Matthew Byrne, Head of Actuarial Function at NFU Mutual blogs about his experience of applying for the QAS, and what it means to his team to receive the accreditation.
My team, the Actuarial Function team at NFU Mutual, has been awarded QAS accreditation by the IFoA as of 5 July 2021, and we could not be more delighted.
The Actuarial Function provides second-line risk assurance to Board on a wide range of topics and we work very hard to meet the highest standards in our work.
We are also highly committed to the continuous development of our knowledge and skills, holding monthly CPD sessions as a team as well as attending external events so that we keep up to date with industry trends.
Given that we make these efforts to go above and beyond, I thought it was appropriate that this was recognised through the QAS.
I wanted to apply for QAS because it provides us with visible external benchmarking which demonstrates to our stakeholders that we hold ourselves to these high standards in the work that we do.
The QAS is a commitment to providing a working environment which supports our actuaries in carrying out their best quality work. That’s good for the actuaries in my team, as well as for customers of NFU Mutual. So it was heartening that our pursuit of this accreditation was strongly supported internally; the organisation markets itself with the promise of expert service and has shown that it is committed to delivering on that promise.
The application process itself was straightforward and there was collaborative support from the team at the IFoA.
To prepare for the application we had to ensure all our policies and procedures were up to date and we had to be able to evidence how we have used them within our recent work. The ICAEW assessment was challenging but fair and made constructive recommendations to ensure we were fully covering all aspects of the QAS requirements.
I am very proud that NFU Mutual is the first insurance company in the UK to receive the QAS accreditation and pleased to be joining the other QAS accredited organisations in being able to access the various benefits of accreditation, in particular the peer support from other Senior Quality Assurance Representatives and the tailored webinars and Forums hosted by the IFoA.
