Banking technologists look to booming insurance sector

Insurance firms' IT budgets only seem to get bigger and, as opportunities in investment banks shrink, technologists are increasingly looking at what jobs the industry has to offer.

Not only have insurance companies been investing in replacing their clunky legacy systems, they've increasingly been forced to invest in technology around the risk and compliance space, according to research from Datamonitor.

The firm surveyed 200 global insurers in the first half of this year, and 61% were planning on spending more on risk management and compliance systems into 2009. The recent problems with AIG have made this even more important, reckons Jonathan Steiman, analyst in the financial services technology team at Datamonitor.

"Next-generation risk management systems must be able to quickly capture and evaluate complex transactions in every corner of the enterprise," he says.

Regulation like Solvency II is also driving investment in technology within insurance firms, says Chris Potter, technology assurance partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"The Solvency II regulations require risk management to be embedded in the whole way the company operates, and clearly this has to be underpinned by appropriate technology systems."

And the number of technology roles in the space remains as robust as ever, Mark Delacey, managing director of insurance IT recruiter Highams Group, tells us.

"Companies have to continue to invest in technology, regardless of market conditions, because a lot of it is around legislation," he says. "We're seeing a good level of requirement in both temporary and permanent, and firms are still driving their projects forward."

Delacey adds that a growing number of technologists are looking to make the switch from banking to insurance.

Potter agrees: "The world has a lot more available banking technologists now than it did a year ago, so some of these will naturally look to the insurance sector."