Description: Actuarial activity in Azerbaijan commenced in 2008 with the enactment of the insurance law. The Actuarial Association of Azerbaijan was created in that year. The insurance law prescribes an official roster of actuaries who qualify after passing an exam. There is also the position of “appointed actuary” who reports directly to the board of directors of the insurance company. However, due to the relatively fast development of the insurance market, there is an urgent need of qualified actuaries. Actuaries Without Borders and the International Actuarial Association have thus helped in the capacity building process. This article describes the workshop that was held in Baku, in December 2019.

Description: Model Risk Management continues to be an evolving area for insurers to be considering. This has grown from both internal and external forces and may require a different format to previous model risk frameworks held by insurers. Furthermore, there are a number of trends emerging that we believe will drive an increased focus on insurer’s model risk management frameworks such as technology automation, ever increasing data sources, and the use of predictive models. Risk management and the development of models is an area where insurance companies have performed well in the past. It is expected that frameworks currently exist within companies; the governance, documentation, validation and control of model risk are likely to be well established practices. The challenge that insurers must consider is how well these have been adopted throughout the company for all models used to make business decisions and if the same level of rigor has consistently been applied. Regulation in a high-velocity actuarial environment will to be a challenge that actuaries must spearhead and must be proactive in guiding rule making to ensure continued innovation while putting data security and risk management first.

Description: Update of climate risk related governance and disclosure.