Craig KorotkoBalboa Life & CasualtyBalboa Life & Casualty consists of two life and three P&C insurers, all wholly owned subsidiaries of Countrywide Credit Industries. As broad as that sounds, Balboa is actually a specialist in several marketplaces. It offers financial institutions insurance programs through four divisions: Life & Credit, Collateral Protection, Property Hazard, and Personal Lines.

Craig Korotko is senior vice president and CIO. He has spent his whole career in the insurance IT arena, specializing in mortgage- and credit-related insurance IT solutions. Prior to joining Balboa, he was instrumental in developing EDI standards while at Safeco Select, the forced-placement division of Safeco. He has worked with and chaired committees and working groups with organizations and standards including X12, MISMO (the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization), and ACORD.

Korotko and his staff of 60 support the operations of Balboas 650 or so employees, more than half of whom concentrate their efforts on providing insurance verification services to an array of banks, credit unions, savings and loans, and other lenders. Balboa currently supports about four million outstanding loansmostly mortgages and auto credit. At an average of four documents per loan per year, it handles about 16 million documents annually.