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19th October 2014

NewslinkTrends: Weekly Global Insurance Analysis
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This week, several major surveys were published-Accenture reported that insurers need to improve their personal lines claims handling or suffer higher churn, and State Street said insurers are struggling to build a solid technology platform to be competitive in the digital era. SAS revealed that 20% of European insurers still rely on a manual search of claims to detect fraud, and SAP, in another global survey, indicated that insurers were increasing their use of analytics. A.M.Best said that UK non-life insurers were under pressure in a competitive market, and Willis predicted a record year for non-life ILS issuance. A Manchester broker, Insurance Revolution, published an interesting survey on consumers' views on where to achieve the best motor insurance deals.
There was more comment on the Solvency II Delegated Acts from Fitch, Solvency II Wire, and Moore Stephens. The UK press covered the continuing flexibility for retirees and their pensions pots, with concern that future advice and guidance could be more complex than the Retail Distribution Review(RDR) and providers might bear the brunt of criticism when some pensioners run out of their investment in years to come-Partnership Assurance reported a major drop in individual annuity sales.
Aviva's Group ceo, Mark Wilson, speaking at the UN World Investment Forum in Geneva, called for all interested parties to tackle investment short-termism. Aegon is to sell its Canadian life business to Wilton Re and RSA's Italian portfolio is to be acquired by ITAS Mutua.
In the US, Global Indemnity is to purchase American Reliable Insurance from Assurant, Hamilton USA completed the acquisition of teh two Valiant Insurance businesses, White Mountains moved for a majority stake in TRANZACT, and Pioneer Underwriters is to open a specialty unit in New York. Gallagher's reinsurance team is to partner with Capsicum Re.
IBM has signed a major counter-fraud agreement with PRO BTB, one of the primary welfare institutions in the French healthcare insurance sector, the UK Insurance Fraud Bureau is to extend its operations from motor across other products. Guidewire's ClaimCenter solution was chosen by Erie Insurance, and SSP is partnering with QBE in the UK to enable a range of SME products to be available to their broker client base.
Towergate Insurance Group ceo, Mark Hodges, surprisingly announced his resignation late on Friday, and there were senior appointments at Ecclesiastical and XL Group.
Platinum Underwriters reported a dip in net income and premiums, whilst Quindell's chairmen, Rob Terry, was confident of full year results after an encouraging third quarter.
Articles on the above topics are included in those added to the Insurance Newslink and Financial Newslink global database service on Wednesday and today at www.onlystrategic.com