INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Insurers Embrace Agile – But Face Challenges
Agile adoption for IT initiatives has grown significantly in the last few years across multiple industries. Insurers are choosing to organize their IT value delivery around supporting products rather than delivering projects to improve alignment between IT and business. In its latest report, Novarica introduces a new capabilities model for product management, organizational changes to support Agile, and addressing key challenges. Read more.

Co-operators Selects Guidewire Cloud Suite
Guidewire Software is pleased to announce that The Co-operators, a Guidewire customer since 2007, has chosen Guidewire InsuranceSuite™ Cloud to power its core operations, enabling The Co-operators to simplify its IT operations, adapt more quickly to changing market demands, and deliver more value to policyholders. Read more.

Gradient AI Joins Duck Creek Partner Ecosystem
Duck Creek Technologies is pleased to announce that it has expanded its Partner Ecosystem program through a new relationship with Gradient AI. Gradient's Artificial Intelligence models are created by data scientists, supported by insurance experts and data engineers who understand carriers' underlying data and help them improve their results. Read more.

McDougall Welcomes Provenance Insurance
McDougall Insurance Brokers has announced that they have merged with Provenance Insurance Services Ltd. o/a Knox Hutchison Insurance Services (North Bay), Municipal Insurance Services (North Bay) and Dynamic Insurance Brokers (Sudbury), effective immediately. Read more.

Hub Acquires RHC Insurance Brokers
Hub International Limited, a leading global insurance brokerage, is pleased to announce that it has acquired RHC Insurance Brokers Ltd. and RHC Insurance Brokers (Cranbrook) Ltd. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read more.

McDougall Welcomes Asselin Insurance Brokers
McDougall Insurance and Financial has announced it has merged with Asselin Insurance Brokers Ltd., effective immediately, and is pleased to welcome the employees of Asselin Insurance Brokers Ltd. into the McDougall organization. Read more.

Insurance Consumers & Industry Growing More Proactive
Two main themes set the stage for the insurance industry in 2020: digital transformation across the value chain, and transformational change in group market benefits for life and health products. Read more.

Top Trends In Cybersecurity
The top cybersecurity trends in 2020 will drive organizations' cybersecurity strategies and investments, and capture the focus of their security leaders, according to a new report from Aite Group. Read more.

Beazley, RenaissanceRe Launch Cyber Solution
Specialist insurer Beazley and global reinsurer RenaissanceRe have jointly launched a new reinsurance product providing Beazley with additional catastrophe cover for cyber events. The majority of the security behind the deal will be provided by capital sources structured by RenaissanceRe. Read more.

Hiscox Adopts CyberCube Risk Analytics
Cyber risk analytics company CyberCube has signed an agreement with global specialist insurer Hiscox for the use of CyberCube's ground-breaking technology to generate better insight into potential systemic cyber risk. The deal gives Hiscox access to CyberCube's Portfolio Manager product, which will stress-test Hiscox's book of global commercial insurance business against a range of cyber-related catastrophe scenarios. Read more.

Alister Campbell Joins Finaeo Directors’ Board
Finaeo is pleased to announce that Alister Campbell, a veteran of the insurance industry, has joined the company's Board of Directors. Previously CEO of several large insurers, including Zurich Canada and The Guarantee Company of North America, Campbell is currently also serving as CEO of PACICC, Canada's P&C insurance insolvency resolution authority. Read more.

Swiss Re Places First Parametric Earthquake Catastrophe Bond
Swiss Re Capital Markets has successfully closed a transaction issued by Sierra Ltd. on behalf of Bayview's MSR Opportunity Fund. This transaction is the first catastrophe bond issued under Rule 144A with a parametric trigger that is designed to cover mortgage default risk caused by earthquakes in four U.S. states. Swiss Re Capital Markets acted as the sole structuring agent and joint-bookrunner. Read more.

Gallagher Takes 100% Stake In Capsicum Re
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. is pleased to announce it has increased its interest in Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers from 33% to 100%. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read more.

iA Financial Group Strengthens Position In Vehicle Warranties
iA Financial Corporation Inc., the holding company of iA Financial Group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of three companies specializing in vehicle warranties in Canada: WGI Service Plan Division Inc., WGI Manufacturing Inc., and Lubrico Warranty Inc. These acquisitions are effective immediately. Read more.

Wearsafe Launches Mobile Personal Safety Devices
Wearsafe Labs, a leader in consumer and enterprise IoT software, has announced that it will now include insurance protection to cover certain accident-related medical expenses for individuals using their supported IoT devices. The Blanket Accident Insurance coverage is underwritten by Zurich American Insurance Company. Read more.

Startups Named For Connected Cities Accelerator
Highline Beta and founding partner Aviva Canada are pleased to announce the first four startups selected to participate in the Safe x Connected Cities Accelerator – a challenge-based platform to help scale startups with a proven ability to tackle road safety, mobility and smart city challenges. Read more.

