Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
July 21, 2002 at 08:00 PM
London Editor
London
A life reinsurance data hub has been set up to provide a link between direct insurers and reinsurers in the U.S. market, facilitated by the American Council of Life Insurers in Washington, D.C. and “ri3k,” the London-based technology provider.
The data hub will allow electronic interchange of data between direct writers and reinsurers without requiring manual re-keying, the parties announced last week.
By the end of September 2002, the system is due to be up and running on a limited basis in the United States market, and fully operational by September 2003, said ACLI and ri3k.
It is intended that the platform will be operated by a U.S.-based company to be formed by ACLI and ri3k.
The data hub will reduce the costs of the administration of assuming reinsurance, says Alex Letts, ri3ks CEO, explaining that one of the main costs of the process is the requirement to re-key data and the potential inaccuracies that result.
“It will streamline the data from insurance through to reinsurance and retrocession,” using a single standard ACORD-based format, he says. “It allows data on in-force lives to flow through electronically from one back office to the other back office.”
Currently, direct writers use their own formats when they pass data to reinsurers, which must then translate and re-key that data into their own systems, Letts told National Underwriter.
