IFoA Asia Conference 2024

Keynote speaker:

• Tony Chan – Associate Director, Policy and Legislation Division of the Insurance Authority

Recently, insurers have been faced with the challenge of having to deal with a myriad of regulatory changes being introduced across Asia as well as a more volatile economic environment than before. Against this backdrop of uncertainties, there is an increased focus from insurers to rethink on their investment strategies to improve the profitability and balance sheet resilience.

This session aims to discuss:

• key insurance investment trends observed across Asia
• key challenges and ideas on how insurers could better manage ALM incorporating different competing objectives and constraints
• how insurers can manage traditional asset classes: fixed income optimisation and equity solutions
• key benefits and common challenges faced by insurers on the use of ‘new’ investment tools, e.g. alternatives and derivatives
• how asset managers can support insurers in this journey

Join us for a discussion on the challenges insurers face in navigating the current complicated environment and how they could refine their investment approach to better optimise their return on capital and manage their risks.

Speakers

• Steven Yu, Yuyuan Technology
• Xin Liu, Sunshine Insurance Group
• Zhao Wei Yee, HSBC Global Asset Management
• Thibaut Ferret, HSBC Global Asset Management

Language: English

Rising reinsurance costs, evolving regulations, and the need for balance sheet optimisation have made reinsurance an important tool for APAC insurers.

The APAC region has seen a tightening of reinsurance capacity relative to demand driven by a tougher economic and market condition. This has made it crucial for insurers in this market to effectively manage their capital and mitigate risks.

This session:

• delves into the evolving reinsurance landscape in both the life and non-life segments
• explores how insurers can use reinsurance for risk and capital management
• discusses the current challenges and opportunities in the reinsurance market

Some of these challenges include:

• optimising capital allocation through structured reinsurance solutions
• transferring risks to enhance financial stability
• diversifying risk portfolios
• managing solvency and reserves
• addressing non-core or legacy liabilities

Join for a discussion on strategies and practices for using reinsurance to meet strategic needs and manage risk and capital for both the life and non-life segments.

Speakers:

• Yuan Tian, Gallagher Re
• Sylvia Pleskot, Swiss Re
• Wilson Lai, Gallagher Re
• Vincent Luo, Liberty Mutual
• Atong Mu, Taiping General Insurance Co., Ltd

Language: English

China’s recent monetary policy easing, marked by a cut in loan interest rates and a reduction in the deposit reserve ratio, has led to a market yield that is at a historic two-decade low. With a negative duration gap, insurers are now facing the challenges posed by a low-interest-rate environment.

Participating (par) products have surfaced as a viable strategy to combat these challenges. But managing par products is not without its hurdles, encompassing areas such as product design, pricing, asset-liability management (ALM), actuarial modelling, PRE management, and communication.

Speakers:

• George Leung, Deloitte
• Ken Liang, Deloitte
• Dhiran Dookhi, Deloitte

Language: English

There are several big holes in the way most countries have implemented their RBC frameworks, leaving insurers (and therefore policyholders) at risk.

In most countries, an RBC framework is the primary tool for ensuring insurers stay solvent. It gives regulators confidence that policyholders will be looked after in the long run. And it steers insurance companies to make decisions that achieve an ‘acceptable’ balance between risk and reward.

Which would be fine, if RBC actually worked as intended.

This session looks through some of the problems built into most RBC systems (probably including yours!).

Flaws include:

• What’s wrong with discounts being given for risk diversification in 1:200 scenarios?
• Counterparty credit risk (issues with both measures and mitigations)
• Why risk capital completely misses inflation and volatility risk
• And in fact, why the asset-based component of risk capital (as opposed to the insurance risk component) is potentially out by many multiples of the calculated amount

Regardless of what the regulatory requirements are, (re)insurers always have the option of closing these gaps in their own internal risk and capital work. And in due course, perhaps regulatory requirements will evolve too.

