Meeting Regulatory and Compliance Requirements Top 2010 Priority in Insurance: DTCC Study

Satisfying more stringent regulatory and compliance requirements is the top 2010 priority among insurance industry executives who responded to a recent customer survey conducted by The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC, New York). Survey participants included insurance carriers, broker-dealers, vendors, clearing firms, solution providers and DTCC participants.

According to DTCC, while the goal of regulation is to create safer markets by enhancing transparency and efficiency, 44 percent of survey participants said that successfully meeting these demands will require greater automation and standardization in their operational practices " something the research also indicates is challenging in a tighter fiscal environment, due to budgetary constraints.

In fact, after regulation, budgetary constraints ranked second with approximately 28 percent of participants listing it as the number-one challenge for growth. However, regulation requirements also surfaced as bringing more opportunities for growth, with nearly 32 percent citing that a standardized compliance solution would provide greater transparency, lower costs and forge the industry forward.

The DTCC survey also found that 25 percent of participants listed on-line application processing as the most critical component to straight-through-processing (STP).Twenty percent of respondents said that lower-cost, front-end transactions would encourage industry growth. And global expansion and merger activity were seen by a significant number of participants as having the least impact on influencing industry growth (33 percent ranked global expansion as the least important factor, while 20 percent cited merger activity as the lowest in importance).

"DTCC is committed to partnering with the insurance industry to meet the challenges of a more demanding regulatory environment where mitigating risk and increasing transparency is crucial for sustainable growth," said Adam Bryan, DTCC Managing Director, Insurance & Retirement Services (I&RS) . "Bringing greater automation and standardization to the insurance industry is critical to successful adaptation to the ever changing regulatory landscape."

Katherine Burger is Editorial Director of Bank Systems & Technology and Insurance & Technology, members of UBM TechWeb's InformationWeek Financial Services. She assumed leadership of Bank Systems & Technology in 2003 and of Insurance & Technology in 1991. In addition to ... View Full Bio