NewsProfession
October 2008 13www.the-actuary.org.uk
External Actuarial Valuations
ExactVAL offers pension consultancies the
facility to outsource their valuation work.
� We specialise in completing the numbers side
of actuarial valuations for defined benefit
pension schemes.
� We use an experienced team, together with
bespoke software (Superval) to turn work
around efficiently.
� We present our results in a clear, auditable and
consistent format.
� Our prices are fixed in advance for each
valuation, and are extremely competitive.
� We also offer valuation-oriented training
aimed at staff with varying levels of experience.
For more details, visit our website
www.exactval.co.uk or call Bill Harris
on 01727 830462
Company reg no: 6004085
Registered office: Linksview, Everlasting Lane, St Albans, Herts, AL3 5RY
� GB1867 EXACTVAL Advert 16/11/07 9:24 am Page 1
Did FRS17 kill DB pensions?
The implications of FRS17 and IAS19 will be the subject
of the 2008 Centre for Financial Markets Research Debate.
Held at the University of Edinburgh Business School, on
1 October at 6pm, the debate will explore a range of
issues, including:
n Did the requirement that pensions liabilites be placed on the
balance sheet of sponsoring employers provide
welcome transparency for investors or simply introduce
short-term `mark to market' influences into long-term
investment decisions?
n Did FRS17 kill DB pension provision or had the damage
already been done by adverse financial trends and
increasing longevity?
n What are the key issues in implementing the new pensions
accounting approaches?
n How might accounting for pensions be improved in future?
David Cule FIA will propose that FRS17 played a significant
role in killing DB pension provision in the UK and Geoffrey
Whittington, a current member of the UK Accounting Standards
Board and a former member of the International Accounting
Standards Board, will speak against the motion. Faculty
president Ronnie Bowie and Dr Alastair Byrne will join the
debate for the panel discussion.
The event is free but registration is required as space is
strictly limited. For more details, please visit webdb.ucs.ed.ac.uk/
management/school_new/news/events/this_event.cfm?ev=204
Solvency II and climate
change feature at ASTIN
Kathryn Morgan reports on the Manchester Colloquium
ASTIN (the non-
life section of
the International
Actuarial
Association) held its
38th Colloquium in
Manchester in July.
There were two key
themes, Solvency II
and climate change,
and the papers
presented were
wide-ranging, both in approach and topic.
Alongside the technical aspects of the meeting, delegates
had the opportunity to see many of the interesting parts of
Manchester, including the Imperial War Museum North and the
Victorian Town Hall.
High spots
The keynote speaker, Julia Sligo, highlighted the many different
ways that climate change can be assessed and predicted. This clearly
has major implications for non-life insurers, in terms of increasing
volatility of claims experience, and she helpfully showed how insurers
are reacting to this.
Professor Christian Genest presented his new research on
extreme value dependence. This covered improved ways of deciding
which copula to use when modelling extreme events.
An interesting panel session allowed four experts from different
countries (Petra Wildemann, Arne Sandstrom, Annette Olesen and
myself) to present their hopes and fears for Solvency II.
Standard and Poor's presented its enterprise risk management
approach � how it assesses insurers' risk management processes.
This is important for the profession, as we move forward to develop
an international risk management qualification.
The conference was multi-track, and I attended the following
sessions related to modelling:
nModelling the claims development result for solvency purposes, by
Michael Merz and Mario Wuthrich. This paper looked at modelling
changes in ultimate claims estimates over one-year periods, which is
interesting for Solvency II.
nCapital allocation by percentile layer, by Neil Bodoff. There seems to
be no single method for allocating capital to lines of business, and
this approach looked at each percentile on the curve and allocated
capital in layers using a loss exceedance probability.
nGive credit where credit is due: operational risk goes Bayesian, by
Dominik Lambrigger, Paul Shevchenko and Mario Wuthrich,
covered how to combine internal and external operational risk data
in a way that reflects the variability in the information.
Presenters had been asked not to assume delegates had read the
papers in advance, and encouraged the audience to read the papers
following the conference.
I enjoyed the other presentations too, and found that the
conference improved my understanding of a lot of technical issues.
It was great to hear such good discussion and meet so many actuaries
from different countries.
The next ASTIN Colloquium will be in Finland in June 2009.
MarketingManchester
Delegates toured Manchester's Victorian Town Hall

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