New Delhi: The tiny population of actuaries, who help in the measurement and management of risks in the insurance and pension sectors, is creeping up in the country's financial sector. The Institute of Actuaries of India (IAI) estimates that the number of qualified actuaries will reach 480 by this fiscal-end, from 439 now. This is a significant jump, considering that India had only 120 actuaries in the year 2000.
"We have got students pursuing actuarial courses from across the country at the moment and we hope that there will be 480 qualified actuaries by the end of the current fiscal," said Sunil Sharma, President, IAI.
The IAI was formed in 2006, and thereafter it became a statutory body under an Act of Parliament, on the lines of ICAI, ICSI and ICWAI. The IAI conducts exams for actuaries. It also trains actuaries.
In India, though actuaries are mostly engaged in the insurance and pension sectors, their services are sought in banking, risk management and investment banking. Sharma said the IAI has mutual recognition agreements (MRA) with its counterparts in three countries: the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries (IFO) in the UK, the Institute of Actuaries in Australia, and the Casualty & Actuarial Society of America. By this, actuaries qualified in India can practise in those three countries and vice versa.
Sharma said now that banks have to comply with Basel-III and Solvency-II norms, the new breed of actuaries can be of much help to them.
"However, the problem was that there was not an effective single financial regulator in the country like the Monetary Authority of Singapore or the Bank of Negara (Malaysia). Once this happens, it will pave the way for absorption of actuaries in various other financial sectors like banking, risk management, investment banking and risk-based capital," Sharma said.
India's financial sector is under various regulators like the RBI, SEBI and the IRDAI.
