NU Online News Service, Feb. 10, 2:42 p.m.EST

Aon Benfield said today it has joined forces with a group ofleading reinsurers to promote the use of ACORD standards forincreased accuracy of data and speed of processing across theglobal marketplace.

Those reinsurers include Partner Re, XL Re and Swiss Re--whichare currently transacting with Aon Benfield in ACORD format in theUnited States.

Aon Benfield said it is urging the industry to fully embrace theprotocol, which it said has significantly increased transactionalefficiency among its current adopters.

In addition to accuracy of data and speed of processing, the useof ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research andDevelopment) standards can lead to significant internal andexternal cost savings, Aon Benfield said, noting this washighlighted in the August 2008 merger of Aon Re Global and BenfieldGroup Limited.

Mitch Balter, head of operations for Aon Benfield Americas,said, "Our primary goal in the merger was to create a new companythat would offer the very best in client service. We wanted todeliver quality information to our clients and reinsurers asquickly and accurately as possible, and the use of ACORD standardshas helped Aon Benfield to achieve that."

Since January 2009, Aon Benfield said globally it hastransmitted more than 1.3 million ACORD messages across NorthAmerica, London and Europe, in the areas of claims, technicalaccounts, settlement and placing.

Ian Summers, managing director of eBusiness and market reform atAon Benfield, and a member of the North American ACORD AdvisoryCommittee, said, "In London, we saw a 50 percent improvement insettlement times from reinsurers to clients once we moved toACORD's ClaimMovements module."

He continued that in the paper world there was an average of 30percent rework required in reconciling statements to invoices dueto errors. Once the TechAccounts module was introduced, however,"the rework percentage dropped to about 1 percent, which is anincredible improvement."

Tom Neff, director of eCommerce at Aon Benfield, said thatwhereas proprietary standards work once, ACORD standards keepworking because they are industry standards. "Once you map yourinternal data to the ACORD standards, you don't need to do it againfor each new partner," he said.

Dave Hughes, senior vice president of claims at XL Re America,said electronic data exchange has had a positive impact on thecompany's claims and accounting processes.

Urs Foley, chief information officer of XL Re Global, said ACORDmessaging has enabled the company to meet its goal of settinghigher business standards by facilitating an accurate and speedyflow of information, "from our broker's source systems, through ourglobal administration system, all the way to our generalledger..."

According to Aon Benfield, ACORD standards can help companiesimprove efficiencies, automate processes and enable future businessgrowth with minimum costs, which, the firm noted, is particularlyimportant in the current weakened economic environment.

Shawn Sylvester, senior vice president of claims operations atSwiss Re, said the implementation is a continued step in thecompany's movement to streamline processes and improve customerservice.

John DiBuduo, chief information officer at PartnerRe, added thatthe evolving use of the ACORD standards between PartnerRe and itsbusiness partners had a direct impact on operating efficiency,improving the support and services to clients.

"Where we have successfully implemented the ACORD E-Claimsstandard, we have reduced our dependency on data entry and haveeliminated the creation of paper files," he said.