APN116 was recently issued and is effective for reporting periods starting on or after 31 March 2024. This therefore applies to all South Africa life insurers’ quarterly QRT for March and all annual QRTs for those with a March year end. It outlines the requirement to stress life IBNR provisions using the standard life underwriting…
The reality of international insurers withdrawing coverage or exiting specific regions is not just speculative fiction—it’s happening now. In Louisiana, insurers have departed due to heightened storm and flood risks, while in California, wildfires have prompted similar actions. Even State Farm, a major insurer, is suspending new sales and opting not to renew some of…
I’ve been brewing a wild idea for a while. Insurance regulations weren’t written with IFRS17 in mind. This causes some head scratching when it comes to premium volume measure for non-life insurance, but common sense gets you to the right answer without much trouble. Those who say otherwise seem to be looking for problems where…
I’ve had reasons to think about Nigeria recently, in general but also from an insurance market and acquisition environment. I’ve helped several investors looking at Nigerian insurers over the years. Familiarity with the market and the expectations of these investors has bred complexity rather than contempt. This isn’t an easy diagnosis of land of plenty…
Actuaries need to update estimates, contribute to the discussion on appropriate bonus levels and help make calls on new and existing products and pricing. There is usually more than enough uncertainty and we’ve developed a set of tools and heuristics and ways to go about this under normal conditions. What happens when the conditions are…
What does Business Rescue mean for credit risk, ratings and cross-default? Business Rescue precludes creditors from applying for liquidation of the business. This is the removal of an existing right of lenders: “a temporary moratorium on the rights of claimants against the company or in respect of property in its possession” From what I gather…
Infrastructure as an asset class is hardly a new idea. Retirement funds are attracted to the promise of higher turns, long-dated cash flows, and consistency with increasingly important ESG factors. Insurers, unlikely retirement funds, have to hold risk-based capital against the risks inherent in their investments. This makes it more difficult to underestimate the risks…
I love analogies. As analogies go, many things are well approximated by the “toss of a coin”. Gender at birth is not. And it’s not for two reasons, only one of which you can probably guess. The sex ratio at birth is not 1 boy to 1 girl. As of 2017, according to World Bank…
