Description: The South African life insurance industry contains the largest life insurance market in Africa, it is highly sophisticated and highly regulated. In the years 2020 and2021, the industry suffered significant mortality losses due toCovid-19. What can we learn from this experience in South Africa?

Description: Composition of the new council and news about the International Section. Groupingactuaries living in different parts of the world and practicing in diverse areas of application of actuarial science, the International Section has sustained its relevancein a world that becomes more interconnected. The harmonization of solvency andconsumer privacy laws and regulations, and the establishment of international financial reporting standards, has prompted our Section to deliver content that helps complement the educational offer available from the Society of Actuaries. But actuaries around the world are enthusiastically tapping into predictive analytics, data science, and risk modeling. Accordingly, the SOA offers three certificate programs: • International Financial Reporting for Insurers (IFRI) • Predictive Analytics • Ethical & Responsible Use of Data

Description: As diversity and inclusivity are now more prevalent in the global insurance industry, the gender inequality gap has been narrowed, but there is still much to do in advancing women’s roles in leadership positions—and pay equity—in the global insurance sector. This article features an initiative by the Geneva Association, an insurance research think tank: recognize outstanding women in insurance. The Geneva Association's Women in Insurance Award is shining a light on executive-level women and their contributions to making insurance a force for good.

Description: This article relates the experience of a retired actuary's volunteer's work in a USAID/Farmer to Farmer program. he work was to review the IFRS accounting treatment of a non-profit foundation based in Colombia.

Description: Update of climate risk related governance and disclosure.

Description: Carlos Arocha, the 2022 Chair of the International Section Council, introduces the articles featured in the current newsletter issue. In addition, he highlights recent and planned activities undertaken by the section.

Description: In this third issue of International News in 2022, we feature a contribution by SCOR, a leading reinsurer, highlighting the Actuarial Awards that SCOR presents annually, since 1996, to the best academic work in actuarial science, with annual prizes in several countries throughout the world. We also feature an article by Jessica Leong, FCAS, on barriers that Asian women must overcome to become leaders. Jessica recounts her own experience and how in overcoming some challenges she became the first Asian president of the Casualty Actuarial Society.

Description: The Ecuadorian Actuarial Association (AEACT) was admitted, as a Full Member (FMA) of the International Actuarial Association (IAA) in October 2021. This constitutes a great achievement for a small country like Ecuador with 17 million inhabitants, a GDP of 100 billion U.S. dollars, and no more than 20 professional and registered actuaries. This important goal was a challenge both personally and for the team that worked hard to achieve it. I remember that it all began 28 years ago, when I attended as a guest to present a summary about the actuarial profession in our country at the World Congress of Actuaries that was held in Montreal, Canada. This congress was the opportunity to learn about the functions and activities of the associations of more developed countries with a significant number of actuaries and whose profession already had an acceptance in professional societies such as the Society of Actuaries in the United States, the Faculty of Actuaries of the United Kingdom, or the Institut des Actuaries of France.

Description: As insurance companies in many jurisdictions around the world are in the midst a major overhaul of financial reporting processes for insurance contracts, the question about tapping on the experience of Solvency II may help these companies to implement IFRS 17. There are a few similarities between IFRS 17 and Solvency II, most notably with respect to the economic balance sheet approach, or the probability-weighted cash flow discounting techniques that both methodologies require. In addition, both IFRS 17 and Solvency II imply as broad and profound impact on all aspects of how insurers conduct business, from valuation methodologies and governance, data, processes, and technology impacts. Changes in roles and responsibilities between actuarial and finance departments also represent a considerable business impact. However, in this article the author highlights the salient differences between IFRS 17 and Solvency II.

Description: Valerie Tsang and Jessica Kirkwood are both senior consultants with Ernst & Young LLP (EY UK) and Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) respectively, who also have something else in common—they both have recently moved to a new country and are now immersed in a different market. Here, they discuss the quick-changing landscape of actuarial work and regulations and the importance of being aware of the key issues both in the countries they work in and globally, as well as some of the differences they have seen between the UK and US markets.