World’s actuaries to conduct global crisis post mortem in SA

The financial markets crisis and its lessons and long-term implications are topics high on the agenda for the more than 1 000 actuaries from around the globe who will converge on Cape Town early next year for the annual International Congress of Actuaries.

The five day Congress, to be held in Africa for the very first time, is organised by the International Actuarial Association together with the actuarial representative body of the host country, in this case the Actuarial Society of South Africa. The Congress takes place from 8 to 12 March next year.

Some of the world’s leading actuaries from more than 90 countries will be treated to presentations such as “The credit crunch – a lesson from poker history” and “Financial Markets Crisis – Lessons learnt and future implications”.

Peter Doyle, President-Elect of the Actuarial Society of South Africa, says the Congress, themed United in our Diversity, recognizes that while actuaries practice in different specialized fields, they are united in that they are very often expected to lead organisation’s risk strategies.

“Our challenge is to deliver a programme that is diverse, relevant and stimulating to an audience of actuaries that specialise in fields including health insurance, life insurance, pensions and social security, and enterprise risk management. Participants will be able to pick and chose from more than 200 presentations to be delivered during 90 sessions.”

Doyle says since the Congress is being hosted by South Africa, the programme would be incomplete without a discussion of retirement and social security reform in South Africa as well as a session on health care reforms in South Africa and the United States. A Canadian actuary will follow-up with a paper on the “Criteria for the optimal design of a social security retirement system”. And maybe two South African actuaries will finally be able to answer the difficult question of “How much life insurance is enough”.

Topics with wider appeal will include “Capital: It’s overrated!” and “The role of actuaries in managing the risk associated with complexity in a modern financial enterprise”. A very relevant presentation will be the one focusing on “Implementing and embedding a Solvency II model”.

Doyle says special treats for visiting actuaries will be a welcome from Premier Helen Zille on the lawns of Leeuwenhof, the historic official residence of the Premier of the Western Cape, and a keynote presentation by Trevor Manuel, Minister in the Presidency in charge of the National Planning Commission.