What’s New: In brief (May 24, 2005)

i-flex solutions, a provider of technology solutions to the global financial services industry has entered into a strategic alliance with Castek Software Inc., a Toronto based provider of insurance systems for the global Property & Casualty (P&C) insurance industry. As part of the alliance, i-flex has established an equity financing arrangement with Castek that allows for i-flex to become the largest shareholder in Castek.Currently Castek offers its Insure(3) (pronounced “Insure cubed”) suite to the market. According to Castek, Celent, a Boston based research firm, forecasts that North American insurance carriers will spend more than US$1.4 billion on policy administration systems between 2004 and 2008. Over 50% of this spend is attributed to the Property and Casualty segment.