Current Issues in General Insurance (CIGI) 2020

12.00-13.00: Jumping the Gap - Updating Embedded Systems

InsurTech headlines are often big statements, which seem impossible to many working in the sector day-to-day. How can actuaries implement new systems, keep the value from legacy systems, deliver BAU and not require the resources of three teams?

This talk:

• Highlights effective strategies to jump the gap to new technologies
• Illustrates practices that provide contingency for future technical growth 
• Introduces the concept of “technical debt” and how you can best manage it

Speakers: George Wright, Vounder Analytics

14.00-15.00: Climate Change Risk in Insurance and Reinsurance 

Pressure on organisations to address climate change risks is intensifying. But what does this really mean for insurers? In this session Adhiraj Maitra and Gareth Sutcliffe will look at the why, the what and the how of this risk through a number of different lenses including regulatory, principle and resilience.”

Speakers: Adhiraj Maitra and Gareth Sutcliffe, Willis Towers Watson

09.00-10.00: The Influential Actuary: identity's Effect on Data Interpretation

Scientists, data analysts and actuaries can struggle to influence decision-making where strongly held political beliefs or membership of an identity group is threatened by their findings. Examples include: climate change, the disposal of nuclear waste and gun control.

To fulfil their roles, actuaries need to be heard when the objective interpretation of data contradicts commonly held beliefs, such as business planning assumptions, the expected development of claims, and the assessment of underwriting or reserving risk in a capital model.

It might be assumed that this influence can be achieved if only people were more educated, more numerate and hence better able to interpret data. However, psychologists have carried out research that strongly challenges this assumption. Indeed: the more numerate someone is, then the more likely they are to interpret data in a way that supports their prior held political or membership-defining belief, even when an objective analysis of the data contradicts this.

Our talk will explain the design of the research, its results and conclusions. Learning from this, we will then explore how to better influence decision-making, with the aim of helping the businesses you advise make the best use of their data. No prior knowledge is required.

Speakers: James Orr, Bank of England, Chris Smerald and David Gurteen

12.00-13.00: Operational Resilience - Is it Time for a Top Down View of Risk?

There have been a number of events across the financial markets where particular services have fallen below customer expectations.  These have included inability to receive or make payments or or the inability to check your own status or access services.  In an increasingly interconnected world the causes of this are often complex and hard to spot in advance, but can be a major impact to the reputations of firms.

Consultation paper CP29/19 on operational resilience from the PRA sets out draft new requirements for firms in both the banking and insurance sectors with the aim to build the resilience of the market to these sorts of events.

This presentation will 

• Explain the approach taken by the PRA for these new requirements
• Consider the differences to current risk approaches
• Consider whether there are other areas where a "top down" approach to risk would be beneficial.

Speaker: Richard Holloway, Lane Clark & Peacock

09.00-10.00: Are you vulnerable ?

With ever increasing focus from the FCA on pricing practices and the relationship between insurers and their customers, it is critical to ensure appropriate controls are in place. This presentation summarises the latest developments in the market and showcases practical approaches to mitigate the risk of poor customer outcomes in pricing, with a particular focus on protecting vulnerable customers.’

There is minimum technical content, as it summarises the latest UK regulatory changes and uses dashboards to highlight monitoring techniques.

Pricing GI area - applies to all levels (beginners / advanced).

Speakers: James Hillon and Kyveli Charsouli, KPMG

12.00-12.45: An Update for Property and Casualty Reinsurance Renewals 2020

Update on renewal pricing outcomes for Property and Casualty markets at the latest 1/1 reinsurance renewals.

The focus will be on capacity availability and price drivers.  These issues include but are not limited to the cat bond market, wider trends in claims outcomes, trends in Casualty RI space that affect pricing such as social inflation, yield curve and the reserving cycle.

Finally, a note on how this may affect actuarial pricing, reserving and capital.

Learning objectives: Business knowledge of reinsurance renewal outcomes and the main drivers

Speakers: Xiohan Fang and Amrita Pattni, Guy Carpenter

12.00-12.45: Current Issues in Personal Injury Modelling

The Ogden Discount Rate shock of 2017 brought about a period of profound uncertainty to General Insurance market.  GI Actuaries' first task was to estimate the impact of the Ogden shocks, particularly to reserving and reinsurance pricing.  Their second was to navigate a period of framework uncertainty, maintaining an agility in actuarial modelling as the Civil Liability Bill took shape. 

Three years on and a new Ogden framework has now been established, but what uncertainty remains?  This presentation looks looks forward to the lasting impact of this Ogden framework and the considerations to be made for actuarial modelling in Pricing, Reserving and Capital Modelling.

Speaker: Justin Thomas, Guy Carpenter

09.00-10.00: Unlock the Value of IM Validation

Model validation should not be a tick box exercise. It has all the right ingredients to be a value adding exercise that can help senior management understand what really drives the business from a risk and capital perspective. Model validation can be a stressful, bloated process - and may not be as value adding as it could be.

 The speakers will present their perspectives of formulating an optimal process by means of example case studies. The timing of CIGI is well aligned to enable attendees to put processes in place to support the vision.

 As an agenda, we would talk about:

• What are the current issues
• Ways to overcome them
• Role of model use

Would be an in depth extension of the blog: https://www.barnett-waddingham.co.uk/comment-insight/blog/model-validation-key-steps-to-a-faster-smoother-process/

Speakers: Wendy Kriz and Nasir Shah, Barnett Waddingham

12.00-13.00: Improving Customer Outcomes through Pricing

The FCA’s interim report into general insurance pricing practices has brought into focus a number of market wide issues including:

• Price walking
• Poor governance
• Higher prices for potentially vulnerable customers
• Higher prices for less aware customers

These underlying issues span across the pricing activities that insurers undertake, from technical model development and data usage through to internal pricing policies and governance. We will discuss these changes in the regulatory landscape and the impacts it might have on actuaries from a pricing and reserving perspective.

Speakers: Steven Perkins and Jae Lake, PwC

12.00-13.00: IFRS 17 Working Party Deep Dive

Working party have been producing a number of deep dive papers, these include topics such as risk adjustment, impact of disclosures on how uncertainty is perceived, deferring acquisition costs over renewals, PAA eligibility and more. 

We will select where to focus the session based on market focus closer to the time. The plan is to do a detailed session with practical examples and considerations rather than a high level educational session. Very happy to discuss further. 

Speakers: Alice Boreman and Jamie Grant