INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Climate Change, Natural Catastrophes And Consumer Awareness: CCIR & CISRO
The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators and the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations are encouraged to see insurers and intermediaries' response to the CCIR's position paper on Climate Change, Natural Catastrophes and Consumer Awareness. Read more.

Severe Thunderstorms Drive H1 Insured Losses
A high frequency of small to medium events resulted in global insured losses from natural catastrophes of USD 60 billion in the first half of 2024, according to Swiss Re Institute's preliminary estimates. Severe thunderstorms, mainly in the US, accounted for 70% of global insured losses. Read more.

Walnut Secures Funding To Transform Insurance Distribution With Embedded Technology
Walnut is pleased to announce the successful close of its latest funding round. The investment will be used to expand Walnut's groundbreaking embedded insurance technology platform for insurers, brokers and enterprise businesses looking to participate in the future of insurance distribution. Read more.

Inscora Announces Funding To Help Brokers Supercharge Their Cyber Insurance Practice
Inscora, a Montreal-based startup providing automated cyber risk assessment and sales enablement solutions for cyber insurance brokers, is pleased to announce it has raised CAD 2 million in funding. The round was led by Luge Capital, with participation from Desjardins Capital, Accelia Capital, Inovia Capital and angel investors from the cybersecurity industry. Read more.

Leading U.S. Insurer Awards Verint Contract To Deploy AI-Powered Bots
Verint, the CX Automation Company™, is pleased to announce that a leading American insurance company has awarded Verint a three-year contract to leverage Verint bots to increase CX automation and deliver AI business outcomes across their contact center of 3,000 agents. Read more.

Westland Insurance Acquires Smith Insurance Service
Westland Insurance, one of Canada's largest insurance brokers, is pleased to announce it has acquired Alberta-based F.A. Smith Insurance Service Ltd., effective August 1st. Read more.

iA Financial Group Completes Acquisition From Prosperity Life Group
iA Financial Group is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of two existing blocks of business from Prosperity Life Group, as initially announced on July 15th. Read more.

Frost & Sullivan Applauds IMS For Shaping Safer, Smarter Mobility
Recent research into the telematics insurance industry by Frost & Sullivan has recognized IMS for its technology innovation leadership in telematics and connected insurance solutions. IMS offers a suite of fully digital UBI solutions that cater to the diverse needs of insurers and policyholders in today's fast-paced insurance landscape, where consumers demand faster, fairer underwriting and slicker claims experiences. Read more.

Ledger Investing Expands Capabilities to Further Advance the Casualty ILS Market
Ledger Investing, the leading marketplace connecting insurance risk to capital, has announced an expansion of its capabilities within the casualty insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with the launch of two new subsidiaries: Ledger Re SPC, a reinsurer providing institutional investors access to casualty ILS, and Ledger ILS Services, a provider of underwriting and risk management services. Read more.

One-Third Of Small Businesses Plan To Hire In the Next Six Months: Zensurance Survey
A new national survey commissioned by Zensurance.com, Canada's leading source for small business insurance, has uncovered 'uncommon confidence' among small business owners across the country. Read more.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

Exavalu
Exavalu is a specialized, digital transformation advisor and solutions partner for insurance organizations – insurance brokers, insurance companies, and managing general agents. As a trusted advisor, we combine our deep industry knowledge and technology expertise to help our clients define and achieve their digital strategy goals. Our capabilities span property & casualty personal, commercial, and specialty lines, life and annuities, and group benefits. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Intermediate Adjuster (Bodily Injury)
SGI CANADA
Calgary/Edmonton, AB

Financial Security Advisor, Insurance
RBC
Montreal, QC

From Doug An increasing number of those who provide technology for insurance are deploying AI-based functionality within their products. From today's news: Verint addresses Customer Experience (CX): A customer is implementing bots for 3,000 agents in a call centre so they can better serve clients. The AI-based bots will increase CX automation: Each bot addresses a very specific use case described by the name of each bot: Exact Transcription Bot, Knowledge Automation Bot, Coaching Bot, Interaction Wrap Up Bot and Data Insights Bot. For telematics insurance Frost & Sullivan recognized IMS with the 2024 North American Technology Innovation Leadership Award. IMS is is using AI in their Decision Engine, for example. As Matteo Carbone and others have noted, telematics enables a competitive advantage. By gathering volumes of granular data, telematics supports better pricing and rating, improved risk management for insurer and customer, more profitability and greater personalization and engagement. Telematics is a quarter-century on, but AI is finding a home there too. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca