IFoA India Conference 2024

An opportunity to put your questions to the IFoA President.

Speaker: Kartina Tahir Thomson, IFoA President

Join us for an insightful panel discussion that explores the evolving role of actuaries as leaders beyond their traditional technical expertise. This session will delve into the diverse leadership positions actuaries are now embracing and the essential skillsets needed to succeed in these roles.

Drawing from the panel’s extensive leadership experience, their journeys and strategies will offer invaluable insights to all attendees. The discussion will focus on the actuary as a leader, aiming to inspire and equip attendees with practical takeaways from the experiences of distinguished actuarial leaders.

Moderator: Anurag Rastogi, IAI Council Member

Panel: Hiten Kothari, HDFC ERGO General Insurance, Samit Upadhyay, Tata AIA, Sunil Sharma, RGA and Hariharan Mani, PwC AIMS

As we gather for the inaugural IFoA India Conference, we invite you to join us for our women’s networking breakfast.

This session offers a unique opportunity to connect with fellow professionals in the actuarial field, sharing experiences and insights in a setting that reflects the future-forward theme of our conference.

Held in the vibrant city of New Delhi, this exciting new networking opportunity will not only create meaningful professional connections, but also highlight the vital role women play in shaping the future of the actuarial profession in India and beyond.

Moderator: Akshay Dhand, Canara

Panel: P.K Arora, IRDAI, Prechhya Mathema, Actuarial Society of Nepal, Damyanthi Fernando, IRCSL and Dr Dipesh Shah

Actuarial skills are increasingly in demand from industries far removed from actuaries’ traditional domain of financial services. Andrew D Smith describes some extraordinary actuarial assignments from his own career and those of his students.

Speaker: Andrew D Smith, University College Dublin

Join us for an engaging session focused on the expanding role of artificial intelligence in the banking and financial services sector. We’ll explore the diverse applications of AI and discuss its potential for future growth.

The discussion will cover the essential skillsets and strategies for successfully implementing AI solutions, and the challenges that come with it. With the panel’s expertise in this area, their insights will be invaluable to the conversation. This session will equip you with a deeper understanding of how AI is transforming the landscape of banking and financial services.

Moderator: Atreyee Bhattacharyya, Star Health and Allied Insurance

Panel: Debashish Banerjee, Deloitte, Mitali Chatterjee, Milliman, Namit Chopra, EXL, Balachandran Joshi, LivWel, and Dr. Sunil Kumar, SAM Corporate

The IFoA’s eXplainable AI (XAI) Working Party would like to show you how AI and machine learning models are not in fact so-called ‘black boxes’ and can be used with confidence in actuarial work. We will dispel the myth that neural networks and random forests, for example, cannot be explained. We’ll do this by demonstrating various XAI techniques including ICE, PDP, M-plots, ALE and SHAP with examples in R, building on our article published in The Actuary.

Speaker: Karol Gawlowski, Allianz Commercial

Climate risk represents a multifaceted obstacle for insurers, impacting their operations, financial performance, and strategy. Addressing these challenges requires proactive measures, collaboration, and continuous adaptation to ensure the resilience and sustainability of the insurance industry in a changing climate.

In this session, we intend to discuss some aspects of climate risk and our response to it, including:

• potential financial impacts on insurance portfolios
• methodologies for climate risk assessment
• future climate-related regulatory scenario
• development of insurance products incentivising climate-resilient behaviours
• best practices for conducting scenario analysis and stress testing
• collaboration with other stakeholders for standardising climate risk scenarios
• challenges and opportunities in integrating climate-related data sources into actuarial models
• regulatory changes brought about globally in this respect
• board and senior management’s role in addressing this risk
• emerging technologies’ role in transforming the way actuaries assess and manage climate risks

This session will be a live presentation by Saigeeta Bhargava and Amit Singh. Saigeeta leads the actuarial practice at PwC India. Amit has developed climate risk scenario analysis and stress testing frameworks for multiple banks and is certified in Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR) by GARP.

This session might pique the interest of all actuaries who aim to develop strategies to address climate risks, build resilience, and transition towards a sustainable future.

Speakers: Saigeeta Bhargava FIA FIAI and Amit Singh, PwC

Actuaries can model liability cashflows, analyse these numbers, and report on them. However, the role of assets is not seen at this level, or the analysis generally excludes asset modelling and assets analysis.

