What’s new: In brief (January 24, 2005)

Aviva Canada says it will connect directly to the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) portal in 2005, but in the meantime will be guaranteeing quotes generated on the portal as of March 1. This applies to Aviva’s Pilot, Scottish & York and Traders companies. Aviva Canada CEO Igal Mayer says, “I personally believe it [the portal] is an important tool for insurers and brokers alike. We have heard the concerns of our broker partners and we are taking action.” Aviva COO Bob Fitzgerald, who also serves as CSIO chair, says he hopes all insurers will “step up to the plate” and make a full commitment to the portal.

More than one-quarter of auto accidents results in an injury claim, says the U.S. Insurance Research Council (IRC). And much like in Canada, while claims frequency in the U.S. has dropped, and injury severity is lower, bodily injury (BI) claims rates remain high. In 1980, 17.9% of auto damage claims also had a BI claim, but in 2003 this rate hit 26.4%.

While no loss estimates are yet available for the winter storms which pounded the U.S. northeast this past weekend, risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide says the record snow loads did not generally exceed building codes and therefore roof collapses are not expected to be common. Roof leakage and gutter damage may have occurred, and problems could result from snowdrifts creating unbalanced loads on roofs. Atlantic Canada was also hit with three blizzards in the span of seven days, the latest on Sunday bringing as much as 65 cm of snow to areas and winds as high as 128 km/h.

Correction: an error appeared in the daily news item MPI reports net income of $81.5 million for first three quarters of 2004″ last week. MPI’s net loss in the third quarter of 2003 was $538,000, not $538 million as reported. CU apologizes for the error.