the insurance business, SMA's Deb Smallwood explores the challenges of bringing great ideas to the fore.
Setting the Stage for Innovation, Part 1 of 3: Incent an Innovative Culture
Commentary  |  12/17/2012  | 
In part 1 of a three-part series on setting the stage for insurance innovation, SMA's Deb Smallwood discusses how to get IT staff to think differently.
AIG To Sell Off Rest of AIA Stake, Raise $6.5 Billion: Sources
News  |  12/17/2012  | 
American International Group Inc may raise as much as $6.5 billion from the sale of its remaining stake in AIA Group Ltd in Asia's second-largest block sale ever, exiting a business the U.S. insurer started nearly 100 years ago.

Curbing Insurers' Capital Will Drive More to Gov't Insurance: Trade Group
News  |  12/17/2012  | 
Proposed curbs on insurers aimed at preventing a repeat of AIG's 2008 taxpayer bailout could raise the cost of insurance, making more people dependent on the state, a finance sector lobby group said.

What Matters in IT: the Power to Change
Commentary  |  12/17/2012  | 
How an emerging architectural approach can turn a ‘commodity’ into a strategic weapon.
10 Pillars Of An Effective Insurance ERM Framework
News  |  12/14/2012  | 
Insurers must evaluate risk with greater accuracy, granularity and timeliness. Ernst & Young's Bill Spinard provides a framework for the proper concepts, procedures and technology to achieve genuine enterprise risk management.
BYOD a Strong Contender for Story of the Year
Commentary  |  12/14/2012  | 
Insurers and vendors alike recognize the pressing need to develop solutions for business users on mobile.
US Faces Running Dozens of Health Exchanges
News  |  12/14/2012  | 
Fourteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia so far have told the federal government they plan to operate healthcare exchanges under President Barack Obama's reform law, leaving Washington with the daunting task of creating online marketplaces for at least two-thirds of the country.

How Insurers Can Prevent Post-Catastrophe Blowback
Commentary  |  12/14/2012  | 
The insurance industry's reputation is taking a post-Sandy hit as vocal policyholders express their opinions that their claims are undervalued. It's easy to prevent this.
10 Burning Questions from 2012: What Happened?
Slideshows  |  12/13/2012  | 
A year ago I&T identified several tough questions we predicted the insurance technology industry would have to confront in 2012. What happened and how much clarity did we get?
Distribution Insight – Analyzing Agency Performance and Profitability
Commentary  |  12/13/2012  | 
Despite many experts predicting the death of the salesman, the agent/broker channel continues to play a prominent role in the insurance value chain.
MetLife Says 2013 Profit Could be Lower Than Anticipated
News  |  12/13/2012  | 
MetLife Inc, the largest life insurer in the United States, warned that 2013 earnings might be well below what Wall Street expects and said it needed to accelerate its strategic plans amid a persistently low interest-rate environment.

Google Maps Back on iPhone
News  |  12/13/2012  | 
Google's navigation tool has returned to the iPhone, months after Apple's home-grown mapping service flopped, prompting user complaints, the firing of an executive and a public apology from Apple's CEO.

How John Hancock Met Distributors' iPad Demands
News  |  12/12/2012  | 
The company's distribution arm, through compromise and innovation, launched an iPad app to help its advisors sell better to clients.
Swiss Re Sees 30% Risk of Europe, U.S. Recession in 2013
News  |  12/12/2012  | 
There is a 30 percent chance of severe recession i n Europe and the United States next year, though moderately rising growth is the likeliest outcome, according to the world's No. 2 reinsurer.

U.S. Treasury to Sell Remaining AIG Shares for $7.6 Billion
News  |  12/11/2012  | 
The U.S. Treasury's sale of its remaining stake in American International Group Inc will fetch $7.6 billion, bringing the government a total profit of $22.7 billion from its crisis-era bailout of the insurer.

