Solvency II compliance requires insurers to address all three pillars of the
regulation, namely:
Pillar1: Capital Requirements
Pillar 2: Workflow, Audit and Governance
Pillar 3: Reporting
In preparing for Solvency II, many insurers have up to this point been focusing
their efforts on addressing the quantitative requirements of Pillar 1 and are
only now turning their attention to Pillars 2 and 3. Under the new regime
insurers will face more frequent and prescriptive reporting alongside
increased levels of controls and governance.
In this paper, industry leading practitioners provide insight into the key
challenges and issues arising when managing the workflow around internal
models. They also discuss processes surrounding reporting and the integration
with risk modeling and capital calculations.
The Solvency II focus is moving from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2 and Pillar 3. Insurance firms now need to ensure the smooth flow of Solvency II data throughout their organizations for efficient regulatory reporting and trusted business analytics. Read the article, ‘Smoothing the flow’, for the experiences and best practices among leading insurance practitioners in Solvency II data management, governance, workflow and regulatory reporting
Data and the enterprise mission: putting data at the corecorfinancial
Data matters to Financial Services firms. It is their stock-in-trade, a strategic asset that without an accurate and timely data set they cannot operate effectively, they cannot price risk fully and their capital allocation calls are unlikely to be optimal. Data is the ultimate collateral of these firms. For many, it requires a transformational change in their systems, technology and processes How then do you embed strategic data into your enterprise architecture?
Read 2 minute guide
An Empirical Study on the information systems in the Moroccan organizations: ...INFOGAIN PUBLICATION
An information system, it’s the key point of the success of companies [5] [6]. Where from the necessity of investing to develop information systems, these investments concern to infrastructures, application software’s, set up systems, and existing processes. Companies have to follow policies to manage well their investment of information systems in an economic and optimal way, it is the subject of this paper. To validate our subject, our hypothesis, a study of ground was necessary. We opted for an empirical study on the information systems of the high-level Moroccan organizations in various sectors, by basing itself on scientific foundations. The study and the data analysis allowed us to propose new simplified models.
The Solvency II focus is moving from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2 and Pillar 3. Insurance firms now need to ensure the smooth flow of Solvency II data throughout their organizations for efficient regulatory reporting and trusted business analytics. Read the article, ‘Smoothing the flow’, for the experiences and best practices among leading insurance practitioners in Solvency II data management, governance, workflow and regulatory reporting
Data and the enterprise mission: putting data at the corecorfinancial
Data matters to Financial Services firms. It is their stock-in-trade, a strategic asset that without an accurate and timely data set they cannot operate effectively, they cannot price risk fully and their capital allocation calls are unlikely to be optimal. Data is the ultimate collateral of these firms. For many, it requires a transformational change in their systems, technology and processes How then do you embed strategic data into your enterprise architecture?
Read 2 minute guide
An Empirical Study on the information systems in the Moroccan organizations: ...INFOGAIN PUBLICATION
An information system, it’s the key point of the success of companies [5] [6]. Where from the necessity of investing to develop information systems, these investments concern to infrastructures, application software’s, set up systems, and existing processes. Companies have to follow policies to manage well their investment of information systems in an economic and optimal way, it is the subject of this paper. To validate our subject, our hypothesis, a study of ground was necessary. We opted for an empirical study on the information systems of the high-level Moroccan organizations in various sectors, by basing itself on scientific foundations. The study and the data analysis allowed us to propose new simplified models.
[Whitepaper] From Profit Recovery To Retention Anybill
Many companies today rely on “post-transaction recovery” to audit, reconcile and recover mistaken vendor payments. However, this blunt-force, after-the-fact approach to invoice reconciliation is extraordinarily costly and wasteful.
Due to process inadequacies in their accounts payable (AP) departments, they are cutting checks that are not owed, paying phantom bills and contributing to various forms of “profit leakage.”
Best-in-class companies, however, have discovered that these operational mistakes are preventable. Leveraging Intelligent Invoice Reconciliation (IIR) solutions, they are engaging in the “pre-transaction retention” of mishandled payables—taking action before dollars erroneously fly out the door. By analyzing their transaction data in real-time and reconciling invoices with payables, they are pre-empting AP leakage, enhancing operational processes and protecting their profits.
This position paper explains how these advanced companies are rethinking their approaches to invoice reconciliation and establishing a stronger foundation for accounts payable.
The Organic IT Department: Strategic Cost Analysis to Unlock a Sustainable Co...Juan Carbonell
This paper was submitted as final exam substitute for the International Business Strategy course at UNSW. It is a research paper illustrating how transaction cost economics (TCE) can be used to quantify the hidden cost of running in IT department. The resource-based view (RBV) is then used to explain how a salient IT department can be viewed as a resource to enable a sustainable competitive advantage amongst competitors. This paper is a work in progress awaiting feedback from a senior lecturer.
