Insurance Review: Spring 2009

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Insurance Review offers a Canadian perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the insurance industry. The Spring 2009 issue discusses:

• Managing fraud risk in a time of economic crisis
• Driving performance and value through strategic vendor management
• Ontario sales tax harmonization: The variables facing insurers
• Global insurance CEOs confident about their prospects
• Insurance Banana Skins 2009: Identifying the risks insurers face

As often happens in times of economic distress, the risk of internal and external fraud increases. Many insurers already have controls and systems in place to identify, monitor, and manage fraud risk, and to protect themselves, their policyholders, and their shareholders from these risks. However, the current environment will put those measures to the test.

Managing fraud risk in a time of economic data 2009 (69 KB) Download the full PDF article.

In order to reduce costs and improve productivity, many companies are looking to outsource functions and increase the value of their current third-party vendor relationships. And as companies become more dependent on vendors, it becomes more challenging to manage these relationships.

Driving performance and value through strategic vendor management (44 KB) Download the full PDF article.

The recent Ontario Budget announced a bold move to modernize sales taxes in the province on July 1, 2010, by harmonizing the outmoded provincial sales tax with the federal GST. Ontario will then join Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland with a single harmonized tax. Only when the rest of Canada has progressed to this model will the economic benefits of the GST be fully realized.

Ontario sales tax harmonization: The variables facing insurers (67 KB) Download the full PDF article.

Redefining success, the PricewaterhouseCoopers 12th Annual Global CEO Survey, explores how CEOs are reconsidering the fundamentals of business in response to extreme operating conditions and assuming responsibility for issues that were once considered outside the scope of industry. We interviewed 1,124 CEOs around the world between September 10 and December 2, 2008. Here, we look at how insurance industry CEOs are dealing with a combination of challenges.

Global insurance CEOs confident about their prospects (56 KB) Download the full PDF article.

The Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI) earlier this year completed the Insurance Banana Skins survey of leading members of the insurance industry to find out their concerns about the risks facing the insurance industry. The top three risks identified by respondents to the survey are all connected with the fallout from the credit crunch, and its impact on the strength and profitability of the industry.

Insurance Banana Skins 2009: Identifying the risks insurers face (42 KB) Download the full PDF article.

Insurance Review: Spring 2009 (22 KB) Download the entire PDF.