OREANDA-NEWS  On 05 December was announced, that the Actuaries Guild of Russia become full member of the International Actuarial Association – IAA.

This primarily means that the actuarial profession in Russia has been internationally acknowledged, and the qualification of the Guild members corresponds to global standards. They will be included on the global register of chartered actuaries which now represents slightly more than 50 thousand professionals from 60 countries around the world.

This decision was made at the Convention of the IAA Presidium and Committees held in Limassol, Cyprus, on November 1-4 2008.

During his speech the Chairman of the Board of the Actuaries Guild Vladimir Novikov noted that Russian actuaries are back to the global professional community after more than a 90 years’ break. Despite the short development history of the Russian insurance market Russian actuaries are ready for active involvement in dealing with professional challenges globally.

At the convention Russia was also represented by Dmitry Denisov, Director of the Actuaries Guild, Professor of the Moscow State Lomonosov University, and Ksenia Orekhova, member of the Actuaries Guild, Chief Actuary of AIG Life.

Amongst others, during the convention the actuaries spoke about their actions in the situation of the global financial crisis. The actuaries set up a special Crisis Management Work Group.

The message disseminated by the American Academy of Actuaries in the US raised great interests among the actuaries. According to the American Academy of Actuaries, one of the reasons underpinning the underestimation of the risks inherent to complex financial products was weak degree of involvement of actuaries in the investment management industry. On the other hand, insurance industry demonstrated the adequacy of valuation of its liabilities (being the area of responsibility of actuaries) which did not require any reevaluation in contrast to the assets.

The appearance of a professional association of actuaries in Russia is an important event for domestic insurance and pension markets, being yet another step towards more advanced methods of control based on risk management rather than on administrative control.

Moreover, the acknowledgement of qualification of Russian actuaries extends them an opportunity to compete for jobs with international insurance companies and pension funds, including the ones represented in Russia.

The Actuaries Guild is a professional association of actuaries created in 2002. In 2006 the Guild became an associate member of the International Actuarial Association. The Guild unites more than 150 actuaries working in insurance companies, pension funds, universities and governmental authorities.

The International Actuarial Association (IAA) was founded in 1895 and is now the global association with common membership. National actuarial member associations have to demonstrate compliance with education and qualification standards, they have to have a Code of Business Conduct and a relevant compliance procedure in place. Individual members of the IAA member organization are acknowledged chartered actuaries.