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Sustainable Investment Taxonomy - the end of the beginning?
2 March 2020
Reaching political agreement in December 2019 on the so-called ‘taxonomy regulation’ marked an important milestone in the EU Sustainable Finance Action Plan. The taxonomy is a highly ambitious initiative, straying beyond the boundaries of mainstream financial services regulation by establishing four criteria for determining what constitutes environmentally sustainable activity in the real economy. Firms will welcome the clarity this will bring, given the role it will play in helping them meet new regulatory obligations being introduced under the Action Plan.
COP 26 Private Finance Agenda Launched
2 March 2020
The new COP 26 Private Finance Agenda was unveiled on Thursday 27 February by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Sir David Attenborough, and newly-installed President of the Glasgow Summit, Business Secretary Alok Sharma. The Agenda is a drive to ensure every financial decision made worldwide takes climate change and the net zero transition into account, ahead of the crucial COP26 summit in Glasgow.
CMI publishes CMI_2019 Mortality Projections Model
2 March 2020
The CMI has published CMI_2019, an updated version of the Mortality Projections Model, and accompanying Working Paper 129. The new version incorporates recent population mortality data into the Model.
What’s the purpose of risk management? There is an answer out there…
2 March 2020
Dig a little, and the regulatory – and perhaps the sensible commercial – answer seem to be that risk management helps organisations make better decisions.
Indeed, it is an often-overlooked part of Solvency II that firms must document their decision-making process as part of their risk management system. [I mentioned this once to a regulator, it was new to them].
Thematic Review Programme – Actuarial Factors in Pension Schemes
2 March 2020
We are pleased to announce the launch of our first review, under the Thematic Review Programme initiated in September 2019. The review will look at examples of actuarial advice provided during the review of transfer values and commutation rates for UK private pension schemes.
Cyber Risk - your views … what our 2019 survey told us
27 February 2020
In autumn 2019 the IFoA Cyber Risk Working Party launched a survey to better understand perceptions around the uncertainty cyber risk has on different areas of actuarial work. The principal aim of the survey was to gather information to help the working party steer its future output, as it continues to provide guidance to IFoA members on cyber risk.
Now that we have collated the results we thought it would be useful to share what came out of the survey and some of the insights it provided.
Survey responses
COP 26: how might it impact on your clients?
27 February 2020
In this guest blog, Ed Baker, Senior Specialist, Climate Change and Energy Transition at the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) explains that in the current climate reporting environment, investors need to act now to manage risk and protect value.
Health and Care at the IFoA: get in touch
26 February 2020
Chris Reynolds, Chair of the IFoA’s Health and Care Practice Board, blogs on discussions at the latest board meeting and invites input from members.
The Health and Care (H&C) Board has just approved its objectives for the new session. One of these is to increase our transparency and engagement with the membership.
E-Cigarettes – No smoke without fire
25 February 2020
In this blog, Christina Cosma of the IFoA’s E-Cigarettes Working Party, discusses the challenges the group has faced when trying to understand the risks posed by E-Cigarettes versus traditional cigarettes.
IFoA Certificate in Data Science: Booking now open
24 February 2020
Booking is now open for the first IFoA Certificate in Data Science, a 10 week online programme running from 30 April this year.
The programme provides an introduction to the concepts, tools and techniques used in data science, and their relevance within an actuarial context. It blends theory and practice, with the use of practical examples and case studies.
The programme is delivered online over eight weeks, with structured support, followed by two weeks to complete the final programme assignment.