Part 9 Flashcards

1
Q

Categories of risk:

A
•	Financial
o	Market Risk
	Assets
	Liabilities
	Asset/Liability Matching
o	Credit Risk
	Asset default
	Counterparty risk
	Debtors
o	Business Risk
	Underwriting
	Insurance
	Financing
	Exposure
o	Liquidity Risk

• Non-financial
o Operational Risk
 Inadequate internal processes, people or systems
 Dominance of a single individual
 Reliance on third parties
 Failure of plans to recover from an external event
o External Risk

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2
Q

Apply - Certain principles are seen as being fundamental to good lending and in turn to reducing credit risk. A number of key questions have to be asked:

A
  • Is the character and ability of the borrower satisfactory? Is he trustworthy?
  • Is there a valid purpose for the loan and is the money to be put to good use?
  • Is the amount that is being borrowed reasonable given the purpose it is being put to?
  • Does the borrower have the ability to repay?
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3
Q

Examples of business risk to financial providers are:

A
  • A life or general insurer not having adequate underwriting standards and thus taking on risks at an inadequate price – underwriting risk
  • An insurer suffering more claims than anticipated – insurance risk
  • A provider of finance, such as a bank, investing in a business or project that fails to be successful – financing risk
  • A reinsurer having greater exposure than planned to a particular risk event ; for example through writing whole account protection covers as well as primary reinsurance of the risk – exposure risk
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4
Q

Apply - Areas of risk:

A
  • Claims
  • Withdrawals
  • Expenses
  • Mix of business
  • Volume of business
  • Options and guarantees offered
  • Reinsurance
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5
Q

Key risks in a benefit scheme to the beneficiary

A
  • Benefits will be less valuable than expected, or

* They will not be received at the expected (or required) time

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6
Q

Key risks to the sponsor of a benefit scheme

A
  • Costs will be greater than expected, or

* Payments will be required at a inopportune time

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7
Q

Ideas – risks that need to be managed to ensure that sufficient assets are available to meet the liabilities as they fall due

A
  • Inadequate funds due to underfunding
  • Inadequate funds due to sponsor insolvency
  • Inadequate funds due to asset/liability mismatching
  • Illiquid assets, ie funds not available when required
  • Risk that the benefit promise is changed, eg by the state
  • Members’ needs not being met, either due to design or inflation erosion of value
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8
Q

Ideas – For a defined benefit scheme the risk of inadequate benefits arises from:

A
  • Investment returns being lower than expected, or expense charges higher
  • Annuity purchase terms being poorer than expected
  • Members’ needs not being met, either due to design or inflation erosion of value
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9
Q

Ideas – Factors that lead to uncertainty of the benefits to be received by beneficiaries whether benefits are defined or not:

A
  • Default by sponsor/provider at a time when the funds held are insufficient
  • Default by sponsor/provider when funds held include loans to sponsor/provider
  • Failure by sponsor/provider to pay contributions/premiums in a timely manner
  • Takeover of the sponsor/provider by an organisation unwilling to continue to meet benefit promises
  • Decision by the sponsor/provider that benefits will be reduced
  • Inadequate communication by sponsor/provider with beneficiaries, of the strength of the sponsor/provider, guarantee, promise etc, giving rise to complaints and possible compensation to some beneficiaries and shortfall for others
  • General economic mismanagement by a sponsor/provider of assets and liabilities may also lead to a risk of benefit shortfall
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10
Q

Ideas – For defined benefit schemes future contributions/premiums are unknown and will depend on:

A
  • Amount of the promised benefit
  • Probability of individuals being eligible to accrue benefits
  • Probability of members being eligible to receive benefits
  • Effect of inflation on the level, or the real level, of the benefits
  • The investment return achieved on the contributions/premiums
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11
Q

Ideas – Contribution/premium risks for a defined contribution scheme

A
  • Contributions/premiums are unaffordable and hence not made
  • Insufficient liquidity to make the payments in a timely manner
  • The contributions/premiums are linked to an inflationary factor, thereby introducing inflationary risk
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12
Q

Ideas – Factors that may lead to uncertainty of the contributions/premiums required whether contributions/premiums are defined or not:

A
  • Loss of funds due to fraud or misappropriation
  • Incorrect benefit payments
  • Inappropriate advice
  • Administrative costs, especially as a result of compliance with changes in legislations
  • Decisions by parties to whom power has been delegated (operational risk)
  • Fines or removal of tax status resulting from non-compliance with legislative requirements
  • Changes to tax rates or status
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13
Q

Extra risks in a hybrid scheme

A
  • Not knowing whether the guarantee will bite or not
  • The uncertain cost of the guarantee
  • Additional complexity in the areas of administration, investment, regulation, valuation and communication
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14
Q

A risk is insurable if

A
  • The policyholder has an interest in the risk
  • The risk is of financial and reasonably quantifiable nature
  • The claim amount payable is commensurate with the size of the financial loss
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15
Q

Risk events ideally have to meet the following criteria if they are to be insurable:

A
  • Individual risk events should be independent of each other
  • The probability of the event should be relatively small
  • Large numbers of potentially similar risks should be pooled in order to reduce the variance and hence achieve more certainty
  • There should be an ultimate limit on the liability undertaken by the insurer
  • Moral hazards should be eliminated as far as possible because these are difficult to quantify, result in selection against the insurer and lead to unfairness between one policyholder and another
  • There should be sufficient existing statistical data/information in order to quantify risk
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16
Q

Risk management process consists of

A
  • Risk identification
  • Risk measurement
  • Risk control
  • Risk financing
  • Risk monitoring
17
Q

Through risk management a provider will be able to

A
  • Avoid surprises
  • Improve the stability and quality of business
  • Improve their growth and returns by exploiting risk opportunities
  • Improve their growth and returns by better management and allocation of capital
  • Identify opportunities arising from natural synergies
  • Identify opportunities arising from risk arbitrage
  • Give stakeholders in their business confidence that the business is well managed
18
Q

The risk management process should

A
  • Incorporate all risks
  • Evaluate all relevant strategies for managing risk
  • Consider all relevant constraints
  • Exploit hedges and portfolio effects
  • Exploit financial and operational efficiencies