The IAA is pleased to announce the creation of the Task Force on a Permanent Structure for International Actuarial Standards, which has been established by the Executive Committee (EC) of the IAA, under the leadership of Immediate Past President, Paul Thornton.

This is the third strand of activity initiated by the EC following the recommendations of the Task Force on Convergence of Actuarial Standards, which were broadly endorsed by the IAA Council in October 2010.

The first strand was the establishment of an Interim Actuarial Standards Subcommittee (IASSC) at the start of 2011, also reporting to the EC.

The IASSC’s charge is to deliver model International Actuarial Standards covering general actuarial practice, IFRS 4, IAS 19, social security calculations and enterprise risk management work; it is close to issuing an Exposure Draft on General Actuarial Practice.

At the same time, the EC set up a Task Force on Due Process to overhaul the current due process. This group reported its initial ideas to Council in April and, following a more in-depth discussion by Council this coming September, it is expected that a new due process will be adopted by IAA member associations before the end of the year.

The third strand of activity, which has deliberately been left until some progress had been made on the others, is to design a permanent structure for preparing model International Actuarial Standards. The Task Force is preparing some ideas for discussion with Council in September, with a view to bringing formal proposals to Council in 2012 for implementation from the beginning of 2013.

These three strands of activity demonstrate the IAA’s commitment to the impetus for convergence of international actuarial standards arising from the recent global financial crisis.

For more information on the work of the IAA on this topic, please contact the Secretariat for the attention of the Chairperson of the Task Force.