Malaysia´s Lonpac Insurance Bhd has excellent credit ratings - AM Best

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 -- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (excellent) and Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of ‘a’ of Lonpac Insurance Bhd (Lonpac) Malaysia.

The stable outlook of these credit ratings reflects Lonpac’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best categorised as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

The global credit rating agency in a statement said, despite an elevated dividend payout ratio over the past five years, Lonpac has exhibited strong capital growth from retained earnings.

It has a typically conservative investment strategy with focus on cash and high-quality fixed interest securities, despite some concentration in invested assets to Malaysian financial institutions.

AM Best views Lonpac’s operating performance to be strong as the company reported a five-year average return on equity ratio of 34.2 per cent and combined ratio of 65.9 per cent (2014-2018).

The company continues to enhance its pricing and risk selection capabilities, as well as strengthen its distribution and product design; all aimed at maintaining strong underwriting and operating performance metrics.

As a mid-sized non-life insurer in Malaysia, Lonpac continues to benefit from a long-standing relationship with Public Bank Bhd, which provides the company with preferential access to profitable property business through the banking channel.

Despite slow premium growth in Malaysia’s non-life market over the past few years, the company has continued to increase its market share while maintaining good profitability.

More information at http://www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

YITU ATTENDED ICCV 2019 WITH SELF-DEVELOPED CLOUD AI CHIP, SHOWCASING INTEGRATED SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE STRENGTH

^{YITU AI chip QuestCore TM (Photo: Business Wire)}


SHENZHEN, China & SEOUL, South Korea, Nov 4 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- The 17^th International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV 2019) was convened in Seoul, South Korea this week. YITU Technology attended the conference with its latest researches. Known as the world’s top-notch computer vision conference, ICCV is held once every two years, of which the papers and topics manifest the highest research level and technical growth trend in the field of computer vision.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191101005240/en/

As a globally leading artificial intelligence company, YITU has been always standing at the frontier of AI innovations. From October 29^th to November 1^st, AI researchers from YITU present their up-to-date research findings and industrial practices at the ICCV 2019, including QuestCore^TM, a cloud AI chip developed by YITU, so as to communicate with and learn from a wider range of research communities.
 

“The peak of artificial intelligence algorithm performance has shifted from academia to industry,” said Dr. Yan Shuicheng, CTO of YITU, “Academia and industry need in-depth cooperation, to better boost increasing peak performance of the entire AI ecological algorithm.”

As a world-known scholar in computer vision and machine learning, Dr. Yan joined YITU in August this year, the company's strong R&D and engineering strength is one of the important reasons for him to join. Dr. Yan, as an IEEE Fellow, IAPR Fellow and ACM Distinguished Scientist, has published more than 600 papers in top international journals and conferences, with more than 40,000 citations, H-index 98.

YITU released its self-developed cloud AI chip QuestCore^TM in May, 2019. Integrated with its world-class AI algorithm and advanced chip design philosophy, it is so far the most intelligent and cost-effective video analysis chip in the world. This chip indicates a successful practice of YITU to follow the strong coupling trend between AI algorithms and chip design. Relevant achievements are also exhibited on ICCV 2019.

According to data from Tsinghua University, computer vision applications accounted for nearly 35% of the total artificial intelligence applications in 2019, and have become an important support for the development of various industries.

YITU is building the Visual Computing National New Generation Artificial Intelligence Open Innovation Platform, a national AI infrastructure, to align with the developers of algorithm, chip and product, and provide full chain optimization services covering algorithm, chip and entire tool chain.

“We will help to enhance the overall performance of visual computing smart industry solution,” said Dr. Yan Shuicheng. “Help to integrate development experience and domain knowledge, and promote industrial innovation and cooperation."

About YITU

YITU Technology is one of the few startups in the world that has pioneered many cutting-edge technologies in many critical Artificial Intelligent (AI) fields such as computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, intelligent decision-making and AI chips.

YITU Technology is dedicated to advancing breakthrough technologies in AI. Powered by world-class AI algorithms, YITU's self-developed AI chip QuestCore™ can be applied to a variety of scenarios to provide cost-effective and market-competitive solutions. YITU is the only company worldwide to be awarded championship in facial recognition vendor test three times by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as well as first place in the test hosted by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). YITU’s self-developed speech recognition technology has been tested to be best-in-class for the Mandarin language. Nature Medicine, a leading academic journal, published on YITU’s latest breakthrough in intelligent pediatric diagnostic technology based on NLP this February, which has been so far the highest-level paper in the field of artificial intelligence research in China.

Leveraging AI technology, YITU is empowering diverse industries. It provides world-leading innovative technologies and products in several sectors including Intelligent City, Smart Finance, Intelligent Healthcare, Smart Retail, AI Chips and AI Pharmaceuticals. YITU is so far the only AI company nationwide able to provide intelligent management technology in mega-cities and complex conditions.


