NETHERLANDS - The Dutch Actuarial Society, or AG, is to introduce a uniform statement for the assessment of the financial position of pension funds and insurers, it said.

“The standard statement is a first and clear choice to make the actuaries’ work more transparent,” chairman Roland van den Brink added.

The uniform statement will come into force as of January 1. Until now, individual offices have been using their own text.

“The Actuarial Society aims at self regulation as its way to give meaning to the public demands for better governance,” it said in a statement.

Recently, the AG’s members decided that a certifying actuary should not be on the payroll of the organisation he is certifying, or of the group of which the organisation is a part. If the organisation to be certified is a company pension fund, the certifying actuary shouldn’t be employed by the sponsor either.

Earlier this year, finance minister Gerrit Zalm stressed that the society - almost all Dutch actuaries are affiliated - itself must play the largest role in the regulation of the actuarial independence.

The organisation responded by stating that “when an actuary is certifying, and assessing the financial position of a pension scheme or an insurer, he has to be independent. Even the appearance of a conflict of interests must be avoided.”

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