INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Canadian Insurers Focused On Technology Modernization, Environmental Responsibility
The 2023 EY Canadian Insurance Outlook reveals that insurers plan to prioritize digital transformation and refresh their approach to recruitment in the year ahead to remain competitive and keep pace with growing consumer demands around digital experiences. Read more.

Privacy4Cars Vehicle Privacy Report™ Tool Launches in Canada
Privacy4Cars is pleased to announce that its revolutionary Vehicle Privacy Report™ tool is now available in Canada. For the first time, Canadian consumers can quickly see key privacy facts about a vehicle, including Personal Information the manufacturer collects, shares and sells, simply by entering a vehicle's VIN. Read more.

Opportunities For Property Insurers Who Close Customer Expectation Gaps: Majesco
Majesco is pleased to announce the availability of a new thought leadership report which takes a detailed look at the customer expectation gaps within property insurance, showcasing the difference between what customers expect, want, and need as compared to what insurers are doing. Read more.

Aviva Launches Faster Auto Repair Experience
Aviva Canada customers can now enjoy a more personalized, convenient, and enhanced auto repair experience with the launch of Aviva AutoCare Centres. The first centre opened its doors in North York this week, with more to open in the Greater Toronto Area and Alberta by the end of the year. Read more.

Applied Systems Launches Latest Commercial Lines Quoting Application
Applied Systems is pleased to announce the launch of their transformative commercial lines quoting solution for Canadian brokers. With the new application, brokers can follow a single workflow on a new modern user interface to request quotes from multiple markets and efficiently review the quotes. Read more.

WTW extends technology suite to include IFRS 17 reporting solution
WTW, a global advisory, broking, and solutions company, is pleased to announce the release of its new IFRS 17 based reporting solution, Financial Results Analyzer (FRA). Read more.

AMA Deploys Guidewire Cloud To Boost Business Agility, Accelerate Speed-to-Market
The Alberta Motor Association and Guidewire are pleased to announce that AMA has successfully deployed Guidewire InsuranceSuite on Guidewire Cloud to power their core business, simplify IT operations, adapt quickly to changing market demands, and keep pace with customer expectations. Read more.

Wildfires: Insurance Tips To Stay Safe, Protect Your Property
With several wildfire warnings and watches in effect across the country, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is reminding Canadians to be prepared for some potentially difficult months ahead. Environment Canada is predicting that weather conditions in June through August will create an above-average risk of wildfire in the province. Read more.

Gartner Identifies Four Cybersecurity Myths
Four common myths are obscuring the full value of cybersecurity for the enterprise and inhibiting security program effectiveness, according to Gartner, Inc. CISOs must embrace a “minimum effective” mindset to maximize cybersecurity's impact for the business. Read more.

Sandbox Mutual Joins Quotey Marketplace
Quotey is delighted to announce that it has expanded its commercial insurer marketplace to include Sandbox Mutual Insurance for its commercial lines products. Sandbox's insurance broker partners using the Quotey platform can now instantly receive quotes for more than 50 types of contractor and construction businesses. Read more.

Nextira Acquisition Expands Accenture’s AI/ML Engineering Capabilities
Accenture is pleased to announce it has acquired Nextira, an Amazon Web Services Premier Partner that uses AWS to deliver cloud-native innovation, predictive analytics and immersive experiences for their clients. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read more.

Verisk Acquires Morning Data To Support Market Transformation
Verisk is pleased to announce it has acquired Morning Data, a supplier of state-of-the-art software to brokers and MGAs across the globe. The acquisition enables Verisk to enhance and expand its solutions for straight-through processing and distribution to the underserved and growing market of SME brokers, coverholders, MGAs, captives and (re)insurers. Read more.

FM Global Launches Climate Change Product To Predict Future Risks
Commercial property insurer FM Global is pleased to announce the launch of its Climate Change Impact Report, a proprietary tool to help its clients identify and avoid risks as far in the future as 2050. Read more.

DKI Canada Network Expands In N.S.
DKI Canada is pleased to announce the opening of DKI – Restore in Nova Scotia; the new location will serve Antigonish and the surrounding area. Read more.

Quadient Elevates PacificSource Communications
Quadient is pleased to announce that PacificSource Health Plans has implemented Quadient Inspire to reduce manual processes and IT resources required for developing and maintaining renewals, member plan materials and related communications. Read more.

Small Business Optimism Keeps Rising, But Still Relatively Low: CFIB
The long-term optimism index has been on the rise for seven months in a row and is at the highest level in almost a year, according to the latest Business Barometer® from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Read more.

Developing A Niche and Adding To It
Webinar – Thursday, June 22

Instant Risk Coverage (IRC), an MGA, provides digital insurance products, on-demand. Their first niche – venue insurance – addressed the needs of both venue providers and their clients. Newer products include Open Patio, Real Estate agents and more. Insurance can be white-labelled, offered through a broker's website.

President Jonathan Di Pasquale will present and discuss the IRC story.

Register now or learn more about the webinar.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

Kamillio
Insurance agencies subscribe to our platform to streamline and automate traditionally manual back-office processes, reducing operating expenses and increasing agency capacity for sales and service. Kamillio is cloud-based and includes a modern storefront, end-to-end insurance products with buy-online capability, self-serve insured client-portal, policy management and renewal automation – transforming agencies to connect better with the next generation of customers. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

From Doug Thanks to those who attended the InsurTech Social last week for the lively discussions. Adam Mitchell, of Mitch Insurance and Quotey, spoke about current challenges, including changing pools of capital, consolidation, talent, and technology. Mitch's approach to ChatGPT as a new technology caught my attention. They challenged members of the team to come up with the best idea tested in ChatGPT for a reward. Example 1: Ten things – RIBO compliant – a broker could do to get/keep a piece of business. ChatGPT generated the list and, explicitly stated RIBO compliance. (However, on closer inspection, seven were not compliant; beware unverified results.) Example 2: Create a proposal to a client for a real piece of business. When that looked good, create a proposal to a market. The business was actually closed. As a result, the team better understands ChatGPT as a technology tool, its potential and limitations. A good illustration of an insurance business following “InsurTech business principles”: • Culture: collaborative, seek out change; • Agility: try things – rapidly; • Customer: increase efficiency, improve service; • Tech: monitor technology innovation. Though not new practices, the pace today is much faster. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca