News

An expert working group on medical negligence litigation, chaired by High Court Judge Mr Justice John Quirke and including Mr James Kehoe, Fellow, Society of Actuaries in Ireland, has reported that the current system of awarding lump sum payments for damages for future care needs in medical negligence, and all other cases where catastrophic injuries are awarded damages, is inadequate and inappropriate.

The Society has responded to a European Commission consultation on insurance guarantee schemes.
 
Consultation documents
 
Submission

The Society has responded to a consultation paper from the Health Insurance Authority on “Minimum Benefit Regulations in the Irish Private Health Insurance Market”.

The Health Insurance Authority’s recent consultation paper on “Risk Equalisation in the Irish Private Health Insurance Market” invites input on the risk factors to be taken into account in a risk equalisation scheme, such as age, gender and health status.  In the Society’s response to the paper, we emphasise that decisions on risk factors should have regard to, and be consistent with, the objectives of the scheme.  The Society is in favour of a risk equalisation system that encourages competition and new insurers.  It would not be necessary to allow for health status in such

Submission to Financial Regulator on Investment Guarantees

The Financial Regulator published a consultation paper during the summer on “Investment Guarantees – Guidance on Reserving and Risk Governance”. 

The UK Actuarial Profession wishes to commission research in the area of modelling and understanding heterogeneity in mortality and morbidity risk which has an impact in areas of actuarial interest.

The Financial Regulator has published a consultation paper on "Corporate Governance Requirements for Credit Institutions and Insurance Undertakings".

The paper attempts to align corporate governance requirements with recent international regulatory initiatives in the governance field and proposes minimum standards that credit institutions and insurance undertakings will be expected to meet in this area.

The Financial Regulator has published a consultation paper on Investment Guarantees - Guidance on Reserving and Risk Governance
 

In an address to a Financial Regulator Solvency II Insurance Forum this week, Jonathan McMahon, Assistant Director General, Financial Institutions Supervision, urged companies to allocate significant resources to the implementation of Pillar 2 (risk management and governance) and Pillar 3 (supervisor reporting and disclosure) of the Solvency II framework.  He commented that the implementation of Basel II (The Capital Requirements Directive) led banks and regulators to place too much importance on models and their outputs.  He stressed that, while high quality models are important,

Actuaries broadly welcome the National Pensions Framework.  See announcement from Department of Social and Family Affairs here.

See below for the Press Release from SAI.

Click here to listen to Aisling Kennedy's interview on Morning Ireland - 4th March 2010

Newsletter February 2010

Mr Bill Prasifka, currently Chairman of the Competition Authority, has been appointed as Financial Services Ombudsman.  He replaces Mr Joe Meade, who retired last month.

It is expected that Mr Prasifka will take up his appointment by the end of March 2010 or soon thereafter. Mr PJ Fitzpatrick will remain as Interim Ombudsman until then.