We received an email from Anonymous@hotmail.com (which doesn’t exist, of course) suggesting we look at slide 4 on page 2 of this presentation given at the Life Conference in November 2017. The presentation was given by Tom Kenny (of Just Group), and Gina Craske of KPMG (auditor of Just Group). The other members of the Party including a representative from each of the other three big accountancy firms, two members representing ERM providers, and only one academic that I could make out.
Many thanks, Anonymous, but we already knew this. See also this response to CP 13/18 by the Institute which identifies the other two Institutional bodies involved in replying to the PRA, namely the Life Standards and Consultations sub Committee, whose members are listed here, and the Life Insurance Board, whose members are listed here.
What we still don’t know is the composition of the joint Review Group referred to in the Institute’s call for tender for research into Equity Release Mortgage Pricing. This is the group that decides which person or organisation will be appointed to undertake the research. I have made a number of requests to the Institute, including to their whistleblowing line, to ask whether the members of this (anonymous) Group had any conflict of interest, but with resounding radio silence.
There was a scandal when it was revealed that Exxon had deliberately misled the public on climate research by, for example, commissioning paid editorials in major US newspapers. But this scandal to my mind is worse.
The Institute of Actuaries is not Prudential, or Legal and General, or Aviva (or Exxon ). The Institute is a body representing a profession, with the professional standards that go with it. It has a Royal Charter which imposes a duty ‘to put the public interest first’. It declares that ‘Members will not allow bias, conflict of interest, or the undue influence of others to override their professional judgement’, and has a whole bunch of stuff about conflicts of interest.
So many thanks, Anonymous, but don’t email us, contact the Institute at conflicts@actuaries.org.uk.