The data hub will allow electronic interchange of data between direct writers and reinsurers without requiring manual re-keying, the companies announced.

By the end of this September, the system is due to be up and running on a limited basis in the U.S. market, and fully operational by September 2003, said the ACLI and ri3k in a joint announcement.

The vendor ri3k also is a technology provider for the non-life industry.

It is intended that the platform will be operated by a U.S.-based company to be formed by the ACLI and ri3k.

The data hub will reduce the costs of the administration of assuming reinsurance, according to Alex Letts, ri3ks chief executive, 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,” he said, using a single standard, ACORD-based format. “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, who must then translate and re-key that data into their own systems, Mr. Letts told National Underwriter.

He noted that this data interchange also will help the retrocessionaires gain an accurate assessment of the lives they have on their treaties, which currently is difficult for them to ascertain accurately.

In a statement, David Atkinson, chief executive officer of RGA Reinsurance Company in St. Louis, Mo., commented that this effort is likely to succeed since the data hub is the result of a joint effort between direct writers and reinsurers, facilitated by the ACLI, which “is structured to benefit all participants, not just the reinsurers.”

ACLI and ri3k announced that the hub has been developed with the support of a cross-section of American direct writers, reinsurers and retrocessionaires, which served as a technical advisory group to help with development. Bankers Fidelity, Clarica Reinsurance, ING Reinsurance, Manulife Reinsurance, MetLife/New England Financial, Nationwide, New York Life, Northwestern Mutual Life, RGA Reinsurance, and Swiss Reinsurance are members of the advisory group.

Mr. Letts said the hub is the result of nine months of work.

“The utility will allow broader access to the life reinsurance process and provide greatly improved efficiency in its administration,” said Jack Bailey, senior actuary of Milwaukee, Wis.-based Northwestern Mutual, in a statement. “By automating the interchange of data, ACLI and ri3k will be helping the industry stay competitive and better serve its millions of policyholders.”

In an interview, Mr. Letts said the data hub will help drive standards for the industry. “What we should have, by the end of September next year, is a platform that is sending out all data related to in-force life policies in one standard ACORD-based format,” he said. “That would be an absolute first for the industry.”

He noted that there currently is no standardization for reinsurance transactions. “ACORD sets standards, but then people dont drive them. This will drive the ACORD standards.”

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, August 5, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.