In this session we plan to cover the niche area within actuarial services around the role of assets and how these assets are modelled depending upon the type of liability being modelled. The session aims to cover:

• types of assets and their features
• modelling of assets in presence of liabilities, including different asset assumptions
• BS and IS in presence of assets
• how to bring judgement around asset allocation for liabilities
• rules around asset allocation
• bringing reinvestment into the picture and associated reinvestment strategy

The session is intended to be delivered in person including a high-level overview of the role of assets within actuarial modelling and valuation. This will be a new area for everyone, as very few companies offer asset modelling now.

Speaker: Monika Goyal, Accenture

The offshoring model in India has experienced a remarkable evolution, particularly in the realm of knowledge-based services, including the actuarial domain.

Initially, India’s offshoring industry primarily focused on low-end tasks. But as the country’s workforce showcased its proficiency and adaptability, the offshoring model expanded to encompass a wide range of knowledge-based services, including actuarial services. This shift was driven by factors such as the availability of a large pool of highly-educated professionals, a robust education system, and a strong foundation in mathematics and statistics.

Indian service providers quickly recognised the potential of the actuarial domain and began offering specialised actuarial services to global clients. These services include actuarial modelling, risk assessment, pricing and product development, reserving, and regulatory compliance. The actuarial talent in India has demonstrated expertise in various sectors, including insurance, pensions, and financial services.

With the integration of automation, data analytics, and machine learning, Indian service providers have been able to streamline actuarial calculations, improve accuracy, and deliver faster insights to clients. This has resulted in increased efficiency and cost savings for organisations seeking actuarial support.

Today, India stands as a preferred destination for organisations seeking high-quality, cost-effective actuarial services. The country’s offshoring model has evolved into a mature and sophisticated industry, offering a wide range of actuarial services across various sectors. With a focus on knowledge, innovation, and technological advancements, India’s offshoring model in the actuarial domain continues to thrive and contribute to the global actuarial community.

Speakers: Bani Dhir and Rajiv Sharma, Mercer

Leadership expert John C Maxwell says: “A leader is someone who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.”

We actuaries know our calculations and can go places with them. But when it comes to effectively showing and communicating them, we could perhaps do better.

Not having this one trait often hinders us from being the leaders we can be. It hinders us from inspiring others, innovating, and making transformations.

Like our actuarial control cycle, any transformation goes through a cycle that involves effective communication and inspires the audience to make a transformation.

This workshop-type session aims to be interactive and address:

• why we aren’t naturally good at communicating
• the great advantages of being a good communicator
• how can one start and progress on the journey to being a good communicator?
• why effective communication is a prerequisite to effective leadership
• how to inspire your audience and drive transformation

The target audience for this session is all attendees, including senior and accomplished leaders.

Speaker: Gurpreet Babbar, Accenture

We’re excited to invite you to a session on the evolving role of actuaries in the banking industry. With regulators encouraging the use of stronger risk modelling, management, and governance, the need for actuarial skills across the banking sector is growing.

Here’s what you can look forward to:

The banking actuarial path: Learn about the IFoA’s route to becoming a banking actuary and see how it can take your career to the next level.

Bridging worlds: We’ll discuss how the actuarial skills from insurance can seamlessly transition into banking, for example underwriting, reserving, capital, and asset-liability management.

Roles in a bank: Get a clear picture of the crucial roles actuaries play in banks, from chief risk officer to heads and members of risk functions. Discover how actuaries contribute to credit risk modelling (for example IFRS9, Basel II), management and reporting, asset-liability management, risk management, pricing and trading of derivative products, capital modelling, climate risk modelling, and enterprise risk modelling.

Models used in the banking industry are noticeably advanced and intellectually stimulating. This session would be useful for senior actuaries looking forward to widening their horizon and junior students willing to explore wider opportunities.

Speakers: Riju Tandon, Pradyumn Bharani and Mrigank Agarwal, PwC

It is widely thought that India’s ‘Code on Social Security, 2020’ will soon be notified. This introduces some significant expansion to the retirement and other social security benefits to the working population, especially for unorganised and gig/platform workers. There are extensive actuarial, financing, design, and administrative considerations in the social security programmes in India.

This session will start by providing a brief overview of India’s retirement social security landscape, covering the wide range of programmes for government employees, private sector workers, and the unorganised sector.

The session will then focus on the actuarial considerations and recent opportunities for one of the social security schemes, namely the Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS1995). In recent times, the EPS1995 has declared significant deficits but is potentially cashflow sustainable for several decades given the younger demographic of India.

At the same time, a 2022 Supreme Court of India judgement has made the government ask about the future sustainability of the scheme, if saddled by significant additional defined benefit burden. The Code on Social Security also requires the government to design a scheme suitable to include up to a further 40 crore (400 million) unorganised workers into the scheme. How can this be achieved?