Speakers:

• Greg Solomon, Eigengrey Consulting

Language: English

This session aims to address several key points:

1. Rationale for sustainable investing: Why investors are increasingly considering ESG factors in their investment decisions, such as the growing awareness of environmental issues, social inequality, and corporate governance scandals.

2. Analytical framework: The study likely presents a structured framework for analysing sustainable investment strategies, incorporating ESG criteria into traditional financial analysis.

3. Empirical analysis: It may include empirical evidence and case studies to demonstrate the impact of ESG factors on portfolio performance across various asset classes and regions.

4. Risk-return tradeoff: The research might investigate how integrating ESG considerations affects the risk-return profile of investment portfolios, examining whether sustainability-focused strategies can achieve competitive financial returns while managing risk effectively.

5. Implementation strategies: The study could provide practical guidance on implementing sustainable investment strategies, including portfolio construction techniques, ESG data sources, and engagement with companies on ESG issues.

Overall, the research likely aims to provide investors and financial professionals with a comprehensive understanding of sustainable investing and its implications for portfolio management in today’s global financial markets.

Speakers:

• Amine Essadik, Risk House Solution
• Oumniya Laaraj, Attijariwafa bank CIB

Language: English

AI is redefining actuarial science, enhancing risk assessment, personalising customer interactions and product offering, and refining investment strategies.

AI’s advanced analytics offer unprecedented precision in risk profiling and pricing, transforming insurance products and services. This panel explores how AI integrates sophisticated data sources to innovate risk management, streamline operations through automation, and adapt investment decisions by predicting market trends.

The session also addresses regulatory and ethical considerations for a robust usage of AI.

Join to discuss how actuaries can harness AI to elevate accuracy, efficiency, and innovation in the insurance and investment sectors.

Speakers: 

• Bob Charles, Coherent
• Jing Rong Goh, Singapore Management University
• Koon Shing Kwong, Singapore Management University
• Muqiu Liu, Delta Analytics

Language: English

With the rapid growth of AI, through ChatGPT, Gemini, SORA, and so on, the use of AI in insurance sector is still limited.

How can AI make actuaries’ work more efficient and fruitful? This session investigates the possibility and feasibility of the use of AI to pricing work in life and health.

The other concern is that AI will replace the work of actuaries. The speakers argue that we still need actuaries especially for judgment, lead, and forecast, while those who can use AI will be more competitive than those who cannot.

The session explores the areas that can use AI in the whole pricing process, to streamline pricing and make it more standard, efficient, and accurate. That includes the control cycle of data cleaning, IBNR calculation, researching, terms and conditions consolidation, experience analysis, projection, and so on. The session studies example and useful AI tools under different markets and products.

Speakers:

• Coco Feng, Peak Reinsurance Company
• Dan Guo, China Reinsurance (Hong Kong) Company Limited

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Catastrophe risk has always been one of the biggest risks and challenges faced by general insurance companies in Asia.

On one hand, the public is having a strong demand for coverage on catastrophe risk. On the other hand, however, the supply of catastrophe insurance is relatively limited in various countries in Asia.

This session will discuss the key issues related to catastrophe insurance in Asia from different aspects including the supply of insurance product forms, the demand of insureds, the requirement of regulators and so on, making efforts to find solutions to those issues.

Specifically, the introduction to the overall background of catastrophe risk and catastrophe insurance in Asia will be presented first. Following that, two case studies will be analysed deeply, one focusing on China and the other targeting Malaysia. After the review of catastrophe insurance from the perspectives of both macro and micro aspects, some suggestions about the development of catastrophe insurance in Asia will be shared in the session.

Speakers:

• Xiaoxuan (Sherwin) Li, PICC P&C
• Nur Nabila Zafirah Abdul Samat, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Yuan Tian, Gallagher Re

Language: English

If you’re planning to join the conference in-person, you can sign up for the AGM as part of the booking process.

Join us for the conference dinner and continue the conversation with industry professionals from across the region.