View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191101005240/en/

Contact

Yitu Tech
Contact name: Alice Deng
Tel:021 - 52559588
Email:media@yitu-inc.com
Website: https://www.yitutech.com/en

Source : Yitu Tech

Halliburton only oilfield services company with ARTC membership

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 -- Halliburton Company has become an anchor member of the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Center (ARTC), led by Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research.

Halliburton is the only oilfield services company with membership in ARTC.

The membership will allow Halliburton to collaborate across industries with research and development projects that will advance next-generation technologies.

Halliburton will leverage the organisation’s pool of engineers and researchers to help drive the development of collaborative solutions that will increase value for customers.

Halliburton vice-president (Global Technology), Dr Sriram Srinivasan said: “We are excited about the possibilities to advance the way we complete oil and gas wells through harnessing the power of innovative ideas from outside our industry.”

According to ARTC chief executive officer Dr David Low, this partnership will allow ARTC to explore advanced manufacturing technologies that can transform the sector.

“With Halliburton onboard, I am optimistic that this will spark new opportunities for advanced manufacturing R&D in the energy sector and local enterprises in Singapore,” he said.

ARTC is a leading public-private partnership platform with over 70 members, ranging from global multinational corporations to small and medium enterprises.

ARTC focuses on advanced manufacturing and re-manufacturing, and serves to accelerate the transfer of innovation from applied research to industrial applications.

-- BERNAMA

THALES AND GROUND LABS COLLABORATE ON NEW DATA PRIVACY AND SECURITY SOLUTION

Partnership will remove data discovery complexity and accelerate achieving compliance amidst the growing number of privacy and data security regulations

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct 29 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Ground Labs, a global expert in sensitive data discovery, today announced a strategic partnership with Thales that will bring to market a more seamless way for organizations to discover and remediate sensitive data. The collaboration will create a unified solution that enables optimal data management and protection, and supports requirements from evolving compliance regulations including the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and HIPAA.

“Our partnership with Thales will introduce a solution that eases complexity and saves time in securing sensitive data, promoting compliance with global, regional and local privacy and data regulations. In turn, organizations will be able to rest assured that the best data management and protection tools are being applied to their most critical information,” said Don Kaye, chief revenue officer at Ground Labs. “We share a common mission to protect our customers, regardless of where they store their data. I believe this collaboration is a true testimony to the power and capability of Ground Labs’ technology, chosen by Thales to meet the needs of its customers and expand the capabilities of its industry-leading technology.”

“As data mobility increases and compliance regulations evolve, organizations must be able to quickly find and secure sensitive data wherever it resides,” said Todd Moore, vice president, encryption products for cloud protection and licensing activity, Thales. “All companies want to know where sensitive data is being created and stored across their business, and Thales delivers the ability to simplify data security throughout their IT infrastructure. We welcome Ground Labs into the Thales partner ecosystem, and are excited about the immediate value this new partnership will bring to our existing and new customers.”

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=35948

TOSHIBA'S NEW THREE-PHASE BRUSHLESS MOTOR CONTROL PRE-DRIVER IC FEATURES INTELLIGENT PHASE CONTROL AND CLOSED LOOP SPEED CONTROL

Toshiba: a three-phase brushless motor control pre-driver IC "TC78B027FTG" for applications such as high-velocity server fans. (Photo: Business Wire) TOKYO, Oct 29 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation ("Toshiba") today announced “TC78B027FTG,” a three-phase brushless motor control pre-driver IC with Intelligent Phase Control (InPAC) technology that enables optimum operating efficiency in applications such as high-velocity server fans, blowers and pumps. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191028005326/en/ In recent years, advances in server capacity and performance require larger and higher velocity fans for cooling the excess heat generated by the equipment. Similarly, small blowers, vacuums and pumps also operate with high-speed impellers that require high power capability. TC78B027FTG is a brushless motor controller with pre-driver that can drive a wide range of external MOSFETs to meet such challenges. TC78B027FTG features Intelligent Phase Control (InPAC) and Closed Loop Speed Control technologies. InPAC offers high-efficiency drive by synchronizing the phases of the driving voltage and current, thereby delivering maximum real power to the loads. This operation is usually not possible without some kind of compensation, which generally requires significant motor characterizations upfront and operation adjustments in real time to achieve the optimum efficiency throughout the speed range. InPAC, on the other hand, is an automatic function that requires initialization during design and therefore minimizes adjustment burdens and speeds up the development time. A closed loop speed control function regulates and maintains the motor rotational speed under dynamic power fluctuations and load variations, a valuable feature for mission-critical applications such as server fans and other cooling applications. Precise setting of a speed profile is done by the built-in non-volatile memory (NVM) and TC78B027FTG therefore eliminates the need for an external MCU for a closed loop speed control. TC78B027FTG solutions also simplify motor selections—TC78B027FTG requires only one Hall sensor input that can be used either with a single Hall sensor motor or the conventional 3 Hall sensors motors. The IC also employs either a Hall sensor analog or Hall IC digital signal for rotor position detection, which truly simplifies users’ motor selection tasks. http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=35936