The session will shed light on a topic not very well understood by the wider actuarial community in India, and show where there is great potential for our profession to work with the government in a more tangible manner.

Speakers: Kulin Patel and Jayesh Pandit, K.A Pandit

The insurance industry is constantly evolving and with the increasing complexity of risks, there is a growing need for structured reinsurance solutions.

Traditionally, reinsurance acts as a catalyst for industry expansion by providing insurers with the necessary financial support and risk mitigation tools. Through structured reinsurance solutions, insurers can tailor their products more effectively and efficiently to ensure comprehensive protection while achieving the required financial KPIs.

There are a few solutions widely executed by insurers in Asia to enhance their new product launches and to manage their sizeable enforce portfolios efficiently. Three common structured reinsurance solutions are:

• upfront reinsurance commissions on investment linked products
• mass lapse reinsurance solution
• asset coinsurance reinsurance solution

In this session, Wilson Lai of Gallagher Re will share an overview of the solutions listed above, as well as client motivations, key considerations, and how these solutions are applicable to the L&H insurers in India, based on experience executing them.

Speaker: Wilson Lai, Gallagher Re

2024 has seen a significant overhaul of regulations by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).

This transformation is being hailed as a major shift that touches upon various domains, including:

• protection of policyholder rights
• obligations towards the rural and social sectors
• establishment of an electronic insurance marketplace
• restructuring of governance of insurance products
• creation of a favourable environment for the growth and expansion of the reinsurance sector

It also focuses on ensuring sound and responsive management practices for effective discharge of actuarial, finance, and investment function.

The session will provide an overview of the Indian insurance sector’s current status and will delve into the opportunities and challenges that arise as part of the changing regulatory landscape.

Speakers: Aarti Aggarwal and Abhinav Mishra, EY

The insurance underwriting cycle is important from a financial stability perspective, as insurers are more prone to face underwriting losses during a soft market. The forecasting underwriting cycle could help insurers improve profit. But there are some pertinent questions that need to be addressed, including:

• are the underwriting cycles real and explainable?
• even if they exist, can they at all be objectified through a forecasting model?
• can an auto-regression time series model be appropriate to explain the documented cyclicality?
• are there any models, other than the auto regressive model, that capture the cycle more appropriately?
• which variables can be used to quantify this insurance phenomenon?

This interactive presentation will attempt to address these questions, discuss some documented techniques to forecast the underwriting cycle, and assess the impact of unusual (catastrophic) events.

All in all, the session will make a comparative assessment to see if it is worth trying to forecast the underwriting cycle. How can we navigate the challenges and successfully forecast the cycle? This will help insurers take proactive actions to deal with the underwriting cycle.

This will be a high-level session with a touch of technical application. It should be of interest to actuaries at all levels with an interest in general insurance market dynamics and a knack for statistical modelling.

Speaker: Dhrubo Banerjee, Swiss Re

Risk-based capital (RBC) has been the recent buzzword in the Indian industry. The shift from traditional factor-based solvency reporting to a sophisticated RBC approach requires a deeper understanding of an entity’s risk profile. That in turn influences a different perspective on capital requirements and business strategy in alignment with risk appetite and tolerance statements.

The presentation aims to delve into the evolving practices of the RBC framework in India and explore how other regions, such as Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Singapore, and the Middle East, have adopted and implemented these frameworks. The session will cover the fundamental principles of RBC frameworks and compare the different philosophies and approaches employed by the other regions.

The session will help attendees understand the calibration of various risks such as market risk, credit risk, insurance risk, and operational risk, and how these risks are quantitatively assessed. The session will cover how correlation of risks and diversification is allowed for, and offer a glimpse of different regulatory reporting requirements and templates.

Analysing the implementation strategies and successes of insurers in different regions, and the challenges they face, can provide valuable lessons and best practices. By doing so, insurers in India can better navigate the complexities of RBC implementation, ensuring a more robust and resilient financial framework.

Speaker: Jinal Pandit, K.A Pandit

The student showcase is your chance to connect directly with potential employers and discover exactly what they’re looking for in future hires. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to network, stand out, and gain valuable insights that could jumpstart your career.

Join us for a dynamic panel discussion on the evolution of the insurtech industry, focusing on the opportunities and challenges faced by actuaries. We will explore the latest growth trends in insurtech and how actuaries are at the forefront of driving this transformation.

