New Actuarial Standard on Insurance is Published

News types: Codes and Standards Announcements

Published: 11 November 2010

BAS PN 36

The FRC’s Board for Actuarial Standards (BAS) has today published its standard for insurance work, building on the foundation laid by its standards on Reporting, Data and Modelling.

The new standard will help to ensure that managers and directors of insurance companies can rely on the actuarial information supplied by their actuaries, and understand its implications for their decisions. It requires actuaries to justify their assumptions and explain the uncertainty around any results and projected cash flows.

Commenting on the new standard, Jim Sutcliffe, Chairman of the BAS, said:

“Actuarial work has often been seen as a “black box”. Decisions taken by those responsible for insurance companies are heavily dependent on actuarial work and we have laid out principles that we believe will help ensure that the work is not only of a high quality, but also comprehensible.

Actuaries cannot predict the future, but they can provide useful insights into a world where continuing financial uncertainty, changes to capital requirements and potential changes in financial reporting pose many diverse challenges to managers and directors of insurance companies. The insurance standard sets a new benchmark in ensuring that users receive the actuarial information they need to make the best decisions.”


Notes to Editors

  1. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is the UK’s independent regulator responsible for promoting high quality corporate governance and reporting to foster investment.

  2. The Board for Actuarial Standards has a primary objective of promoting competence and transparency of actuarial practice by establishing and improving actuarial technical standards and ensuring that they are coherent, consistent and comprehensive.

  3. The BAS has issued an amended version of the guidance note GN12: General insurance business – actuarial reports. This version allows compliance with GN12 by complying with the relevant BAS standards.

Document created under a former FRC operating body.

Explore the topics