Insurance industry concerned about data management

There are growing concerns about the governance and management of data the insurance industry is required to maintain, particularly in light of enhanced financial reporting requirements.
The concerns were expressed by senior insurance executives attending the Actuarial Transformation Roundtable, organized by the insurance and actuarial advisory services (IAAS) practice of Ernst & Young LLP.
A survey of participants revealed 88% of attendees agree [with the statement] that data management issues currently impact the ability to provide reliable, valid financial data, Ernst & Young noted in a press release announcing the results of the roundtable.
At the same time, more than half (56%) say they do not have a dedicated data governance team in place and 67% do not have a formal data management program.
Companies need to engineer a culture shift, says Steve Goren, roundtable moderator and leader of the Ernst & Young IAAS Actuarial Transformation practice. It is crucial to get everyone to acknowledge data governance and quality as key corporate priorities, and reflect this in their operating practices and processes.
Recognizing that old problems will only multiply over time, insurers must clean up existing data and change their processes going forward. We have termed the data management evolution actuarial transformation, and it includes the move to an automated, controlled, yet flexible technology-based environment.
Nearly three-quarters (73%) of participants said the quality of their data needs at least some improvement. Half (50%) acknowledged their actuarial team spends between three and five person days per month correcting data quality issues.
The vast majority of participants (93%) agreed that the assumptions they use in their actuarial models constitute data that must be stored and managed. In fact, many acknowledged they are building meta-data repositories to hold information about existing data, such as how they develop their assumptions, in order to satisfy auditors, Ernst & Young noted in a release.