Presented by the IFoA GI Pricing Research Group (PRG), we will cover a macro-level view of the current issues influencing pricing in three main sections: 

Part 1: Profitability, drivers and trends 

To open the session, we will provide an overview of levels of profitability from the recent past, the present, and projected into the future, with discussion on the main drivers and trends. This will cover both: 

• The UK domestic market (motor and home in particular) 
• The Lloyd's/London market and global P&C (re)insurance 

Part 2: The issues register 

In this part, we will cover highlights from the issues register maintained by the PRG, which captures the main influences currently affecting pricing, pricing functions and the role of actuaries in pricing. This will include: 

• PESTLE analysis of external factors influencing pricing 
• Developments in best practice and research 
• Horizon scanning: emerging risks and trends 
• Brief overview of the activities of the PRG and IFoA in addressing these issues 
• We are also considering a survey of pricing actuaries and/or conducting a chief pricing actuary roundtable; findings from these may also be included. 

Part 3: The pricing function in 2024 

Finally, we look at how pricing and portfolio management functions should be acting to address the challenges of the current environment, and evolving to address those of the future. 

Target audience and assumed knowledge level: No specialist knowledge required. 

Speaker and company: 

Edward Plowman, Guy Carpenter, Mohammed Khan, PwC

James Anderson, EY

James Rakow, Deloitte

Zvi Ebert, KPMG

Day 1 of the IFoA Conference 2022, featuring the following sessions:

• Opening Address - Matt Saker
• Challenges ahead for pensions and the Welfare State
• IFoA Awards
• Creating a globally diverse and inclusive profession
• Why Demographics Matter: Insights from Macro-Finance for Investments & Risks
• Supporting the transition: insights from the Bank of England's Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario (CBES) exercise
• Rethinking Diversity - Harnessing human Capital through Diversity of thought
• Climate change and the insurance industry
• Disaster Risk Finance - A multi-disciplinary approach
• Biodiversity Imperative in the Actuarial Profession
• Mental Health and Life Insurance: Data Analysis and Underwriting
• Professional Skills Training
• Decentralized Finance and Crypto Assets - Genesis of new risks and business models
• Making it to the C-Suite
• Performing Visualisation
• The next pandemic could be worse
• Federated Learning for Claims Modelling
• US Post-Level Term Lapse & Mortality Study
• Mechanisms to incentivise fossil fuel divestment and implications to investors risk and returns
• Exceeding our Professional Potential
• Climate Change impact on life and health insurance
• Different Pandemics in Different Nations?

What is biodiversity and why should we be concerned about it now?

How could biodiversity loss manifest as a material financial risk for the insurance and pensions industry?

How can we leverage the latest thinking on climate change to tackle the biodiversity crisis?

Detailed case studies exploring what tangible steps firms are taking today including:

Carbon in-setting as a nature-based solution

Parametric insurance designed to protect natural assets and the ecosystem services they provide

Sovereign blue bonds and ESG debt swaps to support innovative ocean financing

Speakers:

Ryan Allison, Phoenix

Alex Martin, Aviva

Lisa Yu, World Bank Group

An overview of topical climate-related issues impacting the insurance industry, where we explore shortcomings in the journey so far and lessons to take away. This includes:

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations, what they are, and how they are being implemented

Key outcomes of the Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario (CBES) as they have emerged so far

COP26 and the insurance industry's response

Synergies between different areas of climate risk modelling and reporting.

Speakers: Conal Shirazi and Natalia Mirin, Grant Thornton

In our session, we will give an overview of: 

• the development of the Decentralized Finance landscape and the related risks 
• the development of new insurance solutions tailor-made to crypto-related risks 
• our underwriting and pricing approach 
• the raise and advantages of crypto-native insurance companies 
• weather crypto-native insurance companies are a thread for traditional insurers.

Speakers: Daniel Cantzler and Peter Bärnreuther, Munich Re

Federated learning is a new class of machine learning models pioneered by the likes of Google and Apple, which allows models to be trained in the cloud, but without requiring customer or user data to be sent or transmitted, in order to preserve their privacy, which grows ever more important in the age of GDPR, etc. Unlike the traditional machine learning modelling approach that collects raw data to train on a centralised model (‘taking the data to the algorithm’), federated learning keeps data stored locally and instead, sends the model to the users (‘taking the algorithm to the data’). Coupled with an added layer of unique encryption, this technique means data can be stored and kept privately, but still allow models to be built upon them.

In this session, the IFoA Federated Learning Working Party will demonstrate how this might apply to modelling insurance claims. Specifically how it might be possible for several different insurance companies to collectively build a combined, shared, claims frequency neural network (similar to the CMI for mortality), whilst keeping their data and predictions completely hidden from each other.

Speakers: 

Malgorzata Smietanka, UCL

Dylan Liew, Data Science Actuary, BUPA

• How do you leverage your unique talents to stand out from the crowd?
• How do you get comfortable stepping up when you don’t fit the “accepted mould” or usual stereotype?
• How do you overcome hurdles to building a senior executive and/or NED career?
• How can you be an ally to others on their journey?

In this interactive session, our three expert panelists will assist you with top tips on how to market your unique perspective to successfully become a senior executive or NED. With expertise in the Insurance & Financial Services sector, as well as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, they will cover key topics such as networking, neurodiversity, executive search, career management, and allyship. 

You’ll leave with the tools to overcome career hurdles and achieve your ambitions! 

Speakers: 

Barbara Schonhofer, MBE, Executive Chair Global of ISC Group

Fiona Hathorn, CEO of Women on Boards UK

Mark Freed,  CEO E2W

The Data Visualisation Working Party and the Supervised Learning Working Party are teaming up to present together their work on the French Motor Third Party claims dataset.

The talk will include:

• Background on the French Motor Third Party dataset
• Visualisation of the dataset using R, Python, and Tableau
• The approach and results of the baseline ZIP model
• The approach and results of GBMs, Tree models, Neural Networks, and alternative models – how these models work in-depth and/or how we trained them
• Overall results and discuss the potential next steps

Speakers: 

Eilish Bouse, Grant Thornton

Neptune Jin, BGL Insurance Group

Jonathan Bowden,  Hyperexponential

Afzaal Ahmed

March 2020 was the last in-person professional skills session we presented.  Since then we have seen major changes to where and how actuaries work and consequently changes in how we interact with our customers, clients and colleagues.

There have been new challenges of isolation, communication, company loyalty, conflicts and many others. Many of these changes will continue to some extent going forward as many of us adapt to a hybrid working environment. Throughout all this it is imperative we remain professional in all we do.

What additional aspects do we need to consider to achieve this?  How can the IFoA’s Regulatory approach support members in their endeavours to provide the best service to the users of actuarial work?

This will be a lively interactive session led by Malcolm Slee, Chair of the IFoA’s Professional Skills Sub-committee and an IFoA Regulatory Solicitor, where we consider these issues with the aid of a video case study and other material. 

Speakers:

Malcolm Slee, Chair of the IFoA’s Professional Skills Sub-committee

Emma Gilpin, IFoA