FRC publishes new technical actuarial standards

News types: Codes and Standards Announcements

Published: 14 December 2016

PN 72/16

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has today published a revised suite of Technical Actuarial Standards (TASs) . The publication of the revised TASs follows a review of the existing technical actuarial standards, two consultations on the FRC’s TASs and a risk assessment of actuarial work to determine the scope of the Specific TASs.

The new TASs are:
  • TAS 100: Principles for technical actuarial work (TAS 100) which will apply to all technical actuarial work; and
  • three Specific TASs - TAS 200: Insurance, TAS 300: Pensions and TAS 400: Funeral plan trusts - which will apply to areas of technical actuarial work where there is a high degree of risk to the public interest.
The revised standards will come into force on 1 July 2017 and will replace the existing standards. TAS 100 extends the scope of FRC technical actuarial standards to cover all technical actuarial work. The current standards only apply to specific areas of work and work reserved to actuaries.

Melanie McLaren, Executive Director, Audit and Actuarial Regulation said:

“High quality actuarial work is vital in promoting trust in financial markets for the millions of UK pensioners and savers and the many investors and investor groups who allocate capital.
By extending the scope of our standards we are aiming to ensure that users of actuarial information (such as pension scheme trustees, pension scheme sponsors and insurance company directors) can rely on the quality of all technical actuarial work.

The risk assessment process ensures that area specific standards are focused on areas of technical actuarial work where there is a high degree of risk to the public interest.”

The feedback statement on the consultation Revised Specific TASs along with the revised standards.  

Notes to editors:
  1. The FRC is responsible for promoting high quality corporate governance and reporting to foster investment.  We are the UK competent authority for audit and set the UK Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes as well as UK standards for accounting, auditing and actuarial work.  We represent UK interests in international standard-setting.  We also monitor and take action to promote the quality of corporate reporting and auditing.  We operate independent enforcement arrangements for accountants and actuaries; and oversee the regulatory activities of the accountancy and actuarial professional bodies.
  2. Actuarial work is central to many financial decisions in insurance and pensions but is increasingly recognised as adding value in other areas where the modelling and evaluation of risk and financial returns over time is required. High quality actuarial work assists users by enabling them to make decisions in support of their objectives while mitigating risks to the achievement of those objectives. Poor quality or insufficient actuarial work can result in decisions being made which are detrimental to the public interest.
  3. Currently, there are three Generic TASs, which apply across a wide range of actuarial work principally in insurance and pensions, on data, modelling and reporting actuarial information. There are also four Specific TASs, applying to work in insurance, pensions, funeral plans and transformations. The Generic TASs were issued in 2009 and 2010 and the Specific TASs were issued in 2010 and 2011.
  4. Under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the IFoA and the FRC, the IFoA requires those members to whom the TASs are intended to apply to observe them.

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