Association News

June 2017

Deutsche Aktuarvereinigung, Germany

New board elected at Annual Meeting 2017 in Berlin
The DAV and its scientific partner organization DGVFM hosted their Annual Meeting from April 26–28. Besides a diverse actuarial program for all seven sections—including the newly founded section Actuarial Data Science—the topic of demographic change was addressed in the public part of the General Assembly. Furthermore, the General Assembly of the DAV elected Roland Weber as President and Dr. Guido Bader as Vice-President. Dr. Wilhelm Schneemeier will act as Past President. The elections of the DGVFM confirmed Prof. Dr. Ralf Korn as President. Prof. Dr. Angelika May and Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Zwiesler will continue to serve in the office of Vice-Presidents.

New standard IFRS 17 released
The International Accounting Standards Board issued a new standard for insurance contracts, International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17. It will be implemented on January 1, 2021, and follows IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts. DAV President Roland Weber appreciates the new international standard because it ensures comparability of different companies and the insurance industry in whole. He said: “Even though it was a long process of development, the new standard is groundbreaking. For the first time, there are accounting standards consistently all over the world covering all national characterized insurance products of IFRS users.”

First announcement of solvency ratios
Like all European insurance companies, German insurers published their solvency ratios under Solvency II up to May 22. Solvency II requires a ratio of at least 100 percent, i.e., the insurance companies need to provide sufficient capital cover for the 200-year event. During an introductory period of 16 years, there is the possibility of using transitional measures in order to facilitate the introduction of Solvency II. DAV Vice-President Dr. Guido Bader said that the first solvency ratios of different insurance companies cannot be compared directly because not all of the companies use transitional measures. Furthermore, the solvency ratios presented by German life and health insurance companies are very volatile because they are strongly correlated with capital market developments.

EAA – European Actuarial Academy GmbH

Understanding IFRS 17 Seminars—Zagreb in September and Lisbon in October
IFRS 17 (previously known as IFRS 4, Phase II) will fundamentally change the way insurance companies present their obligations and their financial performance stemming from insurance contracts. The goal of these two-day seminars is to provide participants with a comprehensive introduction to the new measurement and presentation and disclosure guidance for insurance contracts. It will cover life and non-life business, including the special guidance on direct participating contracts.

Additional information and a registration form will be available soon on the EAA website. 

CERA, Module B: Taxonomy, Modelling and Mitigation of Risks
The EAA is one of the main providers of actuarial education—especially when it comes to ERM, a concept that has gained significant momentum in the insurance industry and beyond.

We offer a series of four training courses and exams (through the DAV) to all actuaries who want to deepen their knowledge of ERM and gain the international ERM credential CERA.

The CERA, Module B seminar focuses on quantitative analyses of financial and non-financial risks of an insurance company and the effect and possible applications of risk mitigation techniques. After an introduction to the economic valuation of an insurance company, including stochastic valuation models and approximation techniques for life companies, and the building blocks of its economic balance sheet, the risk measure and the relevant regulatory requirements of Solvency II will be discussed. Concepts of risk modelling from standard formulas to internal models will be presented.

The seminar is open to those interested in obtaining comprehensive skills in ERM. Understanding the business model of an insurance company (life and non-life) is a prerequisite for participants. Basic knowledge of deterministic and stochastic valuation models as well as value-based management is recommended.

Please register on our website. Additional information and registrations forms are available here.

American Academy of Actuaries, U.S.

Webinar Highlights Progress in Actuaries Climate Index
On May 18 the American Academy of Actuaries (AAA) hosted a complimentary webinar on the Actuaries Climate Index (ACI), providing an overview of the jointly sponsored project that kicked off last November. It looked at the ACI’s components and future plans, and offered an introduction to the Actuaries Climate Risk Index.

The AAA and the three other sponsoring organizations in the United States and Canada—the CIA, CAS and SOA—updated the ACI in March with the most recent spring and summer 2016 data, which showed it reached the third-highest seasonal level recorded, with an index value of 1.72 standard deviations above the norm. The five-year moving average stands at 1.03.