The dinner will be held at Guangzhou Yuexiu International Congress Center on 24 July from 19:00 to 22:00, and tickets are £25 per person. You can sign up for the dinner as part of the booking process.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Keynote speaker:

• Trevor Lewis – Deputy Director of Innovation and Industry and Head of South China, Department for Business and Trade at British Consulate-General Guangzhou

ESG is no longer a theoretical concept. It encapsulates a wide range of aspects that actuaries should already be factoring into their work.

Through an engaging panel discussion and Q&A, touching on the full spectrum of actuarial specialisms and focus areas, this session explores how our experts are factoring ESG into their daily work.

For health, learn how social aspects can be factored into pricing and products.

For general insurance, learn how CAT and extreme weather is impacting best practice daily work. And how sustainability and risk management are essential components of product design, customer benefit, and risk mitigation.

For life, learn how ESG will influence product features and support the financial strength of Asia’s aging populations.

For investment management, learn how ESG is strongly influencing the strategies and sustainable portfolios.

And much more.

Speakers: 

• Martin Noble, Zurich Insurance
• Chelsea Jiang, AXA
  
• Cynthia Yuan, China Reinsurance Group

Language: English

This session will be split into sections.

Section 1

In an era inundated with data, the intersection of health concerns and disease dynamics underscores the pivotal role insurers play in securing individuals' financial well-being.

In the first section, Orchis and Benedict will showcase the research from Gen Re's Dread Disease Survey. With a focus on disease dynamics, they will highlight the indispensable insights gained from the study and elucidate how these findings can seamlessly integrate into the evolution of Critical Illness (CI) products.

This section will also shine a spotlight on the various trends in the CI market that have been observed across Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. Advancements in health technology and updates to screening guidelines are valuable lessons that can be shared across different markets. This knowledge helps audiences understand the connection between CI definitions and the possible challenges associated with critical illness products.

Section 2

The availability of cost-effective screening materially influences the diagnoses of cancer and is a key contributing factor to increasing cancer incidence rates across insurance portfolios. The increasing incidence rates risk impacting the sustainability of this line of business.

To improve our understanding and drive future research, we attempted to quantify the interaction between screening and the observed incidence rates, using lung cancer as a pilot. Pulling together population data, insurance data, screening survey results and the latest medical research, we developed a simulation projection model on to capture the future incidence rates.

The aim of this section is to present to the audience the approach adopted by our research team (data scientist, actuaries, and medical researchers), the initial findings from the model and the potential implications for future CI modelling and product development.

There will also be time at the end to ask the speaker questions consisting of a short panel discussion.

Speakers:

• Orchis Li, Gen Re
• Benedict Tan, Gen Re
• Dokkie Nel, Swiss Re

Language: English

The Asian pension market is evolving rapidly due to the unprecedented challenges of the ageing population and the increasing need for pension provision. On the other hand, new technologies such as big data, AI, and cloud computing are rapidly emerging, disrupting the whole financial industry, which helps individuals gain access to information and make investment decisions much more effectively. In this session, we aim to explore the following questions:

1. What is the current occupational pension practice in China and other Asian markets? What are the limitations, such as member engagement, flexibility, and investment product selections?

2. What are the latest trends and innovations in the pension industry around the globe, such as in the UK and the US? What can be learnt and adapted? How to embrace those changes to meet individuals’ evolving retirement needs in Asia?

3. How can more effective financial well-being education be developed and enhance customer engagement via technology? How can advanced technology and digital solutions improve scale, efficiency, and individual experience?

4. What are actuaries’ roles in this new emerging environment?

Speakers:

• Alex Li, Aon

Language: English

The presenter shares experience on how actuarial analysis helps business management through 3 dimensions: growth, sustainability, and volatilities.

Under each dimension, the session explores:

• views on the main financial indicators impacts
• how each indicator will impact the business and how the indicator should be set up
• how each indicator is analysed
• experience sharing on the impact and findings

Speakers:

• Laura Yu, Allianz Taiwan Life Insurance Company
• TaWei Lin, Allianz Taiwan Life Insurance Company

Language: Mandarin Chinese

In recent years, e-mobility has made a breakthrough in many markets around the world. The question is no longer if electric vehicles (EVs) will come and replace traditional powertrains. It’s rather how they will come and when they will make up most of the global powertrain mix.

