ISO Acquires NetMap Analytics

NU Online News Service, Feb. 26, 12:53 p.m.EST?The Insurance Services Office Inc. in Jersey City,N.J. has acquired NetMap Analytics LLC, a Columbus, Ohio-basedsoftware company that produces technology used to detect fraud ininsurance claims.

Terms were not disclosed. The firm with 24 employees providesvisual-link analysis software for discerning fraud. Its productsare used by a variety of large insurers and governmentagencies.

NetMap lists among its insurer customers, CNA, Liberty Mutual,Nationwide, Progressive, Prudential, SAFECO, The St. PaulCompanies, Travelers, and Western United. It also provides softwarefor the U.S. Defense Department.

ISO said its total acquisition of NetMap follows its purchaselast year of a majority position in the firm, which operationallywill become part of ISO's claims department.

The software operation will continue to be called NetMapAnalytics and will remain in Columbus.

ISO said it will retain sole rights to sell NetMap insuranceproducts, including "ViewLink Manager" and "NetMap for Claims"around the world other than in Australia, New Zealand andSingapore.

ISO will retain a minority position in NetMap Analytics Pty Ltd.based in Sydney, Australia, under the leadership of its chiefexecutive officer, Richard McLean, the former head of NetMapAnalytics. The Australian entity is licensed to sell NetMapinsurance products in the Australian, New Zealand and Singaporemarkets, and non-insurance products worldwide other than in theUnited States.

"By acquiring sole ownership of NetMap and integrating it intoISO's claims unit, ISO is now able to assure the U.S.property-casualty insurance industry an uninterrupted flow offraud-detection products and services, and support for thoseservices," said Frank J. Coyne, ISO's president and chief executiveofficer.

He said ISO is committed to be "an arsenal in theproperty-casualty industry's war on claims fraud that robsinsurers--and ultimately policyholders--of more than $24 billion ayear."

ISO said that to detect patterns of fraud, "NetMap for Claims"analyzes insurers' own data as well as data from the ISOClaimSearch system--ISO's antifraud claims information database ofsome 256 million records.

NetMap visual link analysis technology also forms the basis ofISO's PC-based "ViewLink Manager" software that improves insurers'effectiveness in using the ISO ClaimSearch system by presentingrelationships in a "visually compelling form."