News Release

Conference On Risk Measurement For Financial Services

Meeting Announcement

Society of Actuaries

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. -- Innovative approaches to risk measurement will be discussed by international scholars and business executives at the conference "Integrated Approaches to Risk Measurement in the Financial Services Industry" Dec. 8-9 in Atlanta, Ga.

The conference is being sponsored by the Society of Actuaries. A special Web page giving updates about the conference is posted at www.soa.org in the Research section.

As consolidation within the financial services industry continues, risk measurement becomes more complex. Companies offering multiple types of financial products find that individual products and product groups require different measures for risk. At the same time, each company must manage financial risk for itself as an entity. These companies increasingly seek an integrated approach to risk measurement and management. The Society's conference is intended to stimulate thought and discussion on integrated approaches to risk measurement.

The conference also is timely in light of the Securities and Exchange Commission's new market risk disclosure rules.

Prakash Shimpi, principal of Swiss Re New Markets Corporation, New York, will be guest speaker for the conference dinner on Dec. 8. He will discuss practical consequences of the convergence of insurance and finance. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.

Speakers and topics for the conference include:

Philippe Artzner, Ph.D., professor of economics and management, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France, "Coherent Capital Requirements."

Paul Embrechts, Ph.D., professor of mathematics, ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), and cofounder of RiskLab, a research center for risk management methodology, "VaR: Living on the Edge."

Thomas Ho, Ph.D., executive vice president, BARRA-GAT Inc., New York, "Applying VaR Analytics to the Investment Cycle of an Insurer."

Thomas Linsmeier, C.P.A., Ph.D., assistant professor of accountancy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "The Securities and Exchange Commission's New Market Risk Disclosure Rules."

William Panning, Ph.D., executive vice president, Willis Corroon, Nashville, Tenn., "Strategic Uses of VaR: Integrated Risk Management for Property & Casualty Insurers."

Peter Zangari, Ph.D., and Liam Mason, M.S., M.B.A., vice presidents, J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., New York, "Value at Risk."

In those and other presentations, researchers and audience members can compare, contrast, discuss and propose appropriate risk measures for integrated approaches to risk measurement. The conference is intended for risk measurement and management practitioners in any area of the financial services industry, including insurance, banking, finance and investment.

The conference will be held at the James H. "Sloppy" Floyd Building, 1 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Atlanta, Ga., near the Georgia State University campus. The general registration fee is $650. Members of actuarial organizations can attend for $600. Fees increase by $50 for registrations postmarked after Nov. 17, 1997.

A brochure and details are available from the Society of Actuaries' Web site, www.soa.org, in the Continuing Education and Research sections. The brochure also is available from the Society's Continuing Education Department, 847/706-3545 (fax: 847/706-3599), 475 N. Martingale Road, Suite 800, Schaumburg, IL, 60173.

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