Archive

• Economic scenario generators: a means to many ends

  08 August 2014

  ESGs are widely used in capital calculations and enterprise risk management. Hal Pedersen and Stephen Sonlin explain how these critical tools work and what to look for in a good one

• Risk elephants are lurking in your business

  05 August 2014

  Despite the great efforts that go into identifying and managing risks, there are some ever-present hazards that just do not get the attention they deserve. A recent IFoA working party sought to find out more about these elephants in the room. Christopher Cundy reports.

• Protecting the diversification credit through driver-based dependency modelling

  15 July 2014

  For many insurers, the credit for diversification in their solvency capital has become essential to the viability of the business. But justifying the credit, both internally and to regulators, is becoming more difficult. Paul O'Connor describes how driver-based modelling can help

• Five steps to 'big data' nirvana

  14 May 2014

  The explosion of data offers a threat and an opportunity to insurers, but few have really grasped the extent of the challenge. Patrick Maeder lays out the five areas where insurers should focus if they are to adapt successfully to the new information-centric world

• With changing market dynamics, insurers can profit in fixed income

  07 May 2014

  They buy in bulk, their size gives them clout with large fixed-income asset managers and their buy-and-hold outlook insulates them from market swings, as Douglas Niemann explains

• Exploring the regulator's approach to risk culture

  26 March 2014

  Using the theory of plural rationality, Dave Ingram, Michael Thompson, Alice Underwood and Elliot Varnell describe how the various approaches to insurance and financial regulation deal with risk - and how they cope in a crisis

• Understanding Solvency II's new transitional measures

  13 March 2014

  Solvency II may have an official implementation date of 1 January 2016, but insurers are being given years to get their house in order. Alison Matthews outlines the key transitional provisions recently introduced to the legislation, focusing on the tricky question of equivalence

• Raising the standard of internal model governance

  05 February 2014

  Internal models are increasingly used for decision making and producing figures for financial reports, but model governance procedures have not kept pace with these changing demands. Dominic Rau and Christian Wegmann outline a framework for improving assurance

• Using least squares Monte Carlo proxy functions for internal model validation

  18 December 2013

  LSMC techniques are finding popularity in Solvency II economic capital calculations and multi-year projections of capital requirements. In this article, Christian Bettels explains how they can also apply to validation of internal models

• Adopting the new insurance IFRS

  20 November 2013

  There is enough clarity about the final form of the new accounting standard for insurance contracts for firms to begin their transition. Francesco Nagari outlines the tasks required - and warns of the heavy workload ahead