Insurance Carriers' Claims Quality Control Conundrum
Commentary  |  12/11/2012  | 
Insurers call upon approximately 250,000 vendors nationwide for claim purposes. Those vendors range from nationally known brands to local mom-and-pop businesses who become, effectively, the face of the insurer. How do carriers know whom to trust?
Windows 8: 3 Items for Insurers to Watch
Commentary  |  12/10/2012  | 
Windows 8 offers some attractive features that savvy insurers can take advantage of, including telematics, portability and legacy support.
Curb-Side Lessons for Self-Service
Commentary  |  12/9/2012  | 
Self-service options can sometimes lead to unintended consequences, and so any attempted improvement should be subject to some testing of how the new efficiency works out within the larger customer experience.
Generali Deutschland prepares for Solvency II with ERM platform
News  |  12/7/2012  | 
Generali Deutschland prepares to meet new regulatory mandates by centralizing and streamlining actuarial functions with SunGard’s iWorks ERM Platform.
How Insurers Can Optimize Legacy Systems to Handle Big Data's BI Challenges
Commentary  |  12/7/2012  | 
With the right approach carriers can take advantage of the Big Data trend in their business intelligence and predictive modeling efforts and ride the technology curve to their advantage.
Aetna to Pay up to $120m to Settle Case over Payments
News  |  12/7/2012  | 
Aetna Inc on Friday said it agreed to pay as much as $120 million to settle litigation over its practices on the payment of claims for services by providers with which Aetna does not have a contract.

Mercury Insurance Torches Car to Illustrate and Study Fraud
Commentary  |  12/7/2012  | 
From personal experience, I've long known that insurance fraud was what might be called a "burning issue" for insurers and society at large, so it is perhaps appropriate that Mercury Insurance should torch a car — and send us a pretty awesome image — to call attention to the problem.
New Auto Insurer MetroMile Competes on Mileage Data
Commentary  |  12/6/2012  | 
Today insurance companies are asking themselves how and to what extent they can "do" Big Data. They should notice that MetroMile exec David Friedberg's ventures show that data companies have found that they can do insurance.
Nationwide Continues Buy Strategy, Adding Detica NetReveal for Fraud
News  |  12/6/2012  | 
The software "networks and scores related entities and records within a company’s data to expose networks of suspicious activity," according to a statement
Safe Auto Adds Hyland in Document Management Revamp
News  |  12/6/2012  | 
The insurer wants to manage documents that come out of its Guidewire core systems better.
5 Stories That Rocked The Insurance Technology Industry in 2012
Slideshows  |  12/6/2012  | 
Everyone knows what the No. 1 insurance story was this year, but there were a number of other events or trends that emerged in 2012 that will ripple through 2013 and beyond.
Nationwide Security Breach Raises Priority of IT Security
Commentary  |  12/5/2012  | 
Nearly a million Nationwide customers' personal information was compromised, but the fact that businesses report that cyber risk is their biggest concern shows that hackers present both threat and opportunity to the industry.
New Chief Underwriter for AIG Global Consumer
News  |  12/5/2012  | 
Kim Garland had headed up the company's United Guaranty subsidiary.
Data Pays Off For Life Insurers, Analysts Say
News  |  12/5/2012  | 
Accenture's global consumer survey finds life insurers lead other industries in providing a tailored experience for their customers — on the heels of a PwC report identifying "information advantage" as a game-changer in the line of business.
Eyewitness to Sandy's Ravages in Northern NJ
Commentary  |  12/4/2012  | 
All over northern New Jersey downed, uprooted trees — and stacks of chain-sawed logs cleared from roads — remain in mute testimony of Superstorm Sandy's power.
Health Insurance Kiosks Continue Proliferation
Commentary  |  12/4/2012  | 
Amerihealth NJ is the latest health insurer to create an experience on an electronic kiosk.
IRS Aims to Clarify Investment Income Tax Under Healthcare Law
News  |  12/3/2012  | 
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has released new rules for investment income taxes on capital gains and dividends earned by high-income individuals that passed Congress as part of the 2010 healthcare reform law.

4 Questions Insurers Should Ask about Data-Driven Marketing
Commentary  |  12/3/2012  | 
As we move beyond the classic definition to the challenge of collecting and storing the data, a new problem arises: How do we bring together the disparate data sources and rationalize them to a single individual?


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