April 27, 2011 - HSBC's UK insurance business has selected IBM to help it develop and roll out a business analytics system ahead of upcoming European Solvency II legislation.

The EU's Solvency II directive is designed to strengthen protection for insurance policyholders, requiring providers to understand the risks inherent in their business and allocate sufficient capital to cover them.

With firms needing to implement economic risk management standards by 31 December 2012, HSBC has chosen Big Blue's technology to create a data management and analytics model.

The system will provide a store for HSBC's risk and solvency modelling data and will permit the bank to demonstrate quality, availability and traceability of all key regulatory information and associated reporting.

IBM says the new database will produce both fact-based insight and secure evidence of risk and solvency related decisions. The vendor's business analytics software will enable users to view modelled results data, adapt and enrich reports to meet their needs and distribute them as required.

John Smith, insurance business solutions partner, global business services, UK and Ireland, IBM, says: "Managing risk is one of the most important missions of a financial institution. Working with HSBC, IBM is creating a system that will provide the most stringent safeguards for the insurer, its shareholders and customers."