News Releases

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ACE European Group (ACE)(NYSE:ACE) is continuing to enhance its e-commerce offerings to UK brokers with the launch of a more streamlined Professional Indemnity (PI) product on imarket.

ACE specific standards relating to risk for PI have been reduced by 50 per cent on the trading portal. This move will simplify the quote request process, reduce administration time and help brokers to cut costs.

“imarket already has an important role to play in reducing brokers’ costs through recouped administration time,”says said Mark Whitehead, ACE European Group’s e-Commerce Manager.

“Since the original PI product on imarket was launched in September 2006, ACE has been working with a number of brokers and listening to the feedback they’ve been giving us. We’ve responded swiftly and will continue to focus on improving our offering via the portal to help drive broker efficiency and use of this trading solution.”

PI from ACE spans a range of professions and has been designed for small businesses and sole traders with revenue up to £350,000 a year.

ACE now offers a range of products including PI, D&O and ComputerGuardPlus through a number of e-commerce channels. For further information, please contact Mark Whitehead at ACE; tel 020 7173 7342.

Notes to editors:

ACE

ACE European Group has established branch offices in 17 countries across Europe, Freedom of Services permission to provide insurance services to clients in 27 EEA countries and affiliates in Egypt, Bahrain, Pakistan and Russia.

ACE European Group comprises the operations of ACE Europe, ACE Global Markets and ACE Tempest Re Group. ACE Europe provides a range of tailored Property and Casualty, Accident and Health and Personal Lines solutions for a diverse range of clients. ACE Global Markets (AGM) is ACE’s specialty international business, underwriting through ACE’s Lloyd’s Syndicate 2488 and ACE European Group Limited. Specialty lines include excess and surplus lines business, Marine, Aviation, Energy and Political Risk as well as Property, Financial Lines and Accident and Health. Additional information on ACE European Group can be found atwww.aceeuropeangroup.com.

The ACE Group of Companies is a global leader in insurance and reinsurance serving a diverse group of clients. Headed by ACE Limited (NYSE: ACE), a component of the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, the ACE Group conducts its business on a worldwide basis with operating subsidiaries in more than 50 countries. Additional information can be found at: www.acelimited.com

imarket

• Eight insurers and two underwriting agencies are members of imarket: ACE European Group, Allianz Cornhill, AXA, Groupama, NIG, Norwich Union, Royal & SunAlliance and Zurich, and the two underwriting agencies iPrism and the commercial underwriting agency business managed by PBS Holdings, a member of the Global Primary Group.
• Six software houses are partners of imarket: Acturis, CDL, Insurecom, Open G I, Sirius and Software Solutions Partners.
• 2,600 broking firms are currently registered to use imarket, and this number continues to grow. The portal is free to use for brokers.
• Polaris U.K. Limited is owned by insurers and brokers. Its objective is to make the intermediated marketplace more cost-effective and efficient by providing infrastructural technologies. Polaris supplies industry data standards, both EDI and XML, software to define insurance products (ProductWriter and Run Time Environment) and imarket, the industry portal linking brokers and insurers.
• imarket offers significant advantages for brokers and insurers alike. These include:
  • Time and cost savings: brokers can obtain a wide range of product information, and communicate and trade with all participating insurers from a single point of access. This avoids the need to navigate multiple insurer sites, leads to dramatic time and cost savings, and improves accuracy.
  • Security: all broker requests and insurer responses are handled via a secure email system.
  • Commercial opportunities: insurers benefit by being able to deliver improved levels of service to brokers and by being able to showcase new services and products to a rapidly-expanding UK broker community. Brokers benefit by being able to offer a more prompt and responsive customer service.
  • Convenience: brokers can access imarket from within their existing IT systems.