Commercial brokers’ association aims to ‘push the technology file forward’

Real-time exchange of data between insurers and brokers is more often than not top of mind for brokers belonging to the Toronto Insurance Council (TIC), known until recently as the Toronto Insurance Conference, TIC’s president suggests.

TIC adopted its new moniker to “reflect the current makeup” the commercial broker’s organization, TIC president Rael Levy told members at a recent Toronto event.

One driver of the name change was to save TIC staff “from getting daily calls from vendors looking to buy space” at what they erroneously believe is at an upcoming conference, Levy added Aug. 1 during the launch of Data Exchange (D/X), an effort led by the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada.

A central goal of D/X is to eliminate the need for brokers to manually enter data twice – once in a broker computer system and a second time in an insurance carrier’s system.

TIC recently asked its members what they think “are the key things” they want TIC directors to focus on, Levy said, adding one was technology.

“It’s not only technology [but] technology was by far and away the topic that came up over and over again,” said Levy, who by day works in Toronto as assistant general counsel and director of government relations for Marsh Canada Limited.

“We need to push the technology filed forward,” Levy said. “We need to stop talking about it. We need to do it.’

For some TIC members, Levy suggested, their key concern “used to be the banks” and “used to be a lot of other things.”

Federal law prohibits Canadian banks from selling home and auto insurance in their bank branches and from linking directly from their banking sites to web pages through which consumers can buy home and auto insurance. The Bank Act is up for review next year and some brokers are concerned that banks will push to ease restrictions on their ability to sell property and casualty insurance at the point of credit.

TIC plans to mark its 100th anniversary with its 59th annual Black Tie Dinner – with astronaut Roberta Bondar scheduled as guest speaker – on Nov. 1 at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Toronto neighbourhood of Yorkville.

The D/X launch was hosted by TIC at Vantage Venues in downtown Toronto. DX is a set of principles IBAC developed around technology integration among brokers, carriers and other vendors.

The “next steps” of D/X include working groups, which IBAC hopes to have up and running this fall, said Michael Loeters, co-chair of the IBAC technology committee and past president of TIC, on Aug. 1 at the D/X launch.

IBAC intends to have a repository, or a “reusable data services library,” which would let carriers share application programming interfaces among themselves.