Insurance software industry – BLOG

San Mateo, Calif.-based Guidewire has released version 7.0 of its P&C policy administration system, PolicyCenter.

The new version features improved risk analysis and underwriting performance capabilities, as well as additional visibility, flexibility, and scalability for better customer centricity, the company claims.

“We included major enhancements in the new release of PolicyCenter and are very pleased with the market feedback received to date,” Marcus Ryu, CEO of Guidewire, says in a statement. “I am very proud of our accomplishments in PolicyCenter 7.0, and deeply appreciative of our customers’ contributions to its design.”

Users can now readily view account and policy history, better manage relationships between accounts, and more efficiently handle complex changes to provide more efficient, accurate service. Version 7.0 also includes third-party data integration to support more thorough and efficient risk analysis, side-by-side quoting to help insurers quickly present choices to customers, and policy holds to limit or restrict policy activity to support underwriting and regulatory compliance in the event of a natural disaster or pending product change, according to Guidewire.

GENERALI Asigurari and ARDAF shareholders approved, during the Extraordinary General Meeting held on the 21st March, the intention of both companies owned by GENERALI Group in Romania to merge. Management teams of GENERALI Asigurari and ARDAF have received from shareholders the empowerment to start merger plans, in accordance with all local regulations.

The management of the two companies communicated to the shareholders its intention to form a new combined entity, GENERALI Romania, oriented towards profitable operations, increased efficiency and superior quality products and services.

GENERALI Asigurari and ARDAF representatives are expecting the merger to be completed in the second half of 2011.

ZURICH -(Dow Jones)- Zurich Financial Services AG (ZURN.VX) Tuesday underlined that it is expecting future growth to come from emerging markets, as it entered a deal worth up to $2.09 billion to buy Banco Santander SA’s (STD) insurance operations in Latin America.

The deal gives Zurich Financial access to the Spanish bank’s network of 5,600 branches, through which its policies will be sold as part of a 25-year distribution agreement. The deal significantly expands the Swiss insurer’s presence in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, and renders it the fourth-largest insurer in Latin America.

Santander’s insurance operations will become part of the newly established holding company Zurich Santander Insurance America, which will be based in Madrid. Zurich will own 51% of the new entity, while Santander will own the remaining 49%. In 2010, Zurich and Santander in Latin America, if combined, would have produced $3.9 billion in gross written premiums and $2.9 billion in pension contributions.

Zurich is paying $1.67 billion up front, which corresponds to 80% of the deal value. Payments for the remaining 20% will be spread out over 25 years, and will be made every five years if certain, unspecified, profit goals are reached.

Asia’s insurance industry is forecast to enjoy strong growth this year, with emerging markets continuing to outpace mature markets, according to economists at the global reinsurer, Swiss Re. Life insurance and personal non-life business lines will benefit from the region’s vibrant economic performance, rising incomes, urbanisation and demographic change caused by aging populations, says Mr Clarence Wong, Swiss Re Chief Economist Asia.

In emerging Asia, the real growth rate of life insurance premiums accelerated to an estimated 16.8% in 2010 from 10.7% in 2009 and is expected to grow by around 10.3% in 2011. China’s life insurance premium grew remarkably by 24.4% in 2010 after adjustment for inflation, while Indonesia , Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam also recorded growth in excess of 10%.

Emerging Asia is also the growth leader in non-life insurance, where premiums increased by 17.3% in real terms in 2010. It is forecast to grow at 12.5% in 2011. Growth is particularly strong in China and Vietnam. Motor business will benefit from further increases in car ownership. Higher incomes will fuel demand for property insurance. Demand for commercial lines insurance will continue to increase due to government-sponsored infrastructure projects and recovering trade-related lines of business.

Union Insurance Co is planning to transform itself into a takaful provider this year, it revealed in a statement on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange last week.

According to the statement to the ADX, the board of Union Insurance had agreed on a 7% increase in administration costs for this year, due in part to the company’s plan to convert to a Shariah-compliant insurance system. For this purpose, the board has shortlisted candidates for a planned Shariah committee, the statement said.

The company, based in Ajman, also expects revenue to increase by 32% through the introduction of its takaful products.

“This company will become an Islamic insurance company, therefore we expect a lot of business from the market,” said Mr Dharmasiri Edirisinghe, Finance Manager at Union Insurance.

