Our judging panel chose FIS's Prophet solution as best actuarial modelling solution of the year for being a "comprehensive tool, which has continued to evolve and adapt".
Prophet is highly regarded in the insurance risk management space for providing an all-in-one system that simplifies actuarial modelling and risk management. This is substantiated by Prophet having won InsuranceERM's best actuarial modelling solution twice in the last three years.
The solution can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud and is used by more than 10,000 insurance professionals globally across 1,000 sites in over 70 countries.
In 2020, FIS says enhancements to the modelling platform have included the ability to aggregate policy results to chosen levels of granularity, without having to specify code; and optimisations for complex insurance product types that could make models run faster.
The judges commended Prophet's "tried and tested methodology that continues to develop".
This is evident by the fact the system offers 20 up-to-date extensive actuarial libraries covering many regions and lines of business, as well as asset-liability management and regulatory reporting, such as Solvency II, IFRS 17 and US GAAP.
FIS says it regularly updates its libraries to incorporate emerging regulatory calculation requirements. For example, the provider launched Prophet's IFRS 17 Group Calculations Library in 2017 and since then it has been adopted at over 100 sites globally.
Commenting on the plan for Prophet and wider business strategy in 2021, Martin Sarjeant, head of insurance risk solutions management and strategy at FIS, says there will be "even deeper functionality for managing IFRS 17 and LDTI".
He says FIS will also be making further enhancements to its IFRS 17 subledger capabilities and its suite of governance software for IFRS 17 processes.
Looking ahead, Sarjeant says: "Insurers need to look critically at their internal risk management models: their pricing assumptions, their solvency models and how these performed during this pandemic.
"While there are certainly lessons to be learned and improvements to be made, firms cannot simply assume that the next crisis will mirror this one and must think beyond another influenza-based pandemic, with more explicit pandemic modelling in the future."
He adds: "Whatever happens in the future, insurers are going to need the ability to model existing and new scenario and risks at short notice, in a shorter timeframe – from anywhere and almost by anyone."