James J Okarimia
Managing Partner
Aligning Finance, Risk and Data Analytics in Meeting the Requirements of Emerging Regulations
Banks must meet more (and more varied) regulations today than ever. The sheer scale and scope of banking regulations, including Dodd-Frank, Basel III and IFRS, pose challenges to all financial institutions, from the smallest bank to the largest financial services enterprise.
Core2 Group: Digital data & activity analytics for risk adjusted return model...Hugh Lloyd-Thomas
Big data Digital Footprint Data™ & activity measures provide daily orthogonal data and analytics to augment the current traditional measures used to develop optimal risk adjusted return strategies at the company, industry, sector and country levels. The digital data activity measures are also particularly useful for analyzing the risk adjusted returns for private companies since there is a significant lack of consistent and reliable up-to-date public data.
This white paper will discuss prioritizing actuarial innovation, insurance business oriented architecture, evaluating your actuarial environment, enterprise actuarial data architecture, potential solutions, and critical success factors.
Presented by William Freitag, Managing Partner and CEO, Agile Technologies
Beyond the secular forces that we describe in our Future of Insurance series1, more immediate and cyclical issues will be shaping the insurance executive agenda i n 2 016 .2 Commercial insurers (including reinsurers) face tough times ahead with underwriting margins that are being pressured by softening prices and a potentially volatile interest rate environment.
[Whitepaper] From Profit Recovery To Retention Anybill
Many companies today rely on “post-transaction recovery” to audit, reconcile and recover mistaken vendor payments. However, this blunt-force, after-the-fact approach to invoice reconciliation is extraordinarily costly and wasteful.
Due to process inadequacies in their accounts payable (AP) departments, they are cutting checks that are not owed, paying phantom bills and contributing to various forms of “profit leakage.”
Best-in-class companies, however, have discovered that these operational mistakes are preventable. Leveraging Intelligent Invoice Reconciliation (IIR) solutions, they are engaging in the “pre-transaction retention” of mishandled payables—taking action before dollars erroneously fly out the door. By analyzing their transaction data in real-time and reconciling invoices with payables, they are pre-empting AP leakage, enhancing operational processes and protecting their profits.
This position paper explains how these advanced companies are rethinking their approaches to invoice reconciliation and establishing a stronger foundation for accounts payable.
The Organic IT Department: Strategic Cost Analysis to Unlock a Sustainable Co...Juan Carbonell
This paper was submitted as final exam substitute for the International Business Strategy course at UNSW. It is a research paper illustrating how transaction cost economics (TCE) can be used to quantify the hidden cost of running in IT department. The resource-based view (RBV) is then used to explain how a salient IT department can be viewed as a resource to enable a sustainable competitive advantage amongst competitors. This paper is a work in progress awaiting feedback from a senior lecturer.
James J Okarimia
Managing Partner
Aligning Finance, Risk and Data Analytics in Meeting the Requirements of Emerging Regulations
Banks must meet more (and more varied) regulations today than ever. The sheer scale and scope of banking regulations, including Dodd-Frank, Basel III and IFRS, pose challenges to all financial institutions, from the smallest bank to the largest financial services enterprise.
Core2 Group: Digital data & activity analytics for risk adjusted return model...Hugh Lloyd-Thomas
Big data Digital Footprint Data™ & activity measures provide daily orthogonal data and analytics to augment the current traditional measures used to develop optimal risk adjusted return strategies at the company, industry, sector and country levels. The digital data activity measures are also particularly useful for analyzing the risk adjusted returns for private companies since there is a significant lack of consistent and reliable up-to-date public data.
This white paper will discuss prioritizing actuarial innovation, insurance business oriented architecture, evaluating your actuarial environment, enterprise actuarial data architecture, potential solutions, and critical success factors.
Presented by William Freitag, Managing Partner and CEO, Agile Technologies
Beyond the secular forces that we describe in our Future of Insurance series1, more immediate and cyclical issues will be shaping the insurance executive agenda i n 2 016 .2 Commercial insurers (including reinsurers) face tough times ahead with underwriting margins that are being pressured by softening prices and a potentially volatile interest rate environment.
DataTracks' approach on " Solvency II - Delivering Pillar 3 reporting"DataTracks
DT Solvency II works on the principle of mapping data source items directly to Eiopa templates through a data point model. The mapping process essentially creates pipelines for data items. Whenever a number changes in the source, that change flows through the pipeline to the EIOPA template.
Stepping into the cockpit- Redefining finance's role in the digital agePwC
Insurance finance functions have been refining their
operating models to better align with business partner
demands, as well as adopting leading practices on how
to best utilize people, process and technology. The
challenge is that the business landscape is continuously
shifting and the pace of change is rapidly accelerating.
