Technical Advisory Group

Background and purpose

Following a public call for members, an Insurance Technical Advisory Group (Insurance TAG) was established comprising members from a variety of backgrounds and with a wealth of relevant experience. 

The purpose of the Insurance TAG is to provide technical support to the Endorsement Board secretariat in developing advice regarding the adoption of IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts for use in the UK. The Insurance TAG is an advisory group rather than a decision-making body and its advice will form one element only of the evidence considered by the UKEB in coming to an adoption decision.

Members

Preparers

Jo Clube - Aviva plc

Jo Clube is Director of Accounting Policy Developments at Aviva PLC, focusing particularly on implementation of IFRS 17. Jo represents the UK insurance industry on the IASB’s Transition Resource Group, which seeks to support the global implementation of IFRS 17, and is a member of ICAEW’s Insurance Committee. Jo is also tracking developments in climate change reporting and the development of sustainable reporting standards. Prior to joining Aviva Jo was part of the technical accounting team at PricewaterhouseCoopers which she joined after graduating from the University of Edinburgh.

Richard Crooks - Legal & General Group Plc

Richard is IFRS 17 Technical Lead at Legal & General Group Plc. With some 20 years’ experience in the life insurance industry he led the L&G Group’s contribution to the development of IFRS 17 and is now responsible for the Group’s IFRS 17 accounting policies and transition implementation. A previous member of the ABI Financial Reporting Committee Richard is currently a member of the ICAEW Insurance Committee and of the CFO Forum Steering Committee and Insurance Accounting Group. 

Stuart Reilly - Direct Line Group Plc

Stuart is an accountant who has over 20 years’ experience working in the insurance industry, in external reporting and accounting and regulatory development teams. In his current role at Direct Line Insurance Group he is the Technical Accounting Lead on their Group IFRS 17 Implementation programme.  He has worked on a considerable number of projects to implement new accounting standards, accounting regulation and insurance regulatory change over the last 15 years.

Auditors/Accounting Firms

Danny Clark - KPMG

Danny is an accounting advisory partner at KPMG, serving the insurance market. He has worked in audit and advisory capacities with life, general and Lloyd’s market insurers for 25 years. Recent experience includes operating as the interim financial controller for a UK life group. He is the UK representative on KPMG’s global topic team on IFRS 17. He is a member of the ICAEW’s Insurance Committee, for which he currently co-chairs the IFRS 17 Discussion Group.

Gail Tucker - PwC

Gail is an experienced audit partner with PwC in the UK and has worked with insurance companies for over 28 years. In the three years to July 2015 she was the lead IFRS global technical partner responsible for financial instruments and insurance technical advice to clients and audit teams throughout the world.  She is a member of the EFRAG Insurance Accounting Working Group in Brussels, the IASB IFRS 17 Transition Resource Group, the ICAEW Insurance Committee and the Financial Reporting Group of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK. Gail has extensive knowledge of the requirements and financial reporting implications of IFRS 17 having been involved in its development over the past 20 years.

Kevin Griffith - EY

Kevin is a partner at EY who leads the UK Insurance Accounting Advisory group. He is EY’s Global IFRS 17 Lead and a member of the IASB’s IFRS 17 Transition Resource Group. Kevin has significant experience working with UK and international insurers on the implementation of IFRS 17 and over 20 years’ experience providing accounting technical advice in the sector. He is Co-chair of the Insurance Working Group of the Global Public Policy Committee, a body representing the six largest global accounting firms in their interactions with global accounting and financial regulators. In this capacity he is working on a publication addressing the application of international auditing standards to the audit of IFRS 17.

Mark Spencer - BDO

Mark is BDO UK’s Financial Services Accounting Advisory Leader and is the IFRS 17 Leader of BDO’s Global Financial Services Group. He has over 15 years’ experience in providing assurance to and advising all types of financial institutions, including insurers, Lloyd’s syndicates, mutuals and captives situated in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Mark regularly engages with the Bank of England, ICAEW and the Insurance Working Group of the Global Public Policy Committee. He sits on a number of their working parties and other committees, for example, the ICAEW IFRS 17 Discussion Group.

Investors/Other Users

Tony Silverman - AM Best

Tony Silverman is a Director at AM Best in London responsible for generating and implementing globally consistent credit rating criteria for insurers. Previously he was lead credit analyst for several major European insurers. Earlier in his career Tony was a Director in the European Insurance team at Deutsche Bank Equity Research. More recently he was Sector Head, European Financials, at Standard and Poor’s Equity Research. Tony’s background includes wider commercial experience with a patent monetisation company and consulting with PwC. He is a Fellow of The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Sian Morgan - Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Sian Morgan began her career in investment at Autonomous Research LLP, a specialist research house focused on the Financials sector, before joining Allianz Global Investors in 2010, where she spent 8 years within Equity Research specialising in UK Financials.  Sian is currently an Equity Research Analyst at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, covering European Insurance, and has been a non-executive member of the FRC's Corporate Reporting Council for over 4 years.  She is also a CFA® charterholder.

Actuarial/systems

Wijdan Yousuf - Aon

Wijdan is a life actuary and brings over 10 years of experience in life insurance across pricing and financial reporting. As a Capital Solutions Actuary at Aon, he supports clients by providing relevant IFRS 17 expertise in capital optimisation projects. Previously, Wijdan was a member of the IFRS 17 project team at Zurich UK Life where he developed several IFRS 17 methodologies and led the financial impact assessment for Zurich’s UK life business. Wijdan is a member of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Financial Reporting Group and previously chaired an IFRS 17 working party that assessed complexities associated with the CSM from a life insurance perspective. 

Anju Bell - Willis Towers Watson

Anju Bell is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA). She has approaching 25 years of experience in many areas of non-life insurance (reserving, pricing and capital), with particularly extensive experience in the valuation of liabilities. In Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology division, Anju is the UK Property and Casualty (P&C) IFRS 17 Lead and the Global P&C IFRS 17 Technical Lead, developing the technical approaches and calculations within ResQ Financial Reporter, Willis Towers Watson’s IFRS 17 P&C solution. Anju is an active member of the IFoA IFRS 17 for General Insurance Working Party and the ICAEW IFRS 17 Discussion Group.

Other

Vasilka Bangeova - Guy Carpenter & Company

Vasilka leads Guy Carpenter’s IFRS 17 and regulatory advisory services.  She specialises in reinsurance and helps companies optimize the economic benefit of reinsurance within financial targets and operational budgets. Vasilka has over 15 years of experience in the UK insurance market. Prior to joining Guy Carpenter, she led Capital Aggregation and Risk & Actuarial assurance teams at Aviva, Prudential and Swiss Re. She also held senior technical roles with Big 4 practices advising non-life and life (re)insurers and Lloyd’s vehicles. She sat on the IASB’s IFRS 17 Transition Resource Group and is a member of the ICAEW Insurance Committee.

Andrew Spooner - Deloitte

Andrew Spooner is a partner of Deloitte LLP. Andrew is the global lead IFRS partner on financial instruments as well as part of the firm’s global IFRS leadership developing the firm’s views on the application of IFRS. Andrew has a financial services background focused on banking and insurance, as well as corporate treasury. Andrew is currently a board member of the ICAEW’s Financial Reporting Faculty. Andrew was a former member of EFRAG’s Technical Expert Group and the Chair of its Financial Instruments Working Group.