JERSEY CITY, NJ, May 15, 2002 — Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) has launched its new Automobile-Property Loss Underwriting Service (A-PLUSTM) database to provide insurers, brokers and agents comprehensive automobile loss information, so they can make more informed decisions in underwriting commercial and personal auto policies.
The new auto loss-history database complements the property loss-history data available for underwriting purposes from the A-PLUS database.
The new auto database provides insurers and other users a wide array of additional automobile underwriting reports from other ISO databases and third-party providers with whom ISO has established business relationships and licensing agreements. These reports provide underwriters a crucial decision-making tool to assess risks accurately prior to writing automobile policies.
The new service offerings include information on motor vehicle report data, drive-to-work distance from home, ISO rating territory, vehicle rating symbols with Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) decoding, auto claims records, credit history and credit score reports and undisclosed driver information not furnished by auto insurance applicants.
The A-PLUS information is provided through ISO PassportSM, ISO's enterprise-based delivery system that supports Internet access, mainframe-to-mainframe interactive capability and batch processing. ISO Passport leverages advanced search technology to access and retrieve information — no matter where it resides — faster and more efficiently, offering users one-stop shopping for all their underwriting data.
"Insurers, brokers and agents will use this new decision-making tool for the breadth of its underwriting information, the quality of its technology, the speed of its searches and its ease of use," said Steven Craig, general manager of A-PLUS
ISO information available from the new A-PLUS auto service includes:
- Motor vehicle report (MVR) data used by insurance agents and brokers at the point-of-sale for rating, assessing risk and underwriting of personal auto policies. MVR information is also used to determine driving eligibility for commercial vehicle operators;
- ISO's Geographic Underwriting System (GUS®) information on drive-to-work distance from the applicant's residence and ISO rating territory;
- ISO's VINMASTERTM information to identify an automobile's current ISO Vehicle Series Rating (VSR) symbol; and
- More than 150 million claim records from the A-PLUS auto database for broader searches into existing or prospective insured's claims activity, collected from nearly 700 contributing data providers.
Non-ISO information available through ISO Passport consists of credit reports and credit score reports, as well as undisclosed driver information to help identify potential drivers not furnished at the time of the application or policy renewal.
For more information on A-PLUS, contact Steven Craig at (201) 469-3174, or by e-mail: scraig@iso.com.
ISO is a leading source of information, products and services related to property and liability risk. For a broad spectrum of commercial and personal lines of insurance, ISO provides statistical, actuarial, underwriting and claims information and analysis; consulting and technical services; policy language; information about specific locations; fraud-identification tools; and data processing. In the United States and around the world, ISO serves insurers, reinsurers, agents, brokers, self-insureds, risk managers, and insurance regulators and other government agencies.
Release: Immediate
Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com