The Hindu Business Line : Paternoster hires actuaries from India

Paternoster, a UK-based insurance company set up only six months ago, has hired its entire actuarial team from India. The team will operate out of Mumbai.

The company has recruited over 40 actuaries from India, and will raise the number to 50 by 2007.

Mr Mark Wood, CEO, Paternoster, said the company chose to hire actuaries from India as they were looking for a different mindset. "We chose India more because of the superior intellectual capacity of Indians rather than a cost differential," said Mr Wood.

He said senior actuaries in India received globally comparable compensation as they have the option to work abroad.

Mr V. Balamurugan, CEO, Paternoster India, said, "This is very much a break away from the traditional outsourcing arrangement in that it is not about administration routines, but complex and demanding work of the highest level".

Paternoster currently has nine clients in the UK and has underwritten £150 million of their liabilities. The company hopes to grow its annuity business six-fold in the next three years The UK pension market is worth about £2 billion-3 billion. Paternoster takes on the risks associated with the defined benefit pension schemes of companies based in the UK.

Mr Wood said with new disclosure norms coming into effect in the UK, a number of companies would find themselves in deficit on payouts in salary pension plans.

Paternoster will manage the defined benefit pension schemes and provide actuarial techniques for more accurate mortality assessment in pricing, he said.

The company has so far invested £1 million (Rs 88 crore) in India, which will go up to £3 million-5 million depending on the market growth, Mr Balamurugan said.

The Indian team comprises 20 student actuaries, eight associate actuaries with the rest being qualified, senior actuaries.

The team will work in areas such as pricing, mortality analysis and models, valuations, liability profiling and reporting.

According to Mr Wood, there are 40,000 actuaries globally, with the UK having about 6,000 trained actuaries.

India has, however, been facing an actuarial crunch. According to the Actuarial Society of India, currently there are 6,000 members, of which students form the bulk. There are 132 active actuaries, of which only 50 are located in India.

More Stories on : Human Resources | Insurance

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page