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January 10, 2017

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INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Cyber Risks To Intensify In 2017
Top threats this year include nation-state cyber espionage, a rise in data integrity attacks and an increase in attacks harnessing Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Stroz Friedberg, an Aon company, predicts that 2017 will usher in intensified cyber attacks, new regulations and a shift in how businesses approach cyber risk management. Read more.

2017: Another Demanding Year For Reinsurers
Despite the pressures the global reinsurance market is facing, the industry remains on track to close out another profitable year, meaning that pricing stabilization remains a major challenge for (re)insurers, according to the latest 1st View Renewals Report from Willis Re. Read more.

Most Canadians Uncertain About Driverless Cars
Kanetix.ca has released new survey findings of Canadians' attitudes on driverless cars, and while one quarter of Canadians said they can't wait for the day when these (not so) futuristic vehicles are a reality, more than half said it depends on the technology's functionality. Read more.

Brokerage Tech Adoption Increases Across Canada
The Centre for Study of Insurance Operations is pleased to announce, with the release of second annual CSIO Technology Scorecard, that brokerage adoption of nine key technologies has risen to a new high across Canada. Read more.

Four-Year High For Natural Catastrophe Losses
A number of devastating earthquakes and storms made 2016 the costliest 12 months globally for catastrophe losses in the last four years. Read more.
In Canada, severe weather had a huge impact in 2016, and the total insured damage smashed Canada's previous annual record. Read more.

Chubb Expands Cyber Service Suite
An expanded suite of cyber loss mitigation services is now available to help Chubb's U.S. and Canadian policyholders reduce the impact and likelihood of a cyber incident. Chubb's expanded suite of cyber services for loss mitigation includes Password Defense, online cyber education, access to a premier cyber partner network, and more. Read more.

X by 2 Expands its Enterprise, Services
X by 2 has announced it is growing its North American footprint with the creation of a subsidiary, X by 2 Canada, to more efficiently service its expanding client base in the Canadian insurance market. Read more.

North Kent Mutual Goes Live in the Cloud
North Kent has successfully moved their entire technology footprint over to a private cloud solution with the assistance of their technology partners in this project, MCCG and iVedha. Read more.

Duliban Launches Farm Equipment Program
Duliban Insurance Brokers Ltd. has announced the launch of a new stand-alone Tractor and Farm Machinery Program written under the brand Tractor Protect. Read more.

McKillop Completes IBS Project With MCCG
McKillop Mutual Insurance Company has successfully implemented the Insurance Business Solution (IBS®) for their enterprise back-office system with partner MCCG, fulfilling a 10-month implementation project Read more.

Groupe Ultima Selects Policy Works Platform
Groupe Ultima is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Policy Works Inc., enables Groupe Ultima to provide its members with the Policy Works platform, and contributing to a new integrated technological ecosystem offered by Groupe Ultima.
Read more.

Alberta Motor Association Selects Guidewire
Alberta Motor Association and Guidewire Software have announced that AMA has selected Guidewire DataHub and InfoCenter to support its data and analytics strategies. Read more.

Increasing Adoption of Data & Analytics
A growing number of insurers are looking for solutions that help them make better decisions. Data and analytics are key enablers. However, investment is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for success. Adoption is the key. Read more.

2017 Property/Casualty CIO Pressures & Priorities
In this report Celent presents the key findings from its annual survey of North American property/casualty CIOs, outlining their priorities and pressures for 2017. CIOs in all segments identify the business goals of growth and retention, process optimization, and innovation as the most important influences on their IT plans. Read more.

Economical Completes Petsecure Acquisition
Economical Mutual Insurance Company has announced the completion of its previously-announced acquisition of Western Financial Insurance Company and its flagship brand Petsecure from Desjardins Group. Read more.

Hub Acquires Mainline Insurance Brokers
Hub International Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has acquired Mainline Insurance Brokers Inc., Indian Head Agencies (1980) Ltd., R&J McKay Agencies Ltd. and Cathedral Insurance Services (1995) Ltd. Read more.

Archway Purchases D.R. Hayman Insurance
Archway Insurance, one of Atlantic Canada's largest insurance brokerages, has announced the purchase of D.R. Hayman Insurance in Stellarton, Nova Scotia. D.R. Hayman Insurance has provided both personal and business insurance in the Pictou County area for more than 50 years. Read more.

Belron Canada acquires Speedy Collision
Belron Canada has announced the acquisition of Speedy Collision, a network of 24 franchise collision centres located across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. Read more.