He said an announcement concerning the new Shariah-compliant products would be made “in the near future”, adding that the launch would be accompanied by a marketing drive.

16 November, 2010 – Holding their inaugural meeting at the hallowed grounds of the Chartered Insurance Institute in London last week, the Members of the MENA Insurance CEO Club (MICC) took stock of what makes London tick as an insurance centre while sharing with UK underwriters their expectations for the region.

The key message at the Strategic Seminar was that as insurers were moving into unchartered areas with aggregators, online price comparisons, increasingly price sensitive customers, and changing distribution dynamics, CEOs have to be even more professional in driving their business. The only way is to invest in training to build the necessary human talent to underpin the future of the insurance industry. There is a greater need now to bring insurance to the man in the street to make the public and the world around them understand and appreciate the important social and strategic dimension of insurance to keep the wheels of society and the economy running smooth.

The MENA Insurance CEO Club (MICC) with 15 members from the MENA markets was launched on 1 October 2010 to serve as a “think-tank” to shape and spearhead the future development of the insurance industry in the region, and to provide a forum for brainstorming ideas on the immediate and long-term strategic needs and priorities of the MENA insurance markets. It will also identify key priorities for relevant research to meet the information gap and needs of the market. It offers a serious networking platform to exchange ideas and share topics of concerns while finding active solutions starting with recommended courses of action. Over time, the Club will evolve to lead the industry regionally and become the voice of the Middle East insurance markets in the international arena.

Abu Dhabi National Insurance Co (ADNIC) achieved net profit of AED128.5 million (US$35 million) for the nine months ended 30 September 2010, up from AED20.6 million during the same period last year, driven by gains in net investment and other income.

ADNIC’s net investment and other income reached AED60.3 million for the nine-month period, against a loss of AED167.2 million for the same period in 2009. Its net underwriting income totaled AED170.9 million, a 35% y-o-y drop from AED262.4 million. In a statement, CEO Walid Sidani said this was a “reflection of the company’s effort to realign its technical reserving methodology with the commitment to fully adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in this regard.”

Gross written premium increased 12% y-o-y to AED1.36 billion for the nine-month period.

Gross insurance premiums in Jordan increased by 13.3% to US$398.4 million by the end of August, compared to $351.5 million recorded in the same period last year, said the Insurance Commission of Jordan (IC).

According to IC’s report, general insurance premiums amounted to $361 million, accounting for almost 91% of total market share, while life insurance premiums grew 5% y-o-y to $37 million. Gross paid claims increased by 18% y-o-y to $263.5 million.

The report also indicated that the insurance sector’s contribution in the volume of shares traded on the Amman Stock Exchange reached 2.7% by the end of August, while the sector price index reached 2457 points.

Xactware has just released Xactimate 27.1, the latest version of its flagship software, to help insurers and builders speed up the way they estimate the cost to renovate, repair, or rebuild property losses.

Developed by Xactware, an international leader in claims estimating technology, Xactimate is a software solution that lets property insurance and restoration professionals accurately estimate structural replacement costs much faster than with any other method, according to Xactware. In the US, nine of the top ten insurance carriers use Xactimate to estimate property losses, as do 80% of US builders.

With Xactimate’s patented Sketch technology, users can draw detailed 3-D floor plans and estimate costs for building materials and labour in a matter of minutes. It offers users access to localised pricing data for nearly every postcode in the UK to ensure loss estimation accuracy. Xactimate also inspects each claim assignment to help users catch errors. In addition to all these capabilities, Xactimate 27.1 provides users with a wealth of new features that ensure reliability and increase productivity. “The enhancements in Xactimate 27.1 are based on feedback from a wide variety of professionals currently working in the field,” said Vernon Davenport, Xactware’s director of European operations. “This diverse insight enables us to provide our users with practical solutions to challenges they encounter on a daily basis.”

Among its many upgrades, Xactimate 27.1 lets users:

• Create unique sets of construction defaults for various geographical regions to speed estimating tasks
• Run the inspection tool continuously to catch and correct errors before they affect the bottom line
• Select and drag folders from a computer’s hard drive to the Xactimate Control Center to instantly transfer files into Xactimate
• Track progress to keep important projects on schedule.