Unica Insurance obtains CSIO certification for commercial lines eDocs

The Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) announced on Thursday that Mississauga, Ont.-based Unica Insurance has obtained CSIO certification for commercial lines eDocs.

eDocs is intended to help brokers save time by allowing them to download policy documents directly from a carrier’s computer system to their broker management systems (BMS), and to store those documents in their BMS without manual intervention.

CSIO said in a press release that it has expanded the eDocs certification program to specifically certify eDocs for commercial lines as a means of making business easier for commercial customers and helping brokers retain their “commanding commercial market share of over 90%.”

Martin Delage, president and COO at Unica Insurance, said in the release that “delivering ease-of-doing-business solutions continues to be a key priority for Unica, and we see eDocs as a natural extension of that. We’ve been successfully sending commercial eDocs to our brokers since January of this year, giving our brokers more ways to reduce paper handling and bring efficiencies to their operations.”

Unica Insurance was founded in 1955 and is a subsidiary of La Capitale General Insurance, a major Canadian p&c insurer. The company distributes its products exclusively through a network of professional insurance brokers throughout Ontario.

Related: Northbridge first carrier certified eDocs for commercial lines by CSIO

CSIO certification is available to member companies and vendors. eDocs for personal lines has been available for certification since September 2013, with the recent additions of eDocs for commercial lines and eDelivery as the second and third business activities available for certification.

Earlier this month, CSIO announced that Northbridge Insurance, a unit of Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., had become the first carrier to be certified for eDocs for commercial lines. Northbridge was already certified for personal lines.

“The uniform application of commercial lines data standards is integral to ensuring the use of trusted, interoperable technology applications in the P&C industry, and I look forward to seeing many more members achieve this important certification,” concluded CSIO president and CEO Catherine Smola in the release.