Consumers See The Promise (And Risks) Of Connected Living
Consumers are excited by the progression toward ‘connected living’ and the many ways connected technologies can improve their lives, according to a new study by Assurant, Inc. Read more.

Insurance Trends: Auto Personal Injury Claims
Looking forward to future auto damage and injury trends, there is a common theme. In the short term, the number of accidents will decrease, but loss costs and severity will continue to rise in the near future. Read more.

Morneau Shepell Acquires Solareh
Morneau Shepell, Canada's largest provider of employee and family assistance programs (EFAPs), has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Solareh, a national health and wellness services provider based in Montreal Read more.

Guidewire to Acquire ISCS
Guidewire is pleased to announce it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ISCS. This acquisition will enhance Guidewire's ability to serve those P&C insurers that prefer a cloud-based, all-in-one system supporting the insurance lifecycle. Read more.

BlackBerry Launches Innovation Centre For Autonomous, Connected Vehicles
BlackBerry has unveiled a new Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Centre, within the BlackBerry QNX facility in Ottawa, to accelerate the realization of connected and self-driving vehicles by developing production-ready software independently and in collaboration with partners in the private and public sector. Read more.


ICTC2017: 15th annual Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference - Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017


The Intersection: Insurance-Canada.ca Blog

What's going through the Intersection
of insurance and technology?

InsurTech, A.I., and the Future of Work
This past year has seen an explosion of InsurTech applications. Driven by digital success in other industry sectors and the widespread utilization of mobile devices, insurers and brokers have started to investigate opportunities to sell and service with new digital tools. Meanwhile, advancements in artificial intelligence may either serve to displace human workers or to unlock further potential in the labour market.
Read more.

Is Big Data Working in Insurance?
by Andrew Ma & Kylie Taylor, Pacific Prime
Big Data has become a big buzzword, particularly in the insurance industry. The ability of predictive modelling to work out future trends by looking at past data has attracted the attention of many insurance companies, because analytics can help us better predict and understand risk and customer behaviour. Read more.

2017: Dance With The Hippo
The developments of 2017 will likely shape the next generation of insurance processes, distribution, and product. And size will matter, but in a new way. To help companies understand innovation, Craig Haney, head of corporate innovation at Communitech, has introduced the concept of the “Nimble Hippo.” Read more.


2017 ICTA NOMINATIONS

LowestRates.ca Enables High-Quality Lead Generation
By providing options from the country's most trusted financial institutions, LowestRates.ca has enabled over 1.5 million Canadian consumers to make smarter financial decisions since launching in 2012.
Read more.

Smart Forms Improve GroupHEALTH's Efficiency
GroupHEALTH Benefit Solutions exchanged its manual enrollment process for a digital, online version with Smart Forms and e-signature technology, resulting in lower costs, radically improved customer experience, and encouraged upsell for higher-end products. Read more.

Everest Insurance Improves Money Flow
Everest Canada adopted ClearPay to simplify the collections of premiums and reconciliation data from insurance brokerages and to make it easier for brokerages to do business with Everest Canada.
Read more.


“Disruption ⇒ New Realities, New Opportunities”: ICTC2017 + ICTBF2017
February 28 - March 1, 2017

Take a look ahead at the future of innovation and disruption in insurance, and get a substantive update on the Canadian insurance and technology scene at our 2017 Technology Conference and Broker Forum, featuring timely topics on what key players are doing, or should be doing, and how to tackle obstacles.

Join your insurance colleagues and hear from an expert faculty; discuss with your peers; take home the lessons and the inspiration of industry thought leaders.

For now, you can watch a pre-conference interview with keynote speaker Craig Haney, head of corporate innovation at Communitech in Kitchener.



From Doug

A happy new year to everyone.

It is no surprise that for insurance, technology takes centre stage among the many predictions about what is in store for the new year.

At Insurance-Canada.ca, our focus has always been the confluence of insurance and technology, and our annual Technology Awards (‘ICTAs’) celebrate the business value being realized from the use of technology.

We are starting to post details of the nominations for the 2017 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards. The nominees are an interesting group, and we celebrate their diversity. The wide range of organizations and of technology subjects presents an interesting challenge to the members of the jury, but they are up to it. Discover the winners – and see all the finalists recognized – Feb. 28 at ICTC2017 in Toronto.

Doug Grant, CIP
Partner
Insurance-Canada.ca

Doug Grant

The Chronicle weekly newsletter features news, events, and general information relating to insurance, technology, and innovation in the Canadian insurance industry and the marketplace. Subscribe here or view past issues.

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