Police Recover 31 Vehicles In GTA
Durham Regional Police Service is pleased to announce that Project Bondar – an eight-week project focusing on tow truck companies in the Greater Toronto Area – has resulted in the recovery of 31 vehicles and more than 250 charges. Read more.

Ontario: Prepare For Heavy Rainfall
Environment Canada has issued a heavy rainfall and freezing rain warning for Ontario this weekend. The Insurance Bureau of Canada would like consumers to prepare for potential flooding to protect themselves from harm. Read more.

The InsurTech Spotlight features insurance practitioners and InsurTech(nology) providers which are – or are becoming – InsurTechs. In the spotlight this week are:

Xemplar Insights
Xemplar Insights is a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for insurers. The Xemplar suite of mobile digital customer engagement and smartphone based driving behavior telematics solutions is changing how insurance companies analyze risk and proactively prevent claims. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

ICTA NOMINATIONS

Mitchell & Whale Benefits From In-House Lead Management System
What do you do if the lead management software out in the market doesn't quite do what you need it to do? Build your own! Launched in December 2018, Goliath is Mitchell & Whale's inhouse lead management and reporting system, and to our knowledge, the best and most robust lead management system built specifically for insurance brokers. Read more.

EDC Implements Repeatable Customer-Centric Product Innovation System
In the face of declining relevance, EDC, a traditional insurance and financing provider, established a third product line, Knowledge Services, to solve the persistent market gaps and challenges its customers faced. In less than a year, EDC implemented design thinking, agile and lean start-up to rapidly and iteratively build a portfolio of four digital products sitting on the cloud-based Azure platform and accessible via an identity-powered subscription-based access model. EDC rapidly implemented an industry-leading, customer-centric innovation system, producing tangible business benefits. Read more.

Apollo Exchange Platform Enables Brokers To Instantly Transact Insurance Online
Apollo Exchange is a technology platform that enables brokers to instantly transact insurance online.The Exchange offers brokers three tools: Broker Portal, Launchpad, and Program Automations. The free Broker Portal allows individual brokers to browse insurance products, receive immediate quotes, transact policies, and documents are issued in real time — no contract or volume commitment required. Become a digital brokerage overnight with APOLLO's Launchpad, a white labelled eCommerce solution that allows clients to self serve 24/7. With Program Automation, digitize an existing portfolio or binding authority using proprietary APOLLO technology. Read more.

Building A Broker System With ERP And New Technologies
Over the course of more than a decade as insurance brokers, we have witnessed seismic changes in the world of insurance – and expect more to come. The question is, are we ready? Google and Amazon are making forays into the insurance sphere; widespread use of artificial intelligence has become the norm; learning from and adapting to consumer behavior is more crucial than ever. UW Insure Brokers shares our journey to innovation, centred on Enterprise Resource Planning implementation and state-of-the-art technology. Read more.

“20/20 Foresight:
Keys To Success in a Dynamic World”

Feb. 25-26, 2020, in Toronto

Discover the keys to achieving exceptional performance in insurance at ICTC2020.

Hear about the business innovations that are driving operations at Canada's mutual insurance companies:

Innovation – The Mutual Way
• Tracy MacDonald, President & CEO, Trillium Mutual Insurance Company
• Alec Harmer, President & CEO, HTM Insurance Company
• Deb Van Eyk, President & CEO, Lambton Mutual Insurance Company
• Moderator: Randy Straeten, President & CEO, Cognition+

Join us for two days of insight, thought leadership and networking. See all the presentation topics.

Visit insurance-canada.ca/ictc for more information.

Featured job opportunities:

e-Learning Course Developer
Ontario Mutual Insurance Association (OMIA)
Cambridge, ON

Experienced Personal Lines Account Manager
Impact Insurance Brokers
Vaughan, ON

From Doug The Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards (ICTA) program is a great opportunity for us to have a window into the technology developments in the Canadian P&C insurance industry. The submissions this year transcend geographic boundaries, spanning the country from Halifax-Dartmouth to Edmonton. As expected, the applications of technology have a wide range. Some are focused on internal processing efficiency, people support and management effectiveness. With the increasing opportunity to connect easily and reliably to partners and services providers, others are showcasing interorganizational connectivity. The customer is the centre of attention; several illustrate improved ease of use and reduced data requirements to improve the customer experience. Many nominees give us permission to share most information with you our readers: see the 2020 Nominees, being posted through January. We hope you will pick up some new insights. Some of the nominees will be presenting at our annual Technology Conference on Feb. 25-26. Some will be honoured there as ICTA finalists ... and one will be named the winner! Attend ICTC2020 to find out who, and learn from them all. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca