ACORD Wins Innovation of the Year Award

Pearl River, NY – 9 December 2004 – ACORD was presented with the prestigious Innovation of the Year Award at the 2004 Insurance Day Awards in London on December 1. ACORD President and CEO, Gregory A. Maciag, accepted the award on behalf of ACORD’s more than 480 members worldwide.

Competing in a category that attracted the highest number of entries, the judges agreed that “the work carried out by ACORD to try to help create an integrated global insurance industry is absolutely essential to raise standards. Moreover it was agreed that in the last year or so ACORD has achieved critical mass in what is an immensely challenging global environment and big progress is now expected as a result.”

A major reason cited in the awards program for this honor was the growing acceptance by the majority of insurance industry leaders of ACORD standards as the common data vocabulary for communication throughout the entire insurance and reinsurance industry. This included a 300% increase in reported implementations of its standards by industry leaders such as Swiss Re, Scor, XL Re, GE, AIG, Axa, Benfield, Aon and Guy Carpenter in 2003. In addition, ACORD certified key implementations within key exchanges including eReinsure, ri3k and Kinnect. Also noted was ACORD’s close work with the London Market Principles to support the current generation on London market reforms.

The Innovation of the Year Award was one of ten awards presented by the 2004 Insurance Day Awards judging panel at a ceremony that drew over 300 representatives of leading industry organizations.

About ACORD: Based in New York, ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) is a global, nonprofit insurance association whose mission is to facilitate the development and use of standards for the insurance, reinsurance and related financial services industries. With offices in London as well, ACORD accomplishes its mission by remaining an objective, independent advocate for sharing information among diverse platforms. ACORD Standards and services improve efficiency and expand market reach. Affiliated with ACORD are hundreds of insurance and reinsurance companies, and thousands of agents and brokers, related financial services organizations, software providers, and industry organizations worldwide.