PwC's - Redefining finance's role in the digital-ageTodd DeStefano
Finance functions within insurance companies are evolving and assisting supported businesses with actionable data and developing "what if" situations for mid course corrections to navigate the business through turbulant economic and competitive scenarios.
contributed articlesm a r c h 2 0 1 0 v o l . 5 3 DioneWang844
contributed articles
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | v o l . 5 3 | n o . 3 | c o m m u n i c at i o n s o f t h e a c m 121
d o i : 1 0 . 1 1 4 5 / 1 6 6 6 4 2 0 . 1 6 6 6 4 5 2
by fabio arduini and Vincenzo morabito
S i n c e t h e S e p t e m b e r 1 1 t h a t ta c k S on the World
Trade Center,8 tsunami disaster, and hurricane
Katrina, there has been renewed interest in emergency
planning in both the private and public sectors. In
particular, as managers realize the size of potential
exposure to unmanaged risk, insuring “business
continuity” (BC) is becoming a key task within all
industrial and financial sectors (Figure 1).
Aside from terrorism and natural disasters, two
main reasons for developing the BC approach in the
finance sector have been identified as unique to it:
regulations and business specificities.
Regulatory norms are key factors for all financial
sectors in every country. Every organization is required
to comply with federal/national law in addition to
national and international governing bodies. Referring
to business decisions, more and more organizations
recognize that Business Continuity could be and
should be strategic for the good of the business. The
finance sector is, as a matter of fact, a sector in which
the development of information technology (IT) and
information systems (IS) have had a dramatic effect
upon competitiveness. In this sector, organizations
have become dependent upon tech-
nologies that they do not fully compre-
hend. In fact, banking industry IT and
IS are considered production not sup-
port technologies. As such, IT and IS
have supported massive changes in the
ways in which business is conducted
with consumers at the retail level. In-
novations in direct banking would have
been unthinkable without appropriate
IS. As a consequence business continu-
ity planning at banks is essential as the
industry develops in order to safeguard
consumers and to comply with interna-
tional regulatory norms. Furthermore,
in the banking industry, BC planning
is important and at the same time dif-
ferent from other industries, for three
other specific reasons as highlighted
by the Bank of Japan in 2003:
Maintaining the economic activity of ˲
residents in disaster areas2 by enabling
the continuation of financial services
during and after disasters, thereby sus-
taining business activities in the dam-
aged area;
Preventing widespread payment and ˲
settlement disorder2 or preventing sys-
temic risks, by bounding the inability
of financial institutions in a disaster
area to execute payment transactions;
Reduce managerial risks ˲ 2 for example,
by limiting the difficulties for banks
to take profit opportunities and lower
their customer reputation.
Business specificities, rather than
regulatory considerations, should be
the primary drivers of all processes.
Even if European (EU) and US markets
differ, BC is closing the gap. Progres-
sive EU market cons ...
contributed articlesm a r c h 2 0 1 0 v o l . 5 3 .docxdickonsondorris
contributed articles
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | v o l . 5 3 | n o . 3 | c o m m u n i c at i o n s o f t h e a c m 121
d o i : 1 0 . 1 1 4 5 / 1 6 6 6 4 2 0 . 1 6 6 6 4 5 2
by fabio arduini and Vincenzo morabito
S i n c e t h e S e p t e m b e r 1 1 t h a t ta c k S on the World
Trade Center,8 tsunami disaster, and hurricane
Katrina, there has been renewed interest in emergency
planning in both the private and public sectors. In
particular, as managers realize the size of potential
exposure to unmanaged risk, insuring “business
continuity” (BC) is becoming a key task within all
industrial and financial sectors (Figure 1).
Aside from terrorism and natural disasters, two
main reasons for developing the BC approach in the
finance sector have been identified as unique to it:
regulations and business specificities.
Regulatory norms are key factors for all financial
sectors in every country. Every organization is required
to comply with federal/national law in addition to
national and international governing bodies. Referring
to business decisions, more and more organizations
recognize that Business Continuity could be and
should be strategic for the good of the business. The
finance sector is, as a matter of fact, a sector in which
the development of information technology (IT) and
information systems (IS) have had a dramatic effect
upon competitiveness. In this sector, organizations
have become dependent upon tech-
nologies that they do not fully compre-
hend. In fact, banking industry IT and
IS are considered production not sup-
port technologies. As such, IT and IS
have supported massive changes in the
ways in which business is conducted
with consumers at the retail level. In-
novations in direct banking would have
been unthinkable without appropriate
IS. As a consequence business continu-
ity planning at banks is essential as the
industry develops in order to safeguard
consumers and to comply with interna-
tional regulatory norms. Furthermore,
in the banking industry, BC planning
is important and at the same time dif-
ferent from other industries, for three
other specific reasons as highlighted
by the Bank of Japan in 2003:
Maintaining the economic activity of ˲
residents in disaster areas2 by enabling
the continuation of financial services
during and after disasters, thereby sus-
taining business activities in the dam-
aged area;
Preventing widespread payment and ˲
settlement disorder2 or preventing sys-
temic risks, by bounding the inability
of financial institutions in a disaster
area to execute payment transactions;
Reduce managerial risks ˲ 2 for example,
by limiting the difficulties for banks
to take profit opportunities and lower
their customer reputation.