While the regular launches of new models and brands are widening the choice for customers, risk assessment for (re)insurers is becoming more complicated. These new models come with limited historical exposure, which is traditionally at the core of risk assessment in motor insurance.

EVs are probably the most exposed to this situation, given the dynamism of this market, their exponential adoption globally, and their structurally different conception.

This session discusses how PCA-based techniques, combined with other techniques such as GLM, smoothing, and clustering can help overcome these challenges.

Join to hear about:

• the global EV market and its evolution (an overview), and how this transition will impact the insurance industry
• observed drivers of higher loss ratios in different markets
• how primary insurers can address the pricing challenges, especially for those small to medium sized insurers who do not have much data (yet)
• strategic concerns for primary insurers at different stages of maturity in the EV insurance markets

The presentation is 30 to 40 minutes with some time for Q&A.

Although the topic itself may seem technical (and indeed the solution itself would be a technical one), this session is at a high level and focuses on concepts. The content is easy to digest for non-technicians. Senior actuaries or business unit managers should be interested in this topic.

Speakers:

• Fumao Sun, Munich Re

Language: English

In today’s rapidly changing world, (re)insurers face a multitude of emerging risks that have the potential to significantly impact their operations and strategic decision-making.

This interactive presentation aims to provide a comprehensive overview of emerging risks and their implications for (re)insurers and professionals in related fields.

Through a combination of industry insights, research findings, and practical examples, join the session to gain a deeper understanding of the key attributes of emerging risks, their taxonomy, and the methodologies used to measure their impact.

The presentation also highlights the latest global emerging risks identified by the World Economic Forum and Marsh McLennan Global Risks Report.

Speakers:

• Jingwei Jia, Oliver Wyman
• Chadwick Cheung, Oliver Wyman
• Regina Wang, Oliver Wyman
• Donat Piras, Swiss Re

Language: English

This session provides an examination of the issues and challenges faced by actuarial professionals in harnessing the potential of AI-based modelling solutions. It offers valuable insights and practical recommendations for navigating the evolving landscape of actuarial practice in the era of AI.

In an age marked by accelerated technological evolution, AI offers businesses transformative potentials. For actuaries and other finance professionals alike, navigating, understanding, deploying, and managing AI entails more than just recognising its potentials and the powerful benefits one could gain from it. It requires a comprehensive understanding of the associated financial risks including modelling and bias risks. The Global Risks Report 2024 identified “AI-generated misinformation and disinformation” among the top risks, underscoring the imperative for proactive engagement and risk management.

The presentation looks at the:

• development of the use of AI and AI-based modelling solutions in actuarial work
• emerging best practices and framework of governance for managing AI risks (including biases)
• key issues and challenges for actuaries to consider and to implement in practice

Target audience: all actuarial practitioners

Format: interactive presentation followed by an interactive discussion to encourage audience participation and facilitate knowledge sharing among attendees

Speakers:

• Elena Djarlijeva, BUPA
• Christine Fairall, BUPA

Language: English

This paper delves into the indispensable role of actuaries in shaping public policy, focusing on their proficiency in financial risk assessment and analysis.

The study explores the methodologies used by actuaries to gauge the potential repercussions of policy decisions within sectors like pensions, insurance, and healthcare. It employs a mixed-methods approach encompassing a literature review and case studies.

The findings underscore the invaluable contributions of actuaries in forecasting financial outcomes, evaluating risks, and recommending strategies to ensure long-term sustainability.

The paper emphasises the pivotal role of actuaries in guiding policymakers towards evidence-based solutions for navigating intricate economic challenges and advancing public welfare. Through an in-depth analysis of their methodologies and contributions, this paper illuminates the significant impact of actuaries on shaping effective and sustainable public policies.

Speakers:

• Professor Joab Odhiambo, Meru University of Science and Technology

Language: English