INARM

INARM is the International Network of Actuarial Risk Managers – an informal group of risk managers around the globe socializing with each other via a listserv, a LinkedIn group and this website/blog. This network does not have a primary focus on members of the actuarial organizations around the world. This effort is not meant to conflict or supersede IAA efforts but is meant to be a vehicle to allow the broad actuarial communities to connect in the risk management area and developments worldwide.

INARM is the virtual coffee house for individual actuaries around the world who are interested in sharing perspectives across borders on risk management issues with others having similar interests.

INARM is not an organization. It has no bylaws, no officers and no governance process. INARM cannot and will not take a position on any topic whatsoever. Not on regulations, not on standards, not on education, not on any specific risk management practices or on the significance of any risks.

Instead, INARM has participants. The participants are involved for as long as they like at the level of intensity that they want. There is no qualification for being a participant, just as there is no qualification for entering a coffee house and joining in a discussion there. The INARM participants have made no long term commitment to continue to participate.

While some of the participants in INARM are the same folks who are involved in official actuarial groups, they participate in INARM discussions as individuals. INARM has a website and a listserv to facilitate communications. INARM participants have helped to initiate and find volunteers for the Global ERM Webinar. Through these communications devices, INARM participants may be found who will volunteer to provide help for activities of any of the official actuarial groups. As with the Webinar, activities initiated by INARM will always require formal commitment from the official actuarial groups since INARM has no budget and no ability to enter into any sort of contract. So if INARM participants come up with an idea, they will need to take it back to their official actuarial organizations for implementation.

INARM came into being as a result of efforts from the Joint Risk Management section to strengthen ties with actuaries who are developing ERM programs and skills in other parts of the world. The Joint Risk management section international committee calls grew until there were as many non – SOA/CAS members as there were members. The non-North American participants wanted the group to have a name that was independent of the JRMS. One of the participants created the logo in a burst of enthusiasm.

Currently there are almost 300 people, half non-members, who participate in the listserv. In addition, there is an INARM group on LinkedIn, a business networking web service with about 500 members, half of whom are not members of the listserv. That group has folks from 29 countries and is mostly non-North American. If you look on LinkedIn, there are many, many groups there that exist in the same way as INARM.

INARM provides a valuable new venue for international communication between actuaries. In many areas of actuarial practice, regulations and taxes and traditions are so different that there are somewhat limited points of full collaboration.

That is generally not true in ERM. ERM is a new field, even with the Solvency 2 regime in Europe, there will still be many, many ways that ERM issues for actuaries will be similar if not completely the same throughout the globe. Practice is still very much in the evolving stage. International collaboration is completely appropriate for ERM.

And who knows, if we learn to talk about ERM as one global profession, perhaps that will strengthen our hand in our competition with others for that field.

INARM participants have also created a link between INARM and the IAA Enterprise & Financial Risks Committee, INARM provides to the EFRC a direct conduit to actuaries around the world who are active in the risk management field. The EFRC could choose to use that access to get broader feedback on topics under consideration by the committee and to solicit volunteers for activities directly. In addition,

1) INARM provides a platform for ERM discussion and knowledge exchange thus driving the process to form opinions on subjects under consideration by official task forces as well. This feeds back into the task forces either directly via task force members who are INARM participants or via information provided to them by INARM participants.

2) INARM allows participants to gain a broader view of emerging global best practices via its cross-border approach.

3) Participants of INARM through their contributions and knowledge sharing form a pool of potential valuable task force members.

4) Initiatives and activities undertaken by INARM participants may sponsor international initiatives by the formal actuarial organizations on ERM issues.

The reason why we decided to explore the avenues of internet publishing, rather than keeping the discussions to a listserv is to allow the general public to be privy to these discussions for educational purposes. We aim to promote the actuarial profession as the primary source of expertise in the field of Enterprise Risk Management.

INARM is organized around the following principles:

A. The main purpose of the Network is to advance the quality and effectiveness of actuarial practice in the area of ERM through strength of numbers that allows us to develop the critical mass to compete with other (non-actuarial) organizations that are or will become global. Critical mass enables the efficiency and effectiveness of other aspects, including cooperation on things like research, publications etc.

B. The purpose is supported by sharing of learning and experiences, by joint research and publication and of mutual support, for example in developing and conducting joint seminars and sharing of speakers from the countries involved.

C. Mutual support includes recognizing that there are more similarities than differences in the ERM problems that we face around the world. In addition, it means that we recognize each other’s contributions. Finally, it means that we accept each other’s level of current practice without prejudice, looking to learn from best practices emerging.

D. We commit to making this Network a positive force in the development of actuarial ERM practices by agreeing to regular communication and cooperation with the other members of the affiliation. This aim to include reporting on international ERM practices at actuarial meetings of the associations involved.

E. As professional standards of practice develop for Risk Management work by actuaries, we try to share our findings with the hopes that some commonality will develop globally, to further accelerate the development and implementation of sound ERM practices around the world.

A long standing volunteer and the founder of INARM is David Ingram, CERA, FRM, PRM. David is the visionary behind the project and remains a frequent contributor.

This website is maintained by Anton Kobelev. Anton is managing the technical aspects as well as maintaining and organizing the content.