Business specificities, rather than
regulatory considerations, should be
the primary drivers of all processes.
Even if European (EU) and US markets
differ, BC is closing the gap. Progres-
sive EU market cons.
UiPath: Insurance in the Age of Intelligent AutomationUiPath
This paper will explain what benefits Robotic Process Automation (RPA) brings to the Insurance industry, how
it tackles the most sensitive pain points and offers guidelines on
building a successful RPA capability.
Real uses cases will illustrate how other companies developed their RPA deployments. You will also find out what’s in store
for intelligent process automation (IPA), as AI and cognitive tools merge with RPA.
Finally, the paper will demonstrate that insurers must catch the RPA train before it is too late if they want to stay relevant in an ever so challenging and rapidly evolving market.
Making Analytics Actionable for Financial Institutions (Part I of III)Cognizant
To maximize ROI from their analytics platforms, financial institutions must build solutions that explicitly, visibly and sustainably enable real-time translation of data into meaningful and continuous improvements in their products, services, operating models and supporting infrastructures.
Keys to extract value from the data analytics life cycleGrant Thornton LLP
Regulatory mandates driving transparency and financial objectives requiring accurate understanding of customer needs have heightened the importance of data analytics to unprecedented levels making it a critical element of doing business.
Four Steps to Making Economic Capital Calculations an Engine for Business GrowthSecondFloor
Economic capital calculation is not only a journey to Solvency II compliance
This paper looks at why economic capital (EC) calculations are frequently under-used as a tool to drive business strategy, and why that amounts to a huge missed opportunity for insurance businesses of all sizes. It explores the barriers that prevent insurance businesses from using EC as a strategic tool to shape, strengthen and improve the business, and suggests a four-step process to ensuring that economic capital calculations become a vital planning resource for all areas of the business, including risk managenet, finance, underwritingm risk analysis.
Economic Capital Calculations for Insurances whitepaper refers to
The challenge for Risk Officers
Barrier # 1 No Common Language
Barrier # 2 Poorly Understood Risk Models
Barrier # 3 The Wrong Risk Models - Or Not Enough
The Trouble with Value at Risk (VaR): example
Four Steps to Meaningful Economic Capital Calculations
STEP 1: Sing from the same balance sheet
STEP 2: Speak English: bad karaoke is preferable to good silence
STEP 3: Agree on own funds and SCR and create a common risk dashboard
STEP 4: Build a chorale
Look to the Future: the challenge for insurance risk professionals.
In summary, the challenge for insurance risk professionals is to create an environment in which Economic Capital Calculations can be used by all lines of business to drive good decisions that protect policyholders and investors while enabling safe and profitable growth (the essence of Pillar II of Solvency II). While few risk departments are fully capable of this today, some innovative firms share this vision and are working towards achieving it.
eFrame® Content Compiler Easily Create and Publish Internal and Regulatory Re...SecondFloor
Combine quantitative and qualitative data
from across the organisation to create
clear and meaningful reports quickly,
easily, accurately and within deadlines.
eFrame® is a powerful data management environment that works with your
existing systems to gather data from across the organisation for analytics and
reporting purposes. eFrame® uses automation and workflow to ensure data is
timely, accurate, traceable and auditable, whether it’s being used for internal
management reporting, statutory reports or regulatory filings.
Implementation of a Credit Risk Management Platform for a Large Insurer Based...SecondFloor
A new, centralised credit risk platform has delivered
many business benefits to this global insurance group,
including the ability to mitigate risk by dynamically
managing investment limits.
eFrame® for Insurance Solvency II Stress TestingSecondFloor
Today not many insurance can claim their Stress Test report is credible enough to base their management strategy on.
Add to this the governance and workflow for each risk type, ensuring modelling processes and risk calculations are running on time and based on validated data, insurers can feel confident that ongoing compliance and supervisory review will be efficient. Having all this is in one proven solution eases the stress of bringing about the positive change intended by the Solvency regulations.
Business Benefits
eFrame® for Insurance Solvency II Stress Testing enables a centralized approach to stress testing that is operationally efficient, overcoming the cost and resource issues that hinder a Insurance’s ability to drive their investments in a prudent way.
A dedicated framework, and working with assumptions that are in line with the actual stressed situation faced by the organisation and with the models actually used for the production of regulatory submissions, gives confidence in the results and subsequent report. As such, the results of the Stress Test and ad-hoc scenario analyses are respected in the business and action is taken on the reports.
Crucially, re-running stress tests to see whether restructuring in light of previous insights has created greater resilience, helps make and explain executive management decisions.
eFrame® for Insurance Solvency II Internal ModelSecondFloor
In addition to the risk and finance data challenges of the Standard Formula, the Internal Model approach brings with it the challenge of model validation and governance.
Also, dry runs are highlighting the logistical challenges of running some Solvency infrastructures, even with the support of the project team that built it, which will disperse in the near future. The next step beyond compliance is efficiency in a business-as-usual environment.
