For an insurance company, ensuring the proper coordination between assets and liabilities in order to achieve targeted financial objectives is of paramount interest. A strategy used to reach such objectives is "asset and liability management" (ALM in short). ALM can therefore be viewed as any ongoing process that defines, implements, and monitors financial strategies to manage assets and liabilities together.

In recent years, the modelling tools used in ALM strategies have become increasingly sophisticated and the technical aspects of current insurance regulation have increased. As a result, some ALM aspects have become more and more difficult to understand and master.

The aim of this training is to

• Define what ALM is and describe the typical missions of an ALM department in an insurance company
• Present the financial risks on which ALM classically focus as well as the requirements of the Solvency II regulation for insurance companies
• Describe the essential quantitative ALM tools and methods used by insurance companies to evaluate and mitigate the risks
• Illustrate the different concepts through numerical examples and case studies to make it practical and not just theoretical

Please have a look at the preliminary programme below to see the differences between Part 1 and Part 2 of this web series.

The first part (bookable separately) is primarily an introduction to main concepts of ALM and is therefore particularly suited for participants coming from different departments (for instance, people dealing with own risk solvency assessment techniques or enterprise risk management) and wanting to develop a broader view on what ALM is and how it works. It is also well suited for newcomers or people wanting to refresh their mind on these concepts. Note that the training is not limited to people working in ALM or treasury departments but is also adapted to other departments.

The second part is more advanced and intended for those wishing to gain more in-depth expertise on the topics. It includes some mathematical technicity, but nothing that goes further than a solid high school level.

The participants can follow a single part or both.

Technical Requirements
Please check with your IT department if your firewall and computer settings support web session participation (the programme Zoom will be used for this online training). Please also make sure to join the web session with a stable internet connection.

The training will alternate between methodological concepts, practical examples and case studies in order to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the techniques presented.

The instructor-led sessions will take place online over three days between 9:00 and 12:30.

The participants will be requested to look at two e-learning capsules (of around 30 minutes each):

• Introduction to financial products
• Main principles of asset and liability management

The e-learning capsules contain pedagogical presentations of the concepts with examples. They can be followed by the participants whenever they want between the web sessions, as pre-requisites.

The participants will perform exercises and case studies in Excel.

Examples in e-learning capsules and case studies are based on experience with Belgian companies but are not specific to Belgium and are rather applicable to most European countries.

Catherine Chatelain
Catherine is a Manager within the Risk & Finance Center of Excellence at Reacfin. She holds a Bachelor in Mathematical Sciences (magna cum laude) and a Master in Actuarial Sciences (magna cum laude). Catherine joined Reacfin in September 2016, right after her studies. She had the opportunity to be involved in several projects including Solvency II computation processes, Economic Scenario Generators and strategic asset allocation studies. She also gained experience in other actuarial topics related to life and pension products such as valuation of a pension funds’ liabilities, cash flow modelling and on a monitoring and projection tool of a company’s group insurance. Catherine has been active on IFRS 17 related topics as well by supporting the teams of several insurance companies in their implementation of the standard, and through internal projects and trainings at Reacfin. She co-writes the regulatory watch published every month by Reacfin, which monitors and summarizes the key developments in insurance-related and financial regulations in the European Union. Catherine is a qualified actuary of the Institute of Actuaries in Belgium (IA|BE).

Natacha Brouhns
Mrs. Natacha Brouhns is a Managing Partner of Reacfin. She holds multiple degrees including a PhD. in Actuarial Science, MSc Actuarial Science (Magna Cum Laude), MSc. Electro-technical Civil Engineer (Magna Cum Laude), Postgraduate in Statistics (Summa Cum Laude) as well as a degree in Philosophy. Natacha is author of several publications in actuarial science both for Life and Non-Life topics. Natacha has gained deep experience in Life and Non-Life insurance industry as a modeler and validator. She has developed several ALM models for Life insurance companies and has therefor mastery as much on the liability side as on the asset side of the balance sheet. She is coordinating all learning activities at Reacfin. Natacha is a certified member of the Institute of Actuaries in Belgium (IA|BE).