Brexit's merits and drawbacks will long be debated – but one positive outcome was certainly the creation of the Prudential International Assurance (PIA) actuarial team.
PIA is a Dublin-based insurer in the UK offshore bond market that is part of M&G Group, a UK & Europe insurance and asset management business that was demerged from Prudential Group in October 2019.
The Brexit connection comes in because following the UK government's decision to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and leave the European Union, the Prudential Assurance Company transferred its long-term non-UK European business to PIA. This included an open book based in Poland and several closed books of business.
PIA's actuarial team wins this prestigious InsuranceERM award in recognition of the incredible journey the team has been on since its formation in 2019.
Despite the team being based in Dublin and Warsaw, they have managed to become an integrated group that has delivered several major strategic change projects; completed the transfer of M&G group's Polish, French and Maltese portfolios into PIA; and created the processes and governance required to successfully deliver 5.5 different sets of quarterly reporting.
Other achievements from the PIA team that impressed the judging panel was migrating its actuarial liability model to a platform based on WTW's RiskAgility software.
In addition, the PIA team has transitioned from M&G group's internal model to the standard formula as the basis for its local regulatory capital calculations, while still maintaining internal model reporting for the group purpose.
The team has also led the design and implementation of a major new reinsurance transaction which will significantly improve the company's capital position.
Successfully delivering all these outputs requires a strong focus on efficient processes, tools and governance. To that end, PIA Actuarial has embraced new technology. For example, it replaced its old Excel-based models with Python scripts to improve run speeds and operational risk.
The team has also been involved with development of workflow-scripting in WTW's Unify platform to automate key modelling tasks and results extraction for quarterly reporting and annual ORSA processes.
Finally, in spite of being based in two locations, the PIA team deserves credit for working hard to create a great working environment evidenced by high engagement scores and team stability. In this sense, the team has forged a true Irish-Polish partnership and cross-border friendships.
Asked about learning points since the team's formation, PIA's chief actuary Gareth McQuillan says: "Over time, actuarial teams often become great at overcoming poor tools and processes by developing clever workarounds and then just 'pulling out all the stops' every quarter to meet reporting deadlines. However, to really move forward, I think it's critical to develop a culture where everyone in the team is constantly asking 'why do we do this?' or 'can we do this differently/better?' - and then to develop the tenacity and resilience to act o these challenges, and turn them into concrete improvements."
He adds that balancing priorities and resourcing between business-as-usual and project work "is also difficult, but critical".
