13th global actuaries'' summit begins on Monday

Mumbai, Feb 17 (PTI) The Institute of Actuaries ofIndia (IAI) is organising the 13th global conference onactuaries from next Monday here.

The theme of the two-day summit is ''emergingrisks�daring solutions'' and will be addressed by a host ofinsurance and pension regulators from across the world, ICICIPrudential Life Insurance managing director and chiefexecutive Sandeep Bakshi told PTI here today.

Underlining the growing importance of actuarialservices in safekeeping the financial health of financialservices providers, chairman of IAI''s strategic group oncommunications, who also heads actuarial services at ICICIPruLife, Sunil Sharma urged universities to open actuarialcourses so that the rapidly growing insurance and otherfinancial services sectors will not face talent crunch whileavailing their services.

Describing the job of an actuary as "very crucial inthis rapidly changing times," Sharma pointed out that "anactuary is the one who makes financial sense of the future byanalysing the past, modelling the future, and assessing therisks involved in a financial product, traditionally aninsurance policy, and communicates what the result means infinancial terms to the management."

He further said the introduction of internationalfinancial reporting standards (IFRS) will pose greaterchallenges to financial sector companies, which in turn willincrease the role of actuaries as it is an actuary who ensuresthat the company is alive and financially healthy to meet itslong-term promises to policyholders/investors. .

The challenges of actuaries are increasing by the day as financial services providers are increasingly launchingmore and more risky products and getting themselves exposed toriskier assets, Bakshi said, adding this rapidly changingscenario calls for increased actuarial services so that thesecompanies can cushion themselves against future risks.

Over 70 speakers from around the world, including theleaders from the domestic financial institutions will bedebating the major issues facing the financial markets today,Sharma said.

Sharma noted that the number of actuaries has beengrowing exponentially in the country and has increased fromover 1,800 as of March 2002 to over 12,000 now.