Actuaries in Banking

This discussion is on the back of developments in the past 2 decades where actuaries are increasingly being involved in banking practice in a number of jurisdictions around the world that include South Africa, Australia, North America and the UK. The objective is to provide guidance and information to actuarial professionals on opportunities for applying actuarial techniques in banking practice and highlight areas where actuaries elsewhere are already currently involved as well as areas where actuaries may be involved.

Most opportunities for Actuaries in banking are typically in risk management areas ranging from credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk, operational risk and other business risks. Most methodologies and techniques used to quantify banking risks, allocate capital and determine product prices are already familiar to actuaries. The intention is, therefore, not to develop new methodologies for banking, but to aid understanding of banking products, terminology and regulation and to identify areas where actuaries are already applying or could apply techniques with which they are already familiar.

This is a great opportunity for actuarial professionals on the African continent and elsewhere around the world to seek roles in Banking as both the industry and the actuarial profession evolve. Actuarial professionals should think of the actuarial qualification as a “toolkit” that can be applied in a wide range of areas in economies and society.