News

The Minister for Social and Family Affairs has approved certain changes to the actuarial assumptions set out in Appendix 1 of ASP Pen-4, Funding Proposals under the Pensions Act.  These changes will come into effect at 1st April 2010.

The main changes are as follows:

We are delighted to announce that, in Cape Town last night, the Society of Actuaries in Ireland (SAI) entered into an agreement with the Actuarial Society of South Africa  (ASSA) on mutual recognition of qualifications.  This will benefit Fellows and Associates of each of the Societies who wish to practice in the other country.
 
A Fellow or Associate of the SAI may apply to become a Fellow or Associate of the ASSA if he or she:

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

CEIOPS has submitted to the European Commission the Task Force Report on the Liquidity Premium containing technical considerations regarding the application of a liquidity premium for the valuation of insurance liabilities, principles for extrapolation and considerations on the choice of the reference risk-free rat

The Society welcomes an announcement from Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, that the National Pensions Framework will be published next Wednesday, 3rd March, at 2.30pm.

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.

Ms Jane Curtis FIA has been elected as President-Elect of the Institute of Actuaries at a meeting of the Institute Council.  Ms Curtis is currently a Vice-President of the Institute and a member of the Institute’s Professional Regulation Executive Committee.

The Pensions Board has published its Review of 2009  – a fact sheet and commentary giving an overview of the pensions sector and the Board’s activities for 2009. 

The Chief Executive of the Pensions Board, Brendan Kennedy, gave a presentation recently to the IAPF Trustees Forum on “What the Pensions Board expects of Trustees” .  He pointed out that, while trustees are not expected to be pension professionals, they must put in the effort needed to acquire a basic knowledge of the I

The Minister for Social & Family Affairs has approved a change in the Society’s Actuarial Standard of Practice on Retirement Benefit Schemes Transfer Values.  The pre-retirement discount rate in the standard transfer value basis set out in the ASP will reduce from 7.75% to 7.5% per annum with effect from 1st March 2010. 

CEIOPS  has published its third and final set of Advice on Solvency II Level 2 Implementing Measures following formal approval by CEIOPS Members, together with a