OCTOBER 2, 2017 • HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL | 23
Tech-driven
Katharine Wade, commissioner of the state Insurance Department, agreed
that technology is increasingly important in the industry.
"Companies today are using big data and other technology to better
understand their risks and to develop new products, services and delivery
platforms that meet the needs of the insurance-buying public," she said in
an email interview.
Wade also said that the technology driving innovation has pushed her
department to keep pace to make sure "consumers are protected and that
the carriers understand the risk they are taking and are taking appropriate
measures to mitigate risk."
That issue of risk is what is driving insurance employment growth in the
state, according to Winkler.
"Jobs associated with underwriting and risk are growing in Connecticut.
The jobs that require thoughtful projections and an understanding of risk
are very much in demand as a result of what was additional regulations
imposed on the industry from the Great Recession."
Dodd-Frank and Obamacare
Those additional regulations came mostly from two 2010 pieces of federal
legislation: the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Dodd-Frank, named in part for Connecticut's longtime Democratic Sen.
Chris Dodd, was passed in response to the 2008 Great Recession, which
sent shockwaves throughout the nation's economy as well as through the
financial services sector in Connecticut.
In particular, The Hartford Financial Services Group received a $3.8-billion
government bailout under the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2009 to
help stabilize the company after investments it had made tanked when
the market crashed. The company has since paid back the money and
restructured and simplified its business model.
Even low-risk Hartford Steam Boiler got caught up in the after effects of the
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Chris Swift is the CEO of The Hartford, which remains a major
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