BEIRUT- PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) organized a Banking and Insurance conference at the Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel on September 22. The theme of the conference was Risk Appetite and Value Creation, and stressed the importance of properly understanding and measuring the various financial and operational risks which are inherent in the financial services industry. This should be ideally done through the implementation of modern risk modelling techniques, which enable the financial institutions to navigate with good visibility in an increasingly complex business world.

The conference was steered by Camille Sifri, PricewaterhouseCoopers country senior partner, and featured Dr. François Bassil, chairman of the Lebanese Banking Association, as keynote speaker. Mr. Elie Karam from the Banking Control Commission discussed modern Basel II approaches to valuing operational risks in the banking sector. Bryan Joseph, global actuarial leader PricewaterhouseCoopers, covered the concept and practical aspects of Risk Appetite in the insurance industry. Samih Geha, actuarial partner PricewaterhouseCoopers, explained the added value of PwC’s actuarial capabilities in the banking and insurance industries. The event was attended by over fifty eminent banking and insurance professionals.

PricewaterhouseCoopers currently has over 1000 actuaries in 36 countries. It became the first of the major actuarial practices to establish a local presence in the Middle East, where a team led by two new partners Samih Geha and Ronald Chidiac have joined the firm. This move builds on PwC's offerings in this region and adds to the firm's recognised strength in the Financial Services industry.
Bryan Joseph, who was in Lebanon for a couple of days in order to participate in this event and emphasize on the importance of choosing Lebanon as a base for the actuarial practice in the region said: "Our actuarial business is about much more than providing traditional services to the insurance and pension markets. We are able to provide distinctive multi-disciplinary solutions for our clients. I am very excited about working with all of our new actuarial colleagues around the world, especially in Lebanon and assisting our businesses to provide local support to all of our clients."