New Research From NelsonHall Indicates That the Emerging Life and Pensions Markets of China and India Offer Significant Opportunities for L&P BPO

LONDON and BOSTON, MA and KÖLN, GERMANY--(Marketwire - April 16, 2008) - NelsonHall, the leading independent BPO analyst firm, today announced the availability of its latest research titled, "Targeting Life & Pensions Insurance BPO," a global review of the L&P BPO market and buy-side requirements, authored by Charles Juniper, Insurance Sector Analyst at NelsonHall.

Juniper commented, "The geographic profile of the global L&P BPO market is set to see significant change with a major emphasis on supporting life companies in their efforts to establish a foothold in the emerging L&P markets of China and India. The L&P BPO market in China is forecast to more than triple in size by 2012."

In the mature L&P BPO market of the U.S. and U.K. the emphasis has moved from cost reduction as the primary goal towards an increasing customer service focus to drive new business growth and maximize the value of closed block business. The U.K. has seen most activity in the last five years and is currently the biggest geographic market. It is likely to see some consolidation amongst the U.K. life & pensions BPO providers. North America will overtake the U.K. to become the largest regional L&P BPO market by 2012 while growth in Continental Europe remains moderate at 11% CAGR. Some of the other key findings discussed in the report include:

--  The global L&P BPO market will grow by 14% CAGR up to 2012 to reach
    nearly $4Bn.
--  Following the success of BPO for closed block administration, the life
    industry is increasingly confident of BPO providers' ability to generate
    new revenues and support life company brands. The majority of L&P BPO
    activity will be open block by 2012.
--  There is an increasing opportunity for providers to undertake complex
    open block processing in sectors demanding high levels of customer service
    such as the high net-worth individuals or non-domiciled professionals
    segments.
--  A significant increase in the volume and complexity of activity that
    will be performed offshore will occur in the next two to three years with
    India remaining the strongly preferred location.
    

NelsonHall's study utilizes in-depth interviews with users and vendors to research key topics such as the major issues and buy-side requirements of life insurers, market size and growth as well as vendor offerings and go-to-market strategies. The report was written specifically for executives researching vendor capabilities before making purchasing decisions and market managers developing strategies to target segments of the L&P BPO market.

NelsonHall's "Targeting Life & Pensions Insurance BPO" report is available now as part of NelsonHall's Insurance Sourcing program. For more information about NelsonHall's services, please contact the following NelsonHall representatives:

Rob Hughes at rob.hughes@nelson-hall.com or call on (+44) 8707 705967

Tony West at tony.west@nelson-hall.com or call on (+1) 770 754 0272

About NelsonHall

Founded in 1998, NelsonHall is the leading global independent research analyst firm in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). The company provides buy-side and sell-side organizations with deeper research and analyses in major BPO disciplines than any other research firm in the world. These include Finance and Accounting, Human Resources, Procurement, Banking, Insurance, Government and Customer Management Services. The company's subscription-based model provides subscribers with robust market analyses, case studies, vendor assessments, contract analyses, market reports and access to a content-rich BPO contracts database. The firm covers a wide range of industries, including financial services, government and utilities sectors, and tracks worldwide and regional BPO activity. For more information on NelsonHall, please visit www.nelson-hall.com.