Actuaries have come together to form the Actuarial Association of Sri Lanka (AASL) in a long overdue initiative that would be an important milestone in the development of the local financial services sector.
As business professionals who analyse the financial consequences of risk, actuaries use mathematics, statistics, economics, and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to long term insurance and pension programmes, the AASL said. Actuaries are most frequently employed in the insurance industry, for which they calculate the costs to assume risk -- how much to charge policyholders for life or health insurance premiums or how much an insurance company can expect to pay in claims when the next natural disaster occurs.
The Actuarial Association of Sri Lanka formally launched last week has among its chief objectives the popularisation and promotion of the profession and to set, govern and safeguard the code of professional ethics and conduct of its members in relation to the practice of the actuarial profession.
Speaking at its inauguration, the AASL’s founder President Amali Seneviratne, a Director of Ceylinco Life said there are 16 companies transacting long term insurance business in Sri Lanka today and that new regulations are forthcoming requiring mandatory Actuarial Certification for the General Insurance business as well. “The lack of qualified actuaries is a key issue for the Sri Lankan Insurance Industry today. We need a strategy to increase the number of qualified actuaries in Sri Lanka to meet the national demand,” she said.
The first Council and founder membership of the Actuarial Association of Sri Lanka comprises Ms. Amali Seneviratne (President), Jaap Plugge (Vice President), Ms Thanuja Krishnaratne (Secretary), Pushpakumar Gunasekera (Treasurer) and council members – R. Kahakachchi, M. Poopalanathan, Kishan Gunaratne, Sujeewa Kumarapperuma, Stanley Perera and Roshan Perera.
|
E-mail