18th Global Conference of Actuarie

Actuaries’ torchbearers of trust’; should ensure customer centricity – IRDA Chairman 

18^th Global Conference of Actuaries begins; delegates deliberate on building growth
momentum

Mumbai, February 01, 2016: The 18^th Global Conference of Actuaries (GCA) organised by the Institute of Actuaries of India (IAI) was inaugurated with a key note address by Mr. T. S. Vijayan, Chairman IRDA. With the governments across the world introducing reforms to sustain and push growth, the forum provides a platform to discuss the opportunities and challenges that arise due to changing economic and business landscape.

Inaugurating the conference, IRDA Chairman Mr. T.S. Vijayan spoke on how actuarial profession is at the forefront of building the trust in the insurance industry in general and customers in particular.

“We have to get a better deal for the customers. The industry has seen close to rupees 25 lakh crores invested by the customers. This is due to the trust and commitment reposed by the customers in the industry. Trust is not a onetime affair; it has to be renewed every time. Actuaries have a great responsibility to ensure that we remain trusties of the customers through the changes in technology, products as well as regulations,” said Mr. T.S. Vijayan.

Mr. Vijayan also reposed his faith in the Indian insurance industry to grow at a much faster pace than experienced currently.

“The Asian markets have recorded a real growth of 6.5 percent, emerging markets grew at 7.4 percent, and advanced countries grew by 2.9 percent while India could only grow at 1.8 percent in 2014-15. In this year we should be able to make up for the growth and industry need to identify which are the things relevant for capturing customer’s mind and wallet share,” said Mr. T.S. Vijayan.  

Rajesh Dalmia, President of Institute of Actuaries of India, the organizers of the Global Conference of Actuaries, discussed the developments in the Indian actuarial profession and outlined the strategies to ensure the development of the talent pool to support industry’s growth.

“Actuaries as a profession are in great demand, but there is a shortage of about 40,000 actuaries globally while we have around 70,000 working actuaries globally. Our institute’s fellow membership stands at 300, and have close to 35 newly qualified actuaries this year, our aim is to take this number to 100 newly qualified actuaries each year” said Mr. Rajesh Dalmia.

IAI believes that in the changing economic scenario, actuarial services could be utilised in other industries as well.

Dilip Chakraborty, Chairman, 18^th GCA Organizing Group commented: “We are facing shortage of opportunities for student and part qualified actuaries. As more actuaries qualify, we need to go out to non-traditional business such as banking industry, where actuarial expertise is needed, to be able to grow the profession. This will require the support of the Regulators”.

The programme covers four plenary sessions and fifteen concurrent sessions, providing insights into the current Issues related to the actuarial profession & industry. The concurrent sessions cover Life Insurance, General Insurance, Health Insurance, Pension & Employee Benefits, Data Sciences & ERM & Pension.

The GCA is organised annually since 1999 and is a major event attracting stakeholders in the insurance and financial sectors including actuaries and non-actuaries. Since the 13th GCA in Feb, 2011, the event has been launched on the global scale, attracting international audience. Apart from IFoA, UK, Society of Actuaries (SOA), USA and Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), USA are also participating in this event. It may be further noted that Institute has recently agreed on MRA with CAS.

T.S. Vijayan, Chairman, IRDA, India, Dilip Chakraborty, Chair – 18th GCA Organising Group, India,Thomas Mathew, MD & CEO, RGA Services Pvt. Ltd., Rajesh Dalmia, President – Institute of Actuaries of India, Bob Miccolis, Board Chair/ Past President, CAS, US, Allan O’ Bryant, EVP, & Head of Asia RGA, USA and Sanjeeb Kumar VP, IAI India, were some of the eminent panellists who participated in the inaugural session of the 18^th GCA.

Having underscored the message that the actuarial profession is a custodian of customer’s trust, the 18^th GCA is truly a global event having witnessed participation of over 726 delegates from 16 countries.

About: Institute of Actuaries of India is a statutory body established under The Actuaries Act 2006 (35 of 2006) for regulation of profession of Actuaries in India. IAI organises Global Conference of Actuaries (GCA) annually since 1999, with growing participation from key stakeholders in the Insurance and Financial Services Sector across India and the international actuarial community. Delegates from the Institute of Actuaries of UK, USA, South Africa, International Actuarial Associations, IASB, CAS, International Association of Insurance supervisors (IAIS), IRDA and all insurance and reinsurance companies in India will participate in the conference.