NU Online News Service, June 18, 3:17 p.m. EDT
Asia's insurance business has been largely unaffected by the financial crisis compared to other parts of the world, according to a survey of chief information officers throughout the region.
Celent, a Boston-based consulting firm, conducted the "Asia Insurance–The Year Ahead: The CIO Perspective" report surveying regional and global carriers throughout Asia.
The firm interviewed selected Asian CIOs from mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia and Vietnam in the first half of 2010.
According to the report, although growth in certain lines has been negatively impacted by the financial crisis, 40 percent of survey participants said they have not significantly changed their business strategy, budget for information technology spending and product-distribution channels.
The report notes that demand for property and casualty products in Asia fell and p&c rates were in the negative phase of the cycle when the survey was conducted.
But Asian insurers' information technology budgets have held steady despite the financial crisis, according to the report. Asian insurers will spend about 1-to-3 percent of premium on information technology in 2010.
More than 85 percent of survey participant companies increased their information technology budget or allocated the same budget for 2010 as 2009. And more than 85 percent of insurers have their information technology operation centralized, according to the report.
The report also said that 70 percent of insurers have application architecture in place, while other insurers are in the process of developing application architecture plans.
Additionally, the report found that the top three areas that companies plan to increase technology investment in 2010 are:
o Underwriting and policy administration.
o Customer service representation portal and desktop
o Agent portal.
Celent's report said that growing the business, cost reduction and ease of doing business are the top three areas that Asia insurers are focusing on for 2010, followed by regulation, time to market and competition.
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