INTERAMERICAN chooses SAS to expand personal data protection

Greek insurance leader extends data governance solution for General Data Protection Regulation compliance

In the insurance industry, trust is crucial to maintaining loyal customers. And with just under a year before the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect, there is a spotlight on personal data and security. To help provide that customer data is securely managed, INTERAMERICAN, a leading insurance provider in Greece, has expanded its relationship with SAS.

The new solution, SAS® for Personal Data Protection, supports INTERAMERICAN’s strategic focus of transforming itself into a digital-only insurer. SAS will also be vital in helping give customers peace of mind that their personal data will be safe from potential breaches. This solution is part of a broader data governance initiative in which INTERAMERICAN and SAS have partnered to improve the insurance company's policies and procedures in terms of the availability, completeness and accuracy of the information and data being managed.

SAS^® for Personal Data Protection benefits

The existing technological infrastructure, combined with the integrated SAS solution, significantly enhances INTERAMERICAN’s efforts to comply with GDPR. It provides the following capabilities:

• The establishment of privacy rules regarding data ownership and how the data relates to other factors within the organization.
• The ability to locate where personal customer data resides across the organization.
• The ability to establish what is considered personal data, who within the organization can have access to the data, and the recording of all user activity around the data.
• The ability to know the history and origins of personal data records.
• The assessment and evaluation of exposure to risk due to specific use of data.
• The ability to record when a security breach occurs, which supports the directive that an independent authority be notified when breaches occur.

“This is a textbook case where a pre-existing data governance framework has been extended to help address GDPR compliance requirements,” said Olivier Penel, Data Management Business Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at SAS. “But the investment goes far beyond compliance, and truly creates the foundation of better customer relationships based on trust, enhancing the possibilities to use personal data for better customer engagement and decision making.”

Xenophon Liapakis, CIO of INTERAMERICAN  said, "Our organization is working to transition to the new digital age and create long-term, trust-based relationships with our customers. To meet the new General Data Protection Regulation challenge in a timely way, we have chosen SAS to provide an integrated, end-to-end solution. SAS for Data Protection will help us work towards compliance with the requirements of the new regulation and foster customer trust.” 

“INTERAMERICAN is an organization that strives for constant innovation to strengthen its competitive position by choosing cutting-edge technology,” added Nikos Peppas, Country Manager for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria at SAS. “By investing in SAS for Personal Data Protection, we are sure that INTERAMERICAN will be able to respond successfully to not just the GDPR challenge, but to the many new challenges that arise in the digital age.”

About INTERAMERICAN

INTERAMERICAN is the largest private insurance company in Greece, and the second largest in the entire Greek market. The company has been a leader in the Greek market for more than 45 years, where it is active in all insurance sectors. It offers products and services that are widely recognised for their innovation, and was the company that introduced direct insurance in Greece, changing the face of the market.

In the healthcare sector, INTERAMERICAN created the first private health insurance system, MEDISYSTEM. It is the only insurance company with its own state-of-the art infrastructure in the fields of healthcare (Athinaiki Mediclinic, Medifirst Multi-Clinic) and emergency assistance (road assistance vehicles, ambulances, etc.). As far as assistance services are concerned, INTERAMERICAN ranked first among insurance companies, handling 431,000 incidents in 2016.

It currently has more than 1,000,000 private and business customers.

It is a member of the ACHMEA Group, a top European group with over 200 years of experience, and the leading health insurance service provider in Europe.