Zurich Group: Process standardisation with enhanced security and compliance

Ultimate data protection for insurance giant

Industry

Financial Services

Challenge:

Verify that data protection, business continuity and corporate governance arrangements meet the requirements of Zurich Group Germany

Solution:

Comprehensive audit of Iron Mountain records management facilities and processes conducted at regular intervals

Value:

• Data protection shown to comply with or exceed the most stringent standards
• Efficient retrieval of policies, claims and other key records
• Simpler, more robust record management approach

Fast, secure record retrieval

Iron Mountain® is the preferred off-site records management supplier to Zurich Group Germany. The relationship began when the insurance company decided to consolidate its paper document archive from eight service centres and four other storage locations.

Zurich Services GmbH runs the central support operation for Zurich Group Germany and is responsible for supplier selection.

Raphael Lamskemper, Head of Document Logistics, Germany, explains: “Logistics and storage arrangements needed to assure security and allow fast and accurate file retrieval. Iron Mountain convinced us it had all the right credentials and tabled a costeffective proposal.”

Highest codes of conduct, protecting over 500,000 files

Currently, Iron Mountain has custody of over a half-a-million individual files for Zurich Group Germany, arranged in more than 63,000 archive boxes. Many of those documents are insurance contracts and claims papers. As such the archive contains personal client information, so data protection is of the utmost importance.

“Data privacy is very important for the insurance business,” continues Raphael Lamskemper. “Zurich also has to ensure it has adequate business continuity arrangements and these extend to service providers like Iron Mountain.”

Applicable regulations include the Deutsches Handelsgesetzbuch (the German Commercial Code) and the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (the Federal Data Protection Act) issued by the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. The latter, in its current version, brings Germany into line with EU GDPR rules.

The code of conduct for the handling of personal data issued by The General Association of the German Insurance Industry is also included. Raphael Lamskemper says: “In terms of data privacy this even surpasses the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz.”

"Data protection was the key audit issue and Iron Mountain does it exceedingly well. We went away satisfied that everything is well organised. Processes work and our files are securely protected and in good hands. "

RAPHAEL LAMSKEMPER, HEAD OF DOCUMENT LOGISTICS, GERMANY, ZURICH SERVICES GMBH

Strict audit checks

To assure compliance, Zurich Group Germany conducts periodic audits of Iron Mountain facilities. The most recent involved a three-person team visiting an Iron Mountain records management centre for an entire day, to verify prior Iron Mountain answers to a comprehensive questionnaire.

The audit covered all aspects of the records management service including physical protection, access control, file storage, handling and disposal, as well as fire and burglary protection. It also extended to business continuity provisions and general corporate governance arrangements.

Passed with flying colours

“The whole process was analysed,” confirms Raphael Lamskemper. “The Iron Mountain people were very constructive and helpful and made every effort to provide satisfactory answers to our questions.”

Aspects reviewed included roles and responsibilities, training and instruction, and logging and tracking of file locations to safeguard data privacy at all times.

“Everything we saw corresponded to what Iron Mountain had said,” Raphael Lamskemper sums up. “Data protection was the key audit issue and Iron Mountain does it exceedingly well. We went away satisfied that everything is well organised. Special emphasis is placed on data protection. Processes work and our files are securely protected and in good hands.”