Lack of initiative, skills cited as barriers to data exchange.

The full establishment of electronic data exchange in the insurance industry is being held up by the hesitation of key participants, a lack of qualified people, and barriers to the creation of common standards, according to Christoph Bitzer, chief business engineer in the property and casualty division of Swiss Re Group.

Bitzer told a conference on Electronic Trading Platforms for Insurance in London's Insurance Hall that the data processing in the global insurance sector is still largely manual.

Swiss Re learned to its cost that change can't be driven by even a very determined reinsurer, Bitzer said. "We do not control the flow of business," he said.

Swiss Re's own experiences with acquisitions over the past few years have given it a sense of the legacy and migration issues that other large organizations have confronted, Bitzer said. He noted the struggle that went on within Swiss Re just to get agreement on in-house standards between Europe and North America.

Bitzer said the banking industry has demonstrated that migration issues can be managed through determined effort. "We are going to have a data highway," he said.

Reinsurers and insurers should work to make brokers more confident about the possibilities of information technology, Bitzer said. A major selling point is the cost savings that would result from smoother administration. No longer would contracts be held up by lengthy back-and-forth discussions over details.

"I think we should also look at trying to integrate as much of the value chain as possible," Bitzer said.