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Professional Standards Directory updates

The Professional Standards Directory is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards, together with the current version of the Actuarial Profession standards.

Members are no longer sent copies of new or amended standards in hard copy.


Update 16 - issued 1 November 2008

The Professional Standards Directory can be found here. It is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards, together with the current version of the Actuarial Profession Standards.

Re-adoption of Guidance Notes

Members will be aware that responsibility for Technical Standards passed to the Board for Actuarial Standards with effect from April 2006. As part of this process, the Profession transferred the responsibility for a large number of its Guidance Notes to the BAS on 19 May 2006.

The BAS has reviewed the Guidance Notes that it adopted from the Profession, and consulted on the results of the review in its Consultation Paper: Structure of new BAS Standards (and implications for adopted GNs). In September it published an analysis of the responses it received. Subject to confirmation at its Board meeting on 10 November, it intends to withdraw nine of the adopted GNs, and to reduce the content of GN19 - Retirement Benefit Schemes – Winding-up and Scheme Asset Deficiency V4.8 significantly, as follows:

from midnight on 1 November 2008
GN22 – Disclosure – FSA Rules V3

from midnight on 30 November 2008
GN03 – Contracted-out Pension Schemes where Wind-up commenced before 6 April 1997 V3.4
GN04 – Insolvency of Employers Safeguard of Pension Scheme Contributions V2.4
GN10 – Valuation of Reversions and Life Interests V3.1
GN13 – Statements Required in Connection with FAS 87, 88 & 132 V3.3
GN17 – Accounting for Pension Costs under Statement of Standard Accounting No 24 V1.0
GN39 – Reserved Roles in Long-term Insurance Business V2.1
GN42 – The Reviewing Actuary V2.0
GN51 – Retirement Benefit Schemes – Modification of Subsisting Rights Without Consent V1.1

Acknowledging that some elements of the Guidance Notes need to be retained meantime, the Profession will re-adopt four of them:

from midnight on 30 November 2008
GN10, GN39, GN42 and GN51.

Copies of the withdrawn Guidance Notes will be maintained on the BAS website.

In parallel with this, the Profession has been developing its thoughts on the Actuaries’ Code and supporting Standards and in due course will bring forward a range of Standards which will subsume and replace the relevant parts of the Guidance Notes now being re-adopted.

Update 15 - issued 22 September 2008

The Professional Standards Directory can be found here. It is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards, together with the current version of the Actuarial Profession Standards.

BAS Standards

The Board for Actuarial Standards is responsible for producing technical actuarial standards and the Actuarial Profession is responsible for implementing those standards. Each body is responsible for the content on its own website.

GN11: Retirement Benefit Schemes – Transfer valuess
The Board for Actuarial Standards (BAS) has advised that the adopted Guidance Note GN11 “Retirement Benefit Schemes – Transfer Values” will be disapplied with effect from 1 October 2008, when the Occupational Pension Schemes (Transfer Values) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 SI 2008/ 1050 come into force.

Update 14 - issued 25 March 2008

The Professional Standards Directory can be found here. It is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards, together with the current version of the Actuarial Profession Standards.

BAS Standards

The Board for Actuarial Standards is responsible for producing technical actuarial standards and the Actuarial Profession is responsible for implementing those standards. Each body is responsible for the content on its own website.

GN19: Retirement Benefit Schemes – winding-up and Scheme Asset Deficiency
The Board for Actuarial Standards (BAS) has advised that an amended version of: GN19 has been posted on the Future Versions page of the BAS website at: http://www.frc.org.uk/documents/pagemanager/bas/GN19.pdf

The revised version 4.8 will disapply GN19 to deficiency calculations carried out from 6 April 2008 onwards (the same day that new Deficiency Regulations from the DWP come into effect) and is effective from that date. There are no changes to the actual text of GN19 other than in the preamble (Application and Legislation sections).

Update 13 - issued 13 March 2008

The Professional Standards Directory can be found here. It is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards, together with the current version of the Actuarial Profession Standards.

Actuarial Profession Standards

Version 7.1 of GN29: Occupational pension schemes - Advisers to the trustees, which comes into effect on 31 March 2008, can be found here.

Changes from the previous version 7.0 have been made to paragraph 2.1 to grant an extension, to 30 June 2008, to the transitional period for the implementation revised terms of appointment. The changes also outline steps to be followed in the event of failure to meet the revised deadline.

Update 12 - issued 31 January 2008

BAS Standards

Update 11 - issued 30 November 2007

The Professional Standards Directory can be found here. It is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards, together with the current version of the Actuarial Profession Standards.

  • GN20: Actuarial Reporting under the Lloyd's Valuation of Liabilities Rules
    Version 7.0 BAS amendment 1 came into effect on 12 November 2007.

The revised GN is available on the BAS website.


Update 10 - issued 30 October 2007

The Professional Standards Directory can be found here. It is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards, together with the current version of the Actuarial Profession Standards.

Actuarial Profession Standards (formerly known as MAP)

Version 3.1 of GN5 : The prudential supervision outside the UK of long-term insurance business, which comes into effect on 1 December 2007

A letter from the Chairman of the Life Board


Update 9 - issued 20 June 2007

The full Professional Standards Directory is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards, together with the current version of the Actuarial Profession Standards.

  • Professional Conduct Standards (PCS)
    Version 3.0 came into effect on 1 August 2007.

The changes to the PCS have been made to recognise the establishment of the Board for Actuarial Standards (BAS) and, as set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the Profession and the Financial Reporting Council dated 17 May 2006, to recognise that the responsibility for setting and maintaining actuarial technical standards now lies with BAS. The opportunity has also been taken to clarify some paragraphs which feedback suggests were unclear in the previous Version 2.3.