During the webinar, Jim MacGinnitie, the Academy’s senior casualty fellow and a past president of the IAA, said: “The stakeholders have dedicated a lot of effort in developing the indices over the past several years and have made multiple presentations to their members, as well as the Academy and CIA making presentations to public policy stakeholders in their respective countries . . . [including] in front of regulators, legislators, and government agencies.”

More than 800 participants attended the webinar on the ACI, which is based on an analysis of quarterly seasonal data for six different components collected from data starting in 1961. Each of the sponsoring organizations had a speaker provide part of the update and introduction to the ACI.
Jim urged attendees to take several steps, including:

• Learn and follow measures of changing climate;
• Distinguish between changes in climate and changes in weather;
• Follow changes of climate over time and estimate how risk distributions change;
• Translate global risk distribution changes into their impact on local situations; and
• Estimate the impacts of change on exposures at risk in various locations.

He added: “As climate changes over time, the distribution of risk profiles changes as a result—actuaries will need to learn how to take that into account in their projections, in their pricing and in their strategic considerations.”

Slides and audio are available on the Academy’s webinar page.

Casualty Actuarial Society, U.S.

CAS announces winners of university award program
Three universities were selected as recipients of the 2017 CAS University Award, an honour recognizing schools doing exemplary work in preparing students for a career in the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry. The schools honored were Ball State University, St. John’s University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The selection process was extremely competitive, with 17 schools throughout North America and Asia submitting applications. Winners were determined by a panel of judges from companies across the P&C industry. The winning schools will be recognized at the 2017 CAS Annual Meeting from November 5–8, 2017 in Austin, TX, U.S. 

Casualty Loss Reserve Seminar (CLRS) to be held in Philadelphia
With more than 50 different sessions and pre-Seminar workshops on current issues in loss reserving, the CLRS is the premier educational event for P&C insurance professionals engaged in estimating unpaid claims. The 2017 CLRS, sponsored by the CAS and AAA, is scheduled for September 10–12 in Philadelphia, PA, U.S. More information is available here.

CAS Institute invites experienced practitioners to apply for its Certified Specialist in Predictive Analytics (CSPA) Credential
The CAS Institute (iCAS), a new subsidiary of the CAS offering specialty credentials for quantitative professionals, is inviting experienced practitioners to apply for its CSPA credential. In addition, iCAS membership is open to all interested professionals in advanced analytics and data science. See the iCAS website for details.

For more information on these announcements and other CAS news, visit the CAS website.

Society of Actuaries, U.S.

30 years in Nankai and SOA/CIA educational partnership
The SOA will hold two symposia in Asia this month and next month, and is celebrating an important anniversary with Nankai University in China. In Canada, the SOA and the CIA signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in May. 

The SOA China Annual Symposium will take place from June 29–30 in Shanghai, China. Presenters from a variety of industries will explore issues in financial environments, insurance regulation, IFRS management, product development, asset-liability management and investment. Renowned Chinese economist Sheng Songcheng is scheduled to be a keynote speaker, and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission’s director general of finance and accounting, Dr. Yulong Zhao, will also be a keynote speaker on the subject of C-ROSS.

The 2017 SOA Asia–Pacific Annual Symposium will take place from July 6–7 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with the theme Beyond Traditions – A World of Opportunities

On July 3, the SOA and Nankai University in Tianjin are celebrating 30 years of collaborating to expand actuarial education at the university. In October 1987, the SOA Board of Governors unanimously passed a resolution approving a proposal for the society to assist in establishing an actuarial science program at Nankai. Today, the university offers undergraduate and master’s degrees for its actuarial programs. SOA President-Elect Mike Lombardi, executive director Greg Heidrich, senior director (Asia and Latin America) Ann Henstrand, staff fellow Stuart Klugman, Harry Panjer and lead China representative Jessie Li will attend the event organized by the university. Harry was SOA President from 2002–2003, and both he and Stuart were visiting professor participants in the original program.

The CIA and SOA have signed an MoU providing for future collaboration and cooperation on the education of actuarial candidates. This agreement builds upon and extends the CIA–SOA relationship of many years.

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