CSIO rating service in the works

A proposed rating service for the Centre for the Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) portal, to make it more inclusive for member insurers, is a go. Late last week the CSIO board approved the creation of the rating service, which will allow member companies who are not yet ready to fully participate in the portal to at least offer rates through the comparative quoting features of the portal.Vendor Insurance Systems Inc. has been selected to create the rating system, which will offer non-guaranteed quotes to brokers through the portal.”This new rating service will ensure that brokers have access to rates from most of their companies much sooner than they would have otherwise,” says CSIO chairman Howard Moran. “By doing so, the Portal will come into wide use across Canada much sooner than we had expected.”The portal is currently being tested with Lombard Canada, who will go live with the service in the second quarter of this year. Several other companies expect to join in the third quarter, with the full portal technology to be in place this summer.But through the development of the portal, which will offer a single-entry multi-company interface to brokers, CSIO found a demand from companies either not planning to fully participate with the portal or not ready to do so yet.