Insurance Asset Risk Asia 2022 conference's second day explored the latest regulatory and accounting developments in the region.
Panellists praised the introduction, or upgrade, of the risk-based capital (RBC) regimes across the region as improving the management and identification of risk by insurers.
Carol Mo, head of investment management at BOC Life, said Hong Kong's RBC rules allowed insurers to better communicate with different stakeholders on their risk management.
Although the regime carries some constraints, Terence Yiu, director of asset liability management, investments and capital management, Asia, at Ageas, said it was a positive development to make sure insurers did not overinvest in risky assets.
Bong Choi, head of financial risk management at AXA Hong Kong and Macau, highlighted the difficulty of operating across different capital regimes simultaneously and the need to strike balances between them.
An added complexity for Asian insurer is to implement those regulatory changes alongside changes in accounting standards. Indeed, as IFRS 17 and IFRS 9 come into force, insurers are faced with hard (implementation) choices.
In implementing IFRS 9, some gaps may emerge between local and group reporting, Generali IFRS 17/9 programme manager for Asia, Blake Sowerby, explained. For Asia, the calculation of the expected credit loss (ECL) is a particularly thorny topic as some jurisdictions have decided to give their local sovereign debt a zero probability of default. While investment behaviors have not changed yet because of the standard, Sowerby said that once implementation uncertainty dissipates, we might see some shifts in asset allocation.
Join us for day 3 on Thursday January at 3:00pm SG & HK/7:00am GMT, when two panels will discuss the rise of sustainable finance and future implications for investment decisions.
A round up of day 1 is available here.
The conference is free to attend for Re/Insurers, Regulators, Supervisors, Commissioners. Please email events@fieldgibsonmedia.com to receive an invitation.