Focusing on transformation alone would not serve the actuarial profession or the country said Peter Temple, president of Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA) at the 2014 ASSA Convention in Cape Town.
Temple was pleased to report that the demographic face of the actuarial profession in South Africa is set to change significantly over the next couple of years, owing to the number of its African, Indian, and Coloured student members this year exceeding the number of white student members for the first time.
More needs to be done however, according to Temple, who pointed out that it takes up to 10 years or more to become a fully qualified actuary. “The council of the Actuarial Society has therefore also prioritised the on-going development of actuaries through the creation of new learning opportunities in non-traditional fields as well as research projects that will better serve the public interest,” he said.
Temple said ASSA’s banking and finance committee, for example, was in the advanced stages of finalising a Banking Fellowship subject for South African actuaries. This subject recognises some of the issues that potentially led to the fall of African Bank.
In September, ASSA also approved the establishment of an unsecured credit subcommittee mandated to investigate current credit and provisioning practices in South Africa. New research advising stakeholders such as the life insurance industry and government on the long-term impact of diseases and population growth will be produced by the new Epidemiology and Demography Committee (previously the AIDS Committee).
Student body transforming
Temple told delegates that ASSA currently has 950 white student members and 959 African, Indian, and Coloured student members. Actuarial student members have achieved an undergraduate degree and possibly even an honours degree and are employed while studying part-time towards an actuarial qualification.
In addition, universities report that the majority of students in most undergraduate actuarial programmes are now black. Temple said while the transformation of the actuarial profession had been a strategic imperative of ASSA for many years, a decision was taken earlier this year to intensify transformation efforts with the aim of changing the demographics of the actuarial profession at an even faster pace.
“Therefore the transformation committee now reports directly to the Actuarial Society council and is chaired by our president-elect, Roseanne da Silva. We also invited key transformation stakeholders to participate in this committee for the first time. These include the Association of South African Black Actuarial Professionals (ASABA), the South African Actuarial Development Programme (SAADP), Actuaries on the Move and the Actuarial Society Development Trust.”
Temple said the steady growth in the number of African, Coloured and Indian members over the past 20 years could be attributed to improved access to higher standards of education, especially in mathematics, for previously disadvantaged groups together with pro-active intervention from the actuarial profession.