Institute of Actuaries of India to expand overseas

CHENNAI - The Institute of Actuaries of India (IAI) is looking to expand to countries that do not have actuarial education system, while working on expanding the application of actuarial skills in non-traditional sectors within India.

“We will expand into other countries in South Asia and Asia Pacific region who do not have actuarial education system. Within India, we will be spreading the benefit of having actuarial professionals in enterprise and financial risk management, health care, micro insurance and asset-liability management sectors,” IAI President Liyaquat Khan told IANS.

Actuarial science is the method of risk evaluation using mathematical and statistical tools, widely used in insurance and financial sectors.

IAI, along with International Actuarial Association (IAA), will hold the 13th Global Conference of Actuaries in February 2011 in Mumbai. The target is to have around 1,000 delegates, as against 450 last year, Khan said.

He said IAI’s immediate agenda is to put an oversight mechanism for conduct of examinations, and have a fresh look at the education policy so as to align it with industry needs. The institute will also facilitate higher degree of employment, with the employment ratio at the junior level being low, he said.

Ruling out any change in syllabus, he said: “IAI syllabus is closely aligned to the UK actuarial education, which is essentially global in nature. Those qualifying from IAI should have global employment opportunities. This is true even now as many of the newly-qualified are working outside India.”

Agreeing that the pass percentage of IAI students is low, compared to overseas institutes, Khan said the pass rates fall as students climb up the exam ladder.

“We have plan of action to ensure accelerated qualification,” he said.

Terming as undesirable the drastic regulatory changes in the insurance product design approved by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), Khan said: “It is very unfortunate that just in about 10 years of opening up, the life insurance business is in a state of unease. The life insurers did not do anything that was banned by IRDA.”

He said the withdrawal of so called “actuarially funded products” by the IRDA in 2007 was done without adequate discussions.

“There was nothing new that had happened requiring the product’s withdrawal, at least nothing known to the public,” he said.

On the banning of unit linked insurance policy (ULIP), he said IRDA literally pushed the life insurers to sell ULIPs without ensuring that the products have life insurance features, and appointed actuaries could not be blamed for that.