Johannesburg - Actuaries are in high demand following the global financial
crisis, the Actuarial Society of SA said on Monday.
"The global credit crisis has resulted in high demand for
professionals qualified in risk assessment and management.
"Increasingly actuaries are required to lead the risk strategies
of organisations instead of restricting themselves to the
traditional field of product design," the society's president Peter
Doyle said.
He said the global financial crisis had opened a whole new
career path for actuaries.
"Where previously organisations were generally happy to appoint
as head of risk management anyone available and willing, leaders
now have to apply their mind as to who is best suited to take
charge of the company's risk management portfolio," Doyle said.
He said companies were increasingly turning to actuaries to
fulfil this role since they were already skilled at identifying and
mitigating risks.
Doyle said the evolution of the actuarial profession had placed
an added responsibility on actuarial societies around the world to
assist actuaries in improving their skills.
"As a result the society late last year joined 14 actuarial
societies from other countries in adopting a tough new credential
for actuaries - the Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary (Cera)
designation."
Doyle said the global financial crisis exposed the practice of
excessive risk taking by those who were trusted by shareholders and
consumers as the guardians of their savings and investments.
"This has led to a global review of regulatory frameworks for
financial services institutions.
"While the South African financial services industry did not
suffer a single casualty to the global crisis we are a global
player and have therefore not escaped the wide reaching changes
that are being implemented to prevent a recurrence of the carnage
that shook the world late in 2008 and early last year."
In addition to dealing with the fallout from the global
financial crisis, South Africa was also embracing dramatic changes
such as retirement and social security reform and healthcare
reform.
Doyle said all these initiatives involved the actuarial
profession since the society was required to provide experts to
contribute to the development of these reforms and to develop
pro-active thinking on these changes.
"It is therefore imperative that the society assists in
developing local actuaries with an in-depth knowledge of local
conditions."
Doyle said this had been made easier by the launch late last
year of South Africa's own professional actuarial qualification.
Previously South Africans had to turn to foreign countries to
qualify as actuaries, with the majority qualifying via the UK
system.
Doyle said critical for the society was the development of black
actuaries.
"We have commissioned research into obstacles that black South
African face in qualifying as actuaries.
"In addition we also support several mentorship programmes with
the aim of helping black students at varsity level succeed in their
endeavour to become qualified actuaries."
- Sapa