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ERM basics: Proxy techniques enable risk-based decision making
08 January 2014Proxy techniques, such as least squares Monte Carlo, allow faster analysis of risks and for many insurers they have become essential tools for aiding decision making, as Brian Robinson explains
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Solvency reform a priority for US regulators
20 December 2013US insurance supervision is inefficient and inconsistent, according to the Federal Insurance Office, which has made its long-awaited recommendations for reform. Among its prime targets are solvency regulation, reserving and treatment of captives. Christopher Cundy reports
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Using least squares Monte Carlo proxy functions for internal model validation
18 December 2013LSMC 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
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Perspectives on Omnibus II: cautious relief to outrage
04 December 2013As the dust settled around Omnibus II, InsuranceERM spoke to those closely involved in the negotiations to get their verdict on the result. The diverse opinions from legislator, supervisor, insurer, rapporteur and parliamentarian reflect the complexity of the issues – and how battles over the details of Solvency II are far from over
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Five years of InsuranceERM, five years on the tortuous journey towards Solvency II
29 November 2013InsuranceERM was launched five years ago, in November 2008, when implementation of Solvency II was less than four years away. Now, it's still over two years away and a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Delving into the InsuranceERM archives, Peter Field charts the ebbs and flows on the way to the European Parliament vote last week for a January 2016 go-live date for Solvency II
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Towers Watson's Tricia Guinn: "The insurance industry is becoming increasingly analytical"
27 November 2013Towers Watson's decision to sell its reinsurance brokerage is part of a strategy to capitalise on the increasingly analytical and technical nature of the insurance industry, risk and financial services managing director Tricia Guinn tells Lorna Davies.
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Benchmarking the internal capital model
07 November 2013Aon Benfield polled almost 100 users of its ReMetrica capital modelling software to compare how often they ran their internal models, their speed of processing, the number of people involved – and a host of other interesting questions. Jason Noronha and Wing Lam present the results
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Caution: capital models at work
06 November 2013The prospect of Solvency II led many insurers to spend millions building internal capital models and the time has come to make them work for the business. But basing strategy on a tool that has been developed primarily with compliance in mind is not without risk, as Rob Collinson explains
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Technology Guide 2013-14: vendors react to Solvency II delays
29 October 2013Both users and vendors of risk management systems have faced difficult decisions as a result of the further delay in Solvency II implementation. We look at the opportunities and problems created by this and issues such as: do faster systems have to be more complex, as well as more expensive, and will vendors offer more transparency into their models?
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Efficient asset allocation with least squares Monte Carlo
23 October 2013Traditional methods of allocating assets fall short in several key aspects. In this paper, Romain Lombardo and Alexis Bailly show how the LSMC approach can be used to optimise asset allocation for insurers in a Solvency II world