This solution is already in production at number of large insurers, and is founded on experience with insurers who pioneered risk and economic capital programmes long before the regulations were as clear as they are today. As such, this solution is adaptable to regulatory changes and the evolution of the insurers IT and business landscape.
For more information please visit: http://www.secondfloor.com/solution/eframe-for-insurance-solvency-ii-internal-model
eFrame® for Insurance Solvency II Standard FormulaSecondFloor
When implementing the Solvency II Standard Formula, insurers are finding that calculating their Solvency and Minimum Capital Requirements (SCR and MCR), and Risk Margin is not simple.
Business Benefits
With eFrame® for Insurance Solvency II Standard Formula, insurers can smooth the flow and ensure the governance of data for solo and group reporting. With its taxonomy driven data model, every data point necessary to complete the quantitative reporting templates (QRTs) is identified and can be mapped within the organization, bringing confidence that the regulatory submissions and business intelligence derived from them will be dependable.
For more information please visit: http://www.secondfloor.com/solution/eframe-for-insurance-solvency-ii-standard-formula
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision: Bank principles for effective risk da...SecondFloor
The Basel Committee, which creates regulations for banks, has published a set of principles regarding effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting, which will provide a fantastic business case for risk professionals to improve their risk frameworks. I’ve included highlights below, but you can take a look at the full report here.
The principles for effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting will be mandatory for globally systemically important banks (G-SIBs) from 2016, and the Basel Committee recommends that national regulators make them mandatory for domestically systemically important banks (D-SIBs). There are currently 29 G-SIBs, and D-SIBs will probably be the top four or five largest and/or most complex banks in each country. Beyond this, I believe the principles in the Basel document will become an industry standard by which all banks will be assessed by institutional investors and during due diligence processes for mergers and acquisitions.
The Basel Committee’s principles cover four closely related topics, and are common sense, though not easily attainable:
• Overarching governance and infrastructure
• Risk data aggregation capabilities
• Risk reporting practices
• Supervisory review, tools and cooperation
A couple excerpts from the report that will resonate with most practitioners explain why the principles are necessary. These explanations will come in handy as ‘I-told-you-so’ introductions to many a business case for the next steps in enterprise/integrated risk management frameworks and in business analytics at group level (because it’s ultimately the board and senior management that own this challenge):
•Ensure that management can rely with confidence on the information to make critical decisions about risk.
•Accurate, complete and timely data is a foundation for effective risk management. However, data alone does not guarantee that the board and senior management will receive appropriate information to make effective decisions about risk. To manage risk effectively, the right information needs to be presented to the right people at the right time. Risk reports based on risk data should be accurate, clear and complete. They should contain the correct content and be presented to the appropriate decision-makers in a time that allows for an appropriate response.
The list of globally systemically important banks, it is created by the Financial Stability Board, and can be found at: http://www.financialstabilityboard.org/publications/r_121031ac.pdf. This latest list was created in Nov 2012 and will be updated again in Nov 2013.
For more information please contact marketing@secondfloor.com
SecondFloor eFrame® product orchestrates the data, systems and processes esse...SecondFloor
Business benefits
• Through governance, workflow and process control it conducts the interplay between modeling, analytics, compliance, reporting and decision support throughout the enterprise.
• Ensures efficiency by managing multiple reporting cycles, reporting approaches, business hierarchies, geographies and supervisory jurisdictions.
• Instills confidence among those signing off regulatory reports and taking business decisions, through knowing the origin and evolution of source data.
• Leverages an organization’s existing technology to enable business analytics, by controlling the data and results flowing between data warehouses, modeling tools, analytic systems, desktop applications, and business intelligence reporting solutions.
• Ensures completeness by providing an interface for business experts to submit specialist data, not held in structured data stores, for inclusion in analytics and reports.
For more information please visit: http://www.secondfloor.com/eframe
Discover various methods for clearing negative entities from your space and spirit, including energy clearing techniques, spiritual rituals, and professional assistance. Gain practical knowledge on how to implement these techniques to restore peace and harmony. For more information visit here: https://www.reikihealingdistance.com/negative-entity-removal/
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian exile.
2 Peter 3: Because some scriptures are hard to understand and some will force them to say things God never intended, Peter warns us to take care.
https://youtu.be/nV4kGHFsEHw
In Jude 17-23 Jude shifts from piling up examples of false teachers from the Old Testament to a series of practical exhortations that flow from apostolic instruction. He preserves for us what may well have been part of the apostolic catechism for the first generation of Christ-followers. In these instructions Jude exhorts the believer to deal with 3 different groups of people: scoffers who are "devoid of the Spirit", believers who have come under the influence of scoffers and believers who are so entrenched in false teaching that they need rescue and pose some real spiritual risk for the rescuer. In all of this Jude emphasizes Jesus' call to rescue straying sheep, leaving the 99 safely behind and pursuing the 1.