Update 8 - issued 11 April 2007

The Actuarial Profession transferred responsibility for five outstanding technical Guidance Notes (GNs 11, 19, 28, 49 and 51) and Technical Memorandum 1 (TM1) to the Board for Actuarial Standards (BAS) on 6 April 2007.

To achieve this final transfer the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) had to amend relevant legislation, to alter the statutory references to these Guidance Notes. This completes the process started in May 2006 when BAS, as part of the Financial Reporting Council, took responsibility for setting actuarial technical standards. BAS now has responsibility for ensuring 37 Guidance Notes are kept up-to-date and for incorporataing any legislative or regulatory changes.

The Profession has retained responsibility for setting and maintaining professional conduct and ethical standards, including eight existing Guidance Notes. This includes one technical note (GN27) which remains with the Profession because the MFR legislation has been repealed (save only for limited purposes) and it was not possible for the DWP to make the necessary legislative amendments to allow its handover.

The Board for Actuarial Standards is responsible for producing technical actuarial standards and the Actuarial Profession is responsible for implementing those standards. Each body is responsible for the content on its own website. The following Guidance Notes were adopted by BAS with effect from 6 April 2007:

  • GN11: Retirement benefit schemes - transfer values
    Version 9.2. Effective 30.12.05
  • GN19: Retirement benefit schemes - winding-up and scheme asset deficiency
    Version 4.7. Effective 02.09.05
  • GN28: Retirement benefit schemes - adequacy of benefits for contracting-out
    Version 2.1. Effective 29.07.06
  • GN49: Occupational pension schemes - scheme funding matters on which advice of actuary must be obtained
    Version 1.0. Effective 30.12.05
  • GN51: Retirement benefit schemes - modification of subsisting rights without consent
    Version 1.1. Effective 06.11.06
  • Technical Memorandum (TM1): Statutory money purchase illustrations
    Version 1.2. Effective 01.11.06

These Guidance Notes are available on the BAS website.


Update 7 - issued 27 February 2007

Actuarial Profession Standards
(formerly known as the Manual of Actuarial Practice (MAP))


Update 6 - issued 19 January 2007

The Professional Standards Directory can be found here. It is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards together with the current version of Actuarial Profession Standards.

BAS Standards

The Board for Actuarial Standards is responsible for producing technical actuarial standards and the Actuarial Profession is responsible for implementing those standards. Each body is responsible for the content on its own website.

Further to PSD Update 5 (issued on 27 December 2006), the Board for Actuarial Standards (BAS) has advised that a further change has been made to:

  • GN46: Individual capital assessment
    Version 2.0. BAS amendment 1

The revised GN is available on the BAS website. The change adds the words "in respect of long-term insurance business" to the 'Application' section of the GN. There has been no change to the version/amendment number of the GN or the effective date.


Update 5 - issued 27 December 2006

The Professional Standard Directory can be found here. It is designed to permit members and others to access the current BAS standards together with the current version of the Actuarial Profession Standards.

BAS Standards

Please note that the Actuarial Profession is not responsible for the BAS Standards or for the contents of the BAS website.

Following the proposals in FSA PS 06/14, Prudential changes for insurers, a number of revisions have been made to the following Guidance Notes:

  • GN44: Mathematical reserves and resilience capital requirement
    Version 2.0. BAS amendment 1
  • GN45: Determining the with-profits insurance capital component
    Version 2.0. BAS amendment 1
  • GN46: Individual capital assessment
    Version 2.0. BAS amendment 1
  • GN47: Stochastic modelling of economic risks in life insurance
    Version 2.0. BAS amendment 1

These GNs are the responsibility of the Board for Actuarial Standards and the BAS has published versions of the GNs on its website at: http://www.frc.org.uk/bas/actuarial/index.cfm.

Members were alerted to near final versions of the GNs in Professional Standards Directory (PSD) - Update 4 issued on 20 December 2006. The GNs have now been replaced with final versions which take effect on 31 December 2006.

As stated in the PSD Update of 20 December 2006, the profession considered what changes to the GNs might be appropriate as a result of the proposals in PS06/14 and shared its work with the BAS as input to the BAS's thinking. Paul Seymour, Chairman of the BAS, has written to the Presidents setting out the various options which the BAS considered in amending the GNs - see full text of letter.


Update 4 - issued 20 December 2006

Actuarial Profession Standards
(formerly known as the Manual of Actuarial Practice (MAP))

The following process documents will come into effect on 1 January 2007:

BAS Standards

  • GN44: Mathematical reserves and resilience capital requirement
    Version 2.0. BAS amendment 1
  • GN45: Determining the with-profits insurance capital component
    Version 2.0 BAS amendment 1
  • GN46: Individual capital assessment
    Version 2.0. BAS amendment 1
  • GN47: Stochastic modelling of economic risks in life insurance
    Version 2.0. BAS amendment 1

These guidance notes are the responsibility of the Board for Actuarial Standards and the BAS has published versions of the GNs on its website at: http://www.frc.org.uk/bas/actuarial/index.cfm.

The revised versions are currently near final versions which will be replaced in the next couple of days with final versions which take effect on 31 December 2006.

See the letter to the Presidents from Paul Seymour, Chairman, BAS.


Update 3 - issued 30 November 2006

Actuarial Profession Standards
(formerly known as the Manual of Actuarial Practice (MAP))


Update 2 - issued 3 October 2006

Actuarial Profession Standards
(formerly known as the Manual of Actuarial Practice (MAP))

BAS Standards

Please note that the Actuarial Profession is not responsible for the BAS standards or for the contents of the BAS website.


Update 1 - issued 7 July 2006

Actuarial Profession Standards
(formerly known as the Manual of Actuarial Practice (MAP))


 
Page updated: 31 October 2008
Contact: Web editor