Actuarial Science students win first place at Peak Re Sponsored CAS ARECA Case Competition 2023

From left: Choi Nian Ci, Chin Xiang Ee and Law Zhe Wei

A team of UTAR Actuarial Science students won first place at the Peak Re-Sponsored CAS ARECA Case Competition 2023. The case competition was organised by the Asia Region Casualty Actuaries (ARECA) and sponsored by the Hong Kong-based reinsurance specialist Peak Re.

The winning team consisted of Chin Xiang Ee, Choi Nian Ci and Law Zhe Wei who are all Actuarial Science students under the Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKS FES). Their proposal titled “Implementations for Recent Business Challenges” responded to a fictional family-owned P&C insurance company in Asia to address challenges, which include increasing market competition due to insurance companies shifting to direct channels via digital platforms, rising reinsurance costs, threat of inflation and declining solvency ratio.

The case competition, which was set to support and encourage university students in Asia who are interested in the general insurance actuarial field, commenced on 19 December 2023. The team prepared their responses and submitted them on 14 January 2024. On 26 March 2024, the team alongside four other teams which had managed to advance to the final round presented their work to the founder and C-suite leaders of Peak Re as well as a senior CAS fellow through the virtual platform Microsoft Teams.

In recognition of the team’s achievement, the whole team was awarded a monetary award of USD 1,500 by ARECA. Each member also received an achievement certificate and a free CAS Exam registration (Exam 5 and above, excluding DISCs).

“We knew about the competition from the sharing by lecturers and decided to join as we wanted to apply the knowledge and skills learnt through our Actuarial studies in UTAR. Besides that, we were interested in the case competition which surrounds the theme of challenges faced by general insurance companies,” the team said.

“Winning first place was both thrilling and humbling as other teams were impressive throughout the presentation. Joining this case competition has broadened our understanding of the operation of insurance companies and their relationship with reinsurers. The final round was a beneficial and generous sharing session between the teams and the judges and we gained a lot from it. We are thankful to ARECA and Peak Re for organising the case competition which has provided us with the opportunity for this exciting experience. We credit our achievement to the years of studies in UTAR and presentation skills gained through joining a capstone project previously,” the team added.

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