MarketPlace

CANADIAN MARKET

Applied Systems acquires Compu-Quote

Broker management software provider Applied Systems Inc. has acquired Compu-Quote Inc., a Canadian provider of comparative insurance rating solutions.

Applied Systems announced the sale on June 5 after closing the deal on June 1. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Compu-Quote and Applied Systems Canada will ultimately be integrated into a single entity, Applied Systems CEO Reid French told Canadian Underwriter.

French noted Applied Systems and Compu-Quote had already been long-term partners in providing Applied System’s TAM broker management system (BMS) to the Canadian marketplace.

French said that acquiring Compu-Quote made strategic sense in light of Applied System’s intention to introduce its forthcoming Epic BMS into Canada during 2013 Q1. Since its introduction into the U.S. marketplace just over three years ago, Epic has been adopted by 500 brokerages in the United States and is being used by more than 18,000 brokers.

“We intend to bring that to Canada in the first quarter of next year,” French said. “In order to support that roll-out, we needed more capability in the marketplace. And so now with the acquisition of Compu-Quote, we have three offices in Canada, 160 people and we’re really excited about it.”

REGULATION

P&C insurers should look at earthquake exposures on a national basis: OSFI

Canada’s federal solvency regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), is telling property and casualty insurers to be prepared to start looking at their earthquake risk exposures on a national basis.

OSFI assistant superintendent Mark Zelmer outlined the new expectation in notes to his speech at the 2012 Property and Casualty Insurance Industry Forum in Cambridge, Ontario on May 30, 2012. He said the new approach would be phased in over 10 years to give companies time to adjust how they calculate their probable maximum losses (PML) arising from an earthquake event. The shift in expectation would affect P&C companies that have earthquake exposures in more than one region of Canada — for example, in both B.C. and Quebec.

“That does not mean that we expect companies to be able to cope with an event in B.C. and an event in Quebec at the same time,” Zelmer said.

“This means that we will expect you to compute the probability of an earthquake major loss, assuming that an event could take place in either location, bearing in mind where your exposures are located and that the probability of an event in both locations is highly remote.”

Companies with only exposures to one region (B.C. or Quebec) will not be affected by the changes, he added.

CLAIMS

IBC says claims costs for Ontario auto insurers “still out of control”

Claims costs for Ontario auto insurers remain high despite the gains realized as a result of the provincial reforms in 2010, notes Insurance Bureau of Canada’s (IBC) submission to the Ontario Committee Hearings on Auto Insurance on May 28.

“While the September 2010 reforms were a needed first step in reducing the pressure on no fault injury costs, claims costs are still out of control,” IBC’s vice president for Ontario Ralph Palumbo told the hearings.

The Standing Committee on General Government passed a motion Apr. 16 to strike the select committee, which is holding public hearings to propose recommendations to the minority government.

Palumbo listed four reasons why claims costs remain high, namely mediation backlogs, more catastrophic injury claims, an increase in bodily injury costs and the persistence of auto insurance fraud.

Rainstorm flooding in Montreal has a return period of 1 in 100 years

Environment Canada reports that the rains that flooded Montreal and overwhelmed the city’s sewer system on May 29 had a return period of 1 in 100 years.

Environment Canada spokesman André Cantin said 47 mm of rain in total fell during a storm that caused widespread flooding of home basements, highways, businesses, streets and subway stations. Of that amount, 44.5 mm of rain fell in a two-hour period and 30 mm fell in less than 15 minutes, he said.

“No sewer collector network would have been able to manage the quantity of water that we saw yesterday,” Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay told a news conference, as reported by CBC News.

Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc.’s adjusters in Quebec and New Brunswick, along with the company’s national CAT team, responded to assist with the surge of resulting claims.

City crews were also dispatched to repair sewer pipe covers and handle the overflow.

Thunder Bay flooding overwhelms sewage treatment facility

Thunder Bay declared a state of emergency after a rainstorm on May 26-27 unleashed 91 mm on the city in 18 hours, flooding the city’s sewage treatment facility.

André Cantin, a spokesman for Environment Canada, said 71 mm of rain fell in the city over a little less than six hours.

A Thunder Bay flood update on May 30 noted a special council meeting had been requested to approve a resolution directing the city manager to take all necessary actions to secure financial assistance for city flood victims.

“Discussions are ongoing with the provincial and federal governments and the resolution is required to proceed further with formal requests,” the update says.

The city established a temporary pumping station at the Atlantic Avenue Secondary Sewage Treatment Plant, which started at a 50% pumping capacity on May 29. The city reported the capacity of the temporary pumping station increased on May 30.

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) deployed its Community Assistance Mobile Pavilion (CAMP) to Thunder Bay to provide disaster victims with onsite, quick-response, insurance-related information.