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Pre-Thanksgiving News Update

several important new CIO appointments have been made recently, including Mark Oakley's being named to State Farm's top technology spot, Eileen Slevin becoming CIO of New York Life, and Ed Steinike taking on the CIO role at ING Americas.

One more thing to be thankful for as we brush up against the penultimate Thursday in November is that, unlike some other writers, Insurance & Technology's editors are not on strike.It's just as well, too, as the insurance technology news seems to cascade with increasing volume, as if to get it all in before the end of the year. For example, several important new CIO appointments have been made recently, including Mark Oakley's being named to State Farm's top technology spot, Eileen Slevin becoming CIO of New York Life, and Ed Steinike taking on the CIO role at ING Americas.

Two other notable personnel changes have emerged from Celent, one a departure and the other a promotion. Craig Weber has been named managing director of the Boston-based analyst firm's insurance practice, replacing Matthew Josefowicz, who has joined financial services consultancy and information services provider Novantas, LLC.

No roundup of insurance technology news would be complete without reference to the industry's laggard status in some respect, and I&T'sNathan Conz delivers the goods with a post based on a conversation with TowerGroup's Karen Pauli about the state of e-signature capabilities.

In regulatory-related happenings, this week the AIA (American Insurance Association) urged Treasury Secretary Paulson to consider an optional federal charter (OFC) as part of the Department's review of insurance regulation. The AIA's counsel to the Secretary is not likely to be well regarded by some people and their friends.

In other regulation-related news, last week Towers Perrin released the results of a survey that found that insurance CFOs report far greater understanding of principles-based regulation than a year ago. As we reported recently, the move to a principles-based regime for accounting, reserving and reporting signals a sea change in the insurance world and has important technology investment implications.

You can read more about the principles-based regulatory shift at the Web site of the Society of Actuaries ("the other SOA") but, as important as the issue is to the industry, we do not recommend combining the linked text with tryptophan.several important new CIO appointments have been made recently, including Mark Oakley's being named to State Farm's top technology spot, Eileen Slevin becoming CIO of New York Life, and Ed Steinike taking on the CIO role at ING Americas.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio

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