The conversation will feature practical examples of insurtech in action and its future potential. With the panel’s expertise in this field, their insights will be invaluable to the discussion. This session will provide you with a deeper understanding of actuarial involvement in insurtech, the industry’s growth prospects, and the challenges ahead.

Moderator: Prerak Sethi, India Insurtech Association

Panel: Nikhil Verma, LivWel, Sumit Ramani, Protect Me Well, KV Dipu, Bajaj General Insurance, and Sandip Goenka, Acko Life 

Speaker: John Crooks, RSA

In this session, John will share his views on some of the key challenges in the general insurance market today and in the future. He will set out his thoughts on opportunities for actuaries in light of these issues, and consider how colleagues in India can help and make the most of these opportunities.

Join us for a panel discussion on the role of professionalism in actuarial work. This session will feature case studies that demonstrate how upholding high standards of professionalism impacts the daily work of actuaries.

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the importance of professionalism in their work and decision-making. The panel’s insights will be invaluable to this discussion, providing a wealth of experience and knowledge for all attendees.

Moderator: Kulin Patel, KA Pandit

Panel: Preeti Chandrashekhar, IAI Council and more TBC

A widely quoted study by the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago (EPIC) suggests that air pollution shortens life expectancy in India by almost six years on average. In Delhi the reduction in average life expectancy is estimated to be 10 years.

In this presentation we will look at:

• how air pollution increases mortality, including the types of illnesses it causes and the typical ages of people affected
• current cost of air pollution and the cost of reducing it
• how quickly mortality rates may improve (or worsen) if pollution reduces (or increases)
• how India compares to other countries
• the approach used to estimate the impact of pollution on life expectancy, including the key assumptions on which it was based
• what is being done to reduce India’s pollution levels, the pollution outlook, and the estimated future impacts on life expectancy

Speakers: Saloni Rehani, and Tim Andrews, Chubb Life

Actuaries have been thinking about how climate change affects the financial sector since at least 2017, when the IFoA issued a risk alert on this subject. Since then, decarbonisation and the setting of net zero targets has become a key feature for industry and the financial sector alike, supported by advances in carbon accounting and other climate risk evaluation techniques.

Hetal Patel is Head of Climate Investment Risk at Phoenix Group and Chair of PCAF’s UK Association. In this session, he will explain how actuaries have an important role to play in helping the financial sector to:

• manage the risks associated with climate change
• exploit the opportunities associated with the net zero transition

He will share the UK experience in this area, and:

• explore net zero and the context for climate-related financial disclosures and how this applies to the financial sector
• introduce the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), which promotes harmonised methods for evaluation and disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions inventory for financial instruments, and its key methodologies
• look at the emergence of other climate metrics and how they are used in a portfolio context
• delve into what actuaries need to know as they advise the financial sector

This will be delivered in person and is a ‘high-level’ session. It should be of interest to all actuaries – both in terms of fields of specialism and levels of seniority.

Speaker: Hetal Patel, Phoenix Group

Periodic payment orders (PPOs) are a way of compensating an injured insured for any resulting reduction in their quality of life and covering the cost of care. They’re an alternative to lump sum settlements. While the concept primarily applies in the UK, the aim of this talk is to impart knowledge about this kind of claim settlement, its peculiarities, and the uncertainties it brings.

We will cover the dependency of PPO propensity on Ogden rates used for valuing lump sum settlements, and talk about the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, a key assumption in modelling PPOs. Using the annual survey results of the IFoA’s PPO Working Party, we will bring in trends in the way PPOs are awarded and valued.

We will draw parallels to how injury claims are settled in the Indian market and examine if there is a need to evaluate the feasibility of having PPOs here, discussing the pros and cons.

This will be a technical knowledge-sharing session and will be hybrid, with one working party member attending the conference in person and another online.

Speakers: Tvisha Gupta, RSA, Justin Thomas, Acorn Insurance, and Chris Francis, WTW

This panel discussion will explore critical issues related to the preparation and integration of new actuarial graduates into the workforce, focusing on the skills gap and evolving industry needs.

Panellists will begin by identifying the top technical and soft skills that are currently required in new graduates. The discussion will then pivot to the role of technology in the actuarial profession, emphasizing the skills necessary to keep pace with technological advancements.

In addition, the panel will examine effective initiatives for bridging the skills gap, with a focus on how academia can contribute to better-preparing students for industry demands, particularly in ethical decision-making and risk management.

Moderator: Swati Umre, EY

Panel: Anshuman Anand, Swiss Re, Kiran Yadav, Canara HSBC Life and more TBC