The Chakra System in our body - A Portal to Interdimensional Consciousness.pptxBharat Technology
each chakra is studied in greater detail, several steps have been included to
strengthen your personal intention to open each chakra more fully. These are designed
to draw forth the highest benefit for your spiritual growth.
What Should be the Christian View of Anime?Joe Muraguri
We will learn what Anime is and see what a Christian should consider before watching anime movies? We will also learn a little bit of Shintoism religion and hentai (the craze of internet pornography today).
The PBHP DYC ~ Reflections on The Dhamma (English).pptxOH TEIK BIN
A PowerPoint Presentation based on the Dhamma Reflections for the PBHP DYC for the years 1993 – 2012. To motivate and inspire DYC members to keep on practicing the Dhamma and to do the meritorious deed of Dhammaduta work.
The texts are in English.
For the Video with audio narration, comments and texts in English, please check out the Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF2g_43NEa0
The Good News, newsletter for June 2024 is hereNoHo FUMC
Our monthly newsletter is available to read online. We hope you will join us each Sunday in person for our worship service. Make sure to subscribe and follow us on YouTube and social media.
Exploring the Mindfulness Understanding Its Benefits.pptxMartaLoveguard
Slide 1: Title: Exploring the Mindfulness: Understanding Its Benefits
Slide 2: Introduction to Mindfulness
Mindfulness, defined as the conscious, non-judgmental observation of the present moment, has deep roots in Buddhist meditation practice but has gained significant popularity in the Western world in recent years. In today's society, filled with distractions and constant stimuli, mindfulness offers a valuable tool for regaining inner peace and reconnecting with our true selves. By cultivating mindfulness, we can develop a heightened awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and surroundings, leading to a greater sense of clarity and presence in our daily lives.
Slide 3: Benefits of Mindfulness for Mental Well-being
Practicing mindfulness can help reduce stress and anxiety levels, improving overall quality of life.
Mindfulness increases awareness of our emotions and teaches us to manage them better, leading to improved mood.
Regular mindfulness practice can improve our ability to concentrate and focus our attention on the present moment.
Slide 4: Benefits of Mindfulness for Physical Health
Research has shown that practicing mindfulness can contribute to lowering blood pressure, which is beneficial for heart health.
Regular meditation and mindfulness practice can strengthen the immune system, aiding the body in fighting infections.
Mindfulness may help reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity by reducing stress and improving overall lifestyle habits.
Slide 5: Impact of Mindfulness on Relationships
Mindfulness can help us better understand others and improve communication, leading to healthier relationships.
By focusing on the present moment and being fully attentive, mindfulness helps build stronger and more authentic connections with others.
Mindfulness teaches us how to be present for others in difficult times, leading to increased compassion and understanding.
Slide 6: Mindfulness Techniques and Practices
Focusing on the breath and mindful breathing can be a simple way to enter a state of mindfulness.
Body scan meditation involves focusing on different parts of the body, paying attention to any sensations and feelings.
Practicing mindful walking and eating involves consciously focusing on each step or bite, with full attention to sensory experiences.
Slide 7: Incorporating Mindfulness into Daily Life
You can practice mindfulness in everyday activities such as washing dishes or taking a walk in the park.
Adding mindfulness practice to daily routines can help increase awareness and presence.
Mindfulness helps us become more aware of our needs and better manage our time, leading to balance and harmony in life.
Slide 8: Summary: Embracing Mindfulness for Full Living
Mindfulness can bring numerous benefits for physical and mental health.
Regular mindfulness practice can help achieve a fuller and more satisfying life.
Mindfulness has the power to change our perspective and way of perceiving the world, leading to deeper se
2. WORKFLOW, GOVERNANCE AND REPORTING
Solvency II compliance requires insurers to address all three pillars of the
regulation, namely:
Pillar1: Capital Requirements
Pillar 2: Workflow, Audit and Governance
Pillar 3: Reporting
In preparing for Solvency II, many insurers have up to this point been focusing
their efforts on addressing the quantitative requirements of Pillar 1 and are
only now turning their attention to Pillars 2 and 3. Under the new regime
insurers will face more frequent and prescriptive reporting alongside
increased levels of controls and governance.
In this paper, industry leading practitioners provide insight into the key
challenges and issues arising when managing the workflow around internal
models. They also discuss processes surrounding reporting and the integration
with risk modeling and capital calculations.
We hope that readers will find this a useful insight into this important topic
as they continue with their Solvency II preparations. We would like to thank
Allianz, ING, Legal & General and Second Floor for their involvement which
made producing this paper possible.
Kind regards,
Dr. Andrew Aziz
Executive Vice President, Buy Side Solution Management
Algorithmics, an IBM Company
2
3. WORKFLOW, GOVERNANCE AND REPORTING
When insurers set out on their Solvency II internal model projects, it is usually the analytics that gets
the initial attention. As organizations progress with their implementation, it inevitably becomes clear
that the workflow and governance surrounding the capital calculations, and the reporting that follows
from it, are an equally significant challenge. Indeed, industry experience suggests that projects which,
from the start, give at least equal weight to workflow, governance and reporting as they do to analytics,
progress more quickly and successfully.
