Description: The Society of Actuaries (“SOA”) Research Institute is the research arm of the SOA, providing objective, data-driven research that brings together tried and true practices and future-focused approaches to address societal challenges and business needs. The Institute provides trusted knowledge, extensive experience and new technologies to help effectively identify, predict and manage risks.

Description: This paper evaluates the current practice of operational risk management in the insurance sector. Operational risk is nothing new in insurance, but, because of regulatory requirements, companies have initiated computation of risk capital for their operational losses. The current effort to manage operational risk is not a naturally evolving phenomenon, and operational risk, in the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Basel II definition, is unlikely to be a significant cause of insurers’ failure. In addition, the current Basel II definition of operational risk is not suitable for the insurance sector. Consequently, the invention of models and tools based on the definition is incomplete and illusionary. My findings are based on the analysis of dozens of interviews with insurance industry professionals. I demonstrate the way operational risk is quantified in practice, show that the result obtained from this computation is of littl e use in managerial decision making and propose a set of policy recommendations illustrating the characteristics of operational risk in insurance. This study can be used as a platform for launching dialogues to initiate fresh thinking about operational risk in insurance beyond the current artificial and narrow boundaries.

Description: The Research Executive Committee (REC) of the SOA Research Institute oversees the funding of the Emerging Issues Pool. This key source of research funding is used to sponsor projects that are beneficial to the entire profession, across practice area boundaries that may require funding levels beyond the normal annual funding budgets of research committees and sections. The REC is issuing this Request for Proposals (RFP) to fulfill the strategic goals of the organization through the use of this pool for funding new projects.

Description: A research report that examines the effect of ERM adoption on a firm’s corporate reputation.

Description: Profile of an actuary in a non-traditional actuarial role: focusing on medical cost and analysis, both retrospective and prospective.

Description: In September 2017, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) issued the “C-ROSS Phase II project construction plan”, planned to be used across three years’ time, by perfecting the regulations, improving the operational mechanism and strengthening the regulatory cooperation.

Description: In recent years, China's aging population is worsening, the fertility rate is decreasing year by year, the dependency ratio is increasing day by day, the people's diversified pension needs are increasing day by day. In order to actively participate in the construction of multi-level and multi-pillar pension insurance system, steadily promote the reform and development of pension finance, and serve the people's diversified pension needs, commercial pension insurance, as the third pillar, is in urgent need of rapid development. This speech analyzed the future prospect and strategic position of pension from three dimensions of industry development, company development and continuous demand of customers. It also discussed how to develop the third pillar pension insurance rapidly from three aspects: national policy, individual pension consciousness and channel cognition.

Description: This paper uses the ideal quasi-natural experiment of government-subsidized agricultural insurance program phased out in different regions of China since 2007 to study the effects and transmission mechanisms of the program on alleviating regional poverty using a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach. Specifically, this paper identifies the causal effects on the incidence, depth and intensity of poverty among rural residents. The research has important policy implications. First, this paper uses the program as a case to provide a research paradigm to estimate effects of implementing policy instruments that combine markets and government mandates. Second, as common prosperity is now a government imperative, the research also provides insights into ways insurance can be used to hedge income risks, alleviate poverty and help achieve more equitable distribution. The paper has been published on WeChat account of Chinese Association of Actuaries on February 9, 2022. The full version has been published in CSSCI journal Insurance Research, issue 11, 2021.

Description: The implementation and execution of IFRS17 requires the insurance industry to re-define the skill set matrix of Actuary, Accountant and IT practitioner. Professionals with the ability to, 1. understand the business context of IFRS17, 2. gain insight from complex actuarial & accounting & data system 3. communicate technical content in a compelling way, will be the key players of the future Finance function of the insurance industry. They will also become the foundation of the new formations of IFRS17 delivery team containing hybrid or cross functional capabilities. This presentation will discuss: 1. the new skills, ranging from account posting to data governing, required by actuaries to stay relevant in a digitalized Finance function under the IFRS17 world 2. the actuarial related roles available within an E2E IFRS17 reporting process 3. the potential formation of the IFRS17 reporting team

Description: This article highlights the significant steps being taken by the UK actuarial profession to establish a more focused role in risk management.