British actuaries are leading the way globally with international demand for UK actuarial expertise on the increase as regulatory pressures mount according to OAC Actuaries and Consultants. The independent actuarial and financial services consultancy with clients throughout the UK and around the world has seen year-on-year increases in requests for UK-based actuarial expertise from overseas.
The changing regulatory landscape has driven a huge amount of international and domestic demand with Solvency II and Basel III bringing the enterprise risk management skillset of the actuary to the fore. The number of actuaries working in ERM has increased 284% between 2012 and 2013 and as more firms edge towards compliance, and other economic regions around the world adopt similar regimes, we would expect this trend to continue to increase in 2014 (and beyond).
Actuaries working in Investment Management and General Insurance have also increased by 10% respectively over this period. Both of these sectors will be affected by the incoming regulation and are also looking to find actuarial support.
Actuaries who have been trained or worked in the UK are seen as among the best by firms looking to recruit actuarial support due to the rigorous standards used to train actuaries in the UK. The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) has seen an ever increasing number of applications from those overseas to become an actuarial student in the UK. Currently 54% of all IFoA students are based overseas and 40% of its members work outside of the UK.
Colette Lurshay, head of actuarial contractor services at OAC comments on the importance of actuaries to the UK:
“The regulatory landscape and prevailing attitudes have changed markedly in the global financial services industry. More stock is now placed on robust and accurate risk management and contingency planning making the actuary’s unique skillset even more important than it once was.”
Lurshay continues:
“The UK actuarial standard is very highly regarded throughout the world and there is a strong demand for UK actuaries from companies across the globe. Additionally students come from around the world to study in the UK. The undoubted home of the actuary is the UK and although the industry is often ignored and unheralded the fact is that it is a world leader and one we should appreciate and celebrate more.”
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