At the June, 2011 general meeting of the AFIR/ERM (Actuarial Approach for Financial Risks) section in Madrid, the membership affirmed a major expansion of the scope of the IAA section to now include Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) along with continuing the original focus on financial risks. To emphasize this change, the section has taken on a new name, AFIR/ERM.

“The goal of this initiative is to expand the discussion on market risk issues and provide a strong home for international discussion and research on ERM topics. It is a reflection of the expanding and developing role of ERM in actuarial practice and the IAA efforts to provide support for this growing area of actuarial practice. It is a natural extension and many ERM papers and topics have been presented at past AFIR/ERM colloquia. In particular, the most recent AFIR/ERM prize-winning paper was on an ERM topic. The concept has been warmly supported by the AFIR/ERM committee and the IAA.” Eric Thorlacius, AFIR/ERM Chairperson

AFIR/ERM has amended its primary objective to be “the promotion of actuarial research in enterprise risk management and particularly financial risk fields, to push forward the boundaries of actuarial knowledge and to promote and facilitate an international exchange of views, advice, research and practical information among actuaries and other experts involved in these fields”.

AFIR/ERM was founded in 1988 and operates under Rules adopted by the IAA Council. It is one of seven (7) specialty Sections of the IAA offering services to individuals and currently has 1252 members. Additional information about the AFIR/ERM Section, including how to join, are available on their website at www.iaa-afir.org.

For more information on the work of the AFIR/ERM Section, please contact the Secretariat for the attention of the Chairman.