Workflow is more than just a schedule of actions. It must model the organizational hierarchy of the
company, recognizing its businesses and legal entities and how they relate to each other. It must also
identify its people and their roles, how they interact with one another, and the permissions they have
to access and contribute to the calculation and reporting processes. In addition, the workflow must
reflect the work model of an organization – whether it is centralized with all the key functions
performed in one location, or distributed with teams in a number of locations performing various
tasks, or a hybrid of both.
Each reporting period requires its own workflow, which will define the start date, the key stages, the
deadlines and the final reporting and archiving of data. In essence, these processes are something that
insurers have been doing for years, but Solvency II raises the bar on how they are done, how they are
monitored and with what frequency and deadlines.
“Under Solvency II, firms will face dramatically increased reporting requirements with tighter deadlines
and a much higher level of required controls,” says Thomas Wilson, chief risk officer at Allianz.
Meeting these requirements is a challenge because of the complexity of the task. “We are talking about
one integrated workflow dealing with multiple building blocks,” says Emmanuel Noblet, deputy chief
risk officer at ING Insurance and head of the company’s Economic Capital System (ECAPS). The building
blocks deal with the data, the solvency capital calculations and the interpretation and reporting of
those calculations. Each of these has its own issues and challenges, he says.
The data – which will include asset, liability, market and other internal and external data – must be
collected, cleaned (checked for errors and format), completed (verified that no data is missing) and
approved. Often this approval must be by someone other than the person who loaded the data, following
the Solvency II ‘four eyes’ principle whereby key elements in decision making processes must be overseen
by at least two people. One of the objectives of a workflow and governance system will be to ensure
that the four-eyes principle is applied at all key points in the capital calculation and reporting process.
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4. WORKFLOW, GOVERNANCE AND REPORTING
“Not only are the validation standards for data onerous under Solvency II, but on top of that the technical
actuarial standards require that you don’t just use data blindly. For example, where data feeds an
actuarial model, the actuary will have to ensure that the data is fit for purpose,” says Stuart Carroll,
director, savings actuarial at Legal & General Assurance Society (L&G).
“Regulators will want to see proof that data was approved – that someone signed off on it,” says Curt
Burmeister, vice president of risk solutions at Toronto-based Algorithmics. In the same way that
modern databases log and track all actions on data, so the workflow should provide a similar audit trail.
To highlight the importance of logging and tracking actions along with the management of processes,
ING uses the term ‘process control and auditability’ internally rather than workflow.
Key data elements for capital calculation and reporting include the reporting hierarchy, risk factors,
modeling data and risk correlation matrices. The reporting hierarchy will incorporate the various
organizational elements that contribute to the capital calculations, such as subsidiaries with their
associated percentage ownership information, local tax rates, and risks modeled at that location.
Risk factors will cover market and non-market risks such as mortality, longevity and lapse rates – and here
things can become especially complex.
“For non-market risk the definitions not only differ between the standard and internal models, they are
also somehow misleading,” says Noblet of ING. “For example, lapse risk is part of life and non-life, with
health excluded, in the standard model, but it is part of business risk in the internal model.” This leads
to questions of what exactly the data input to each model should be and who should be responsible
for it, as well as at which level sign-off should occur. “The regulatory view prevails for the standard
model, managerial view prevails for the internal model,” says Noblet.
Even when such issues are resolved, the data collection, checking and approval process is not necessarily
straightforward. “The real complexity comes in when not all the data is available, or someone declines
to approve part of the data because something is missing or wrong,” says Martin Knook, chief executive
officer of Amsterdam-based IT services provider SecondFloor, a long standing strategic partner of
Algorithmics. A workflow process must allow for such exceptions and manage the rejection, correction
and resubmission processes. This view is sup-
ported by Burmeister of Algorithmics but he
warns against trying to incorporate all excep-
“The real complexity comes in
tions into the design of a workflow from the out- when not all the data is available,
set. It is better to start simple and create a well or someone declines to approve
designed process that will allow for new actions
part of the data because some-
to be added when exceptions are encountered
than to get bogged down in trying to devise an thing is missing or wrong.”
all-encompassing design, he says.
Knook points out an added complication. It is not only the diversity and the many different sources of
the data that presents a challenge, but the relationship and dependencies between different data ele-
ments, he says. “For example, market and correlation data are heavily dependent on each other and
have a strong influence on economic scenarios, which in turn influence the capital calculations. These
dependencies need to be properly understood and reflected in the workflow,” he says.
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5. WORKFLOW, GOVERNANCE AND REPORTING
Once the key data elements have been identified, the workflow should then identify the various user actions.
These can be broadly divided into administration actions and business user actions. Administration
actions include setting up of the reporting period, rolling forward data from the previous period, editing
the reporting hierarchy, defining the risks to be modelled at each point and loading market data.