FLYWIRE PROVIDES BANK OF AMERICA CLIENTS ENHANCED ACCESS TO CROSS-BORDER PAYMENTS AND RECEIPTS

Streamlines Cross-Border Transactions for the Bank’s Higher Education and Corporate Franchise

BOSTON, Oct 29 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Flywire today announced a new offering that streamlines the receipt of cross-border transactions for Bank of America’s higher education and corporate clients.

The solution simplifies the cross-border billing, payment and receipt process. In addition to providing international customers with foreign exchange rate transparency, the new offering enables international customers to remit funds via local payment methods.

Cross-border payments and receipts represent a growing portion of transactions for banks and their clients. This year, total cross-border remittances will exceed $22 trillion and are forecasted to increase to over $25 trillion by 2025¹. Despite this growth, many organizations can struggle with the cost and complexity of these transactions.

“Bank of America is always looking to meet the needs of our clients. One way we’re doing that is by enhancing our international payments and receipts offerings – that today extends to 140 currencies in more than 150 countries – by adding technological innovations and new trading and risk management solutions,” said Mike Robertson, global head of Transactional FX Trading at Bank of America. “By adding Flywire’s offering, our higher education and corporate clients will experience much less friction in processing cross-border transactions.” 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=35935

OTIP (ONTARIO TEACHERS INSURANCE PLAN) CHOOSES FINEOS CLAIMS TO MANAGE GROUP DISABILITY AND LIFE CLAIMS

DUBLIN, Oct 31 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- FINEOS Corporation Limited (ASX: FCL) the market-leading provider of group and individual core systems for life, accident and health insurance, today announced that OTIP, a not-for-profit organization that provides a full range of group and individual insurance products for educators – has chosen FINEOS Claims and FINEOS Payments to empower faster, easier and more efficient claims and payment processing for its group disability and life lines of business.

“We are looking forward to partnering with FINEOS on this project,” said Patricia Wilkinson-Bizjak, Vice-President of Corporate Affairs and Communications, OTP “We believe FINEOS provides the right fit for OTIP in terms of the capabilities it offers.”

Used by over 50 insurance organizations in the Life, Accident and Health space, FINEOS Claims is a best in class, customer centric, web-based claims processing software solution. FINEOS Claims supports group, voluntary and individual claims on a single platform and can be deployed by carriers of all sizes.

FINEOS Payments is a powerful benefit calculation and disbursement module that integrates with FINEOS Claims, FINEOS Absence and FINEOS Provider to help ensure accuracy and completeness while significantly reducing administrative costs. When integrated with FINEOS Claims, FINEOS Payments also addresses medical rehabilitation services, inpatient care/invasive surgery, social security advocacy services, and identification of beneficiaries on death benefit claims.

“We are delighted OTIP has chosen to work with FINEOS to enhance their claims process. We look forward to a fast and smooth system implementation to enable OTIP to gain the benefits of FINEOS as early as possible. This partnership continues to strengthen and consolidate our market leadership”, said Michael Kelly, CEO of FINEOS Corporation.

About FINEOS Corporation Ltd 

FINEOS is a market leader in core systems for life, accident and health insurance carriers globally with 6 of the 10 ten group life and health carriers in the US as well as 6 of the top 10 life and health carriers in Australia. With employees and offices throughout the world, FINEOS continues to scale rapidly, working with innovative progressive carriers in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

The FINEOS Platform provides customers full end to end core administration for group, voluntary and individual across life, accident and health. The FINEOS Platform includes the FINEOS AdminSuite core product suite as well as add-on products, FINEOS Engage to support digital engagement and FINEOS Insight for analytics and reporting.

For more information, visit www.FINEOS.com.

About OTIP 

Across all lines of insurance, OTIP provides coverage to more than 200,000 education employees in the province. Owned by Ontario's four education affiliates (AEFO, ETFO, OECTA and OSSTF/FEESO) and directed by a board of trustees, OTIP was built on the belief that educators would be better served by a not-for-profit insurance advocate that was part of the education community.

For more information, visit www.OTIP.com.

 

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191030005632/en/ 
 

Contact 

Victoria Jamison
Marketing Manager
FINEOS Corporation
+ 353 1 639 9700
victoria.jamison@FINEOS.com

Source : FINEOS Corporation Limited

--BERNAMA