Business user actions include loading the asset and liability cash flows, running proxy modeling
processes such as replicating portfolios or curve fitting, editing risk factor correlations and generating
scenario sets.
Then there is the governance around these actions. Who has responsibility and permission to perform
each action? Who is permitted to load what data? Who is permitted to perform what process? Who is
permitted to view which results? The workflow needs to identify and control the users and permissions.
Managing and tracking the data, actions and permissions for a single reporting period is challenge
enough in itself. However, as Wilson of Allianz points out, insurers applying for internal model approval
must plan on three concurrent closing processes for quarterly or year-end reporting, at least for the
next few years – for the internal model, the standard model (which will be necessary for comparison
purposes) and the market value balance sheet. In addition, a detailed movement analysis of each will be
required. “The fact that each of these views will have to be based on reconciled input information and
the end results cross-reconciled in an accelerated closing process with adequate reporting controls is
an issue,” he says.
This is particularly complex for insurance groups that have various business units and geographically
distributed subsidiaries. “The input and reporting baseline for the standard model is the legal entity.
For the internal model it is business unit. These might not necessarily match one to one,” says ING’s
Noblet. Where they do not match, it can mean that different people are required to validate input data for
the standard and the internal models. To ease the problems of managing and tracking, ING attempts to
standardize its processes across both models.“We take the same steps for standard and internal models,
although they won’t necessarily involve the same people. All this must be captured in a single workflow,”
says Noblet.
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6. WORKFLOW, GOVERNANCE AND REPORTING
The workflow must also tightly integrate risk modeling
and capital calculation with reporting. Knook of “I would rather focus on
SecondFloor says that capital calculation and reporting
are intimately related and cannot be separated from
getting a reasonably stable
one another, and that the workflow should reflect that. and accurate ‘risk yardstick’
Carroll of L&G adds: “It is essential that the interaction to managers quickly so that
between the calculation and reporting systems is
we can begin the risk man-
streamlined and seamless.” The intimate relationship
between risk modeling and risk reporting is reflected agement dialogue, allowing
in a policy that Wilson has put in place at Allianz where us as an organization to use
no advanced model enhancements are considered our judgement and business
unless they can be implemented in a well controlled,
robust and efficient reporting process. “I would rather
experience rather than solely
focus on getting a reasonably stable and accurate ‘risk relying on the models.”
yardstick’ to managers quickly so that we can begin
the risk management dialogue, allowing us as an organization to use our judgement and business
experience rather than solely relying on the models,” he says.
Given the diversity and complexity of the tasks involved in capital calculation and reporting, and the
opportunities for omissions and errors, automation of the workflow is essential. “If you don’t have
automation of systems and processes you are building a monster that will be prone to manual input
error or interpretation error. The key to minimizing complexity is maximizing automation. The fewer
the manual interventions, the better the coherence and accuracy of the data,” says Noblet of ING.
Wilson of Allianz agrees. “An automated workflow process, tying together the myriad of data flows and
analysis systems, is absolutely required by large complex financial services institutions if they are to
develop efficient, controlled and robust reporting processes across the internal and standard models
and market value balance sheets under a management and legal entity view within the time horizons
dictated by public and supervisory disclosures. The days when the internal model and valuation could
be done through a manual and ‘artisanal’ process are over,” he says.
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7. WORKFLOW, GOVERNANCE AND REPORTING
ING and Allianz both selected Algorithmics to provide the analytical technology framework for their
internal models, supported by SecondFloor to develop the workflow to support their capital calculations.
Realizing that many insurers were going to face similar challenges in terms of the workflow, governance
and reporting around their internal models for Solvency II, Algorithmics and SecondFloor collaborated to
develop a product called Capital Workflow Manager (CWM). L&G has implemented CWM, with some
internally developed extensions, along with Algorithmics’ analytics. For insurers with highly bespoke
businesses, SecondFloor will customise CWM.
Many insurers underestimate how hard the task of managing the workflow, governance and reporting
for Solvency II will be, says Burmeister of Algorithmics. “In effect, you need to model how an organization
works and how the people interact with one another. It’s a massive undertaking,” he says.
Carroll of L&G adds: “The workflow has to be utterly seamless so it can run efficiently and effectively to
achieve the very onerous timescales of Solvency II. And even if you have that seamless workflow, you will
only have the opportunity to run it once, so accuracy first time is critical.”
In an ideal world, insurers would be able to look at the end requirements of Solvency II and work backwards
to devise their workflow. But with Solvency II still a work in progress even as its implementation deadlines
approach, insurers have to be creative while remaining flexible to accommodate the final specifications.
“Insurers should try to build a workflow and governance system that is as simple as possible that will
enable them to streamline and automate processes as easily as possible. And they should make sure it’s
extensible so they don’t get caught out if they have to make changes,” advises Carroll.
Knook of SecondFloor concludes: “Don’t do the modeling first and then the auditibility and workflow
later. Do it hand in hand – it saves money and time.”
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