CPIC and SAS compliance risk tech implementation best in China

The Asian Banker awards IFRS 17 project collaboration

Please note the following is a translation of a release originally distributed in China.

SAS recently was awarded 2023 Best Compliance Risk Technology Implementation in China by The Asian Banker, an international authoritative financial magazine, for the IFRS 17 – Insurance Contracts project, in cooperation with China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. (CPIC). The Asian Banker China Awards program aims to recognize those Chinese financial institutions that have demonstrated excellence in risk management.

As one of the most rigorous annual awards programs for the financial services industry in China, The Asian Banker China Awards program identifies and recognizes business cases that can serve as industry benchmarks enlightening future decisions. This year, The Asian Banker received more than 600 applications from more than 200 financial institutions in China and spent more than three months completing the evaluation.

The finalists were selected by The Asian Banker Research Institute after a rigorous and transparent multidimensional evaluation according to the scorecard mechanism. The winners were decided based on comprehensive research analysis, data comparison and in-depth interviews with shortlisted candidates by The Asia Banker international research team and an independent jury.

The Asian Banker’s research found that CPIC has satisfied IFRS 17 disclosure requirements with the compliance management technology powered by the SAS® IFRS 17 solution, significantly improved its process efficiency and accounting accuracy, and reduced costs with big data computing and full automation technology.

This is one of the first IFRS 17 implementation projects among domestic insurance institutions, empowering CPIC with greater compliance and risk management capabilities.

“IFRS 17 came into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, establishing more stringent principles for the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of insurance contracts,” said Zhang Yuanhan, Chief Actuary and CFO of CPIC. “Meanwhile, the fierce market competition poses more severe challenges to insurance companies in product design, actuarial pricing and profit forecasting capabilities.

“We are excited to join forces with SAS in IFRS 17 implementation, leveraging cutting-edge data analytics and process management technology to reduce compliance risk and improve financial digitization, organizational integration and management refinement, so as to stay ahead of the market and drive actuarial transformation of the insurance industry.”

The CPIC IFRS 17 project aims to integrate the business data of major CPIC subsidiaries, including property insurance, life insurance and health insurance. As there are many types of insurance data from multiple sources demanding repeated review, the project faced many problems in early stages, such as complex requirements of multiple systems and business departments, giant team size and management challenges.

CPIC Technology, a subsidiary of CPIC, spent more than three years on the IT implementation of the IFRS 17 project. It gradually cultivated a professional IFRS 17 project team.

“Our company sticks to the concept of ‘standard-compliant, data-driven, technology-first and talent-oriented’,” said Wei Jiaohua, General Manager of CPIC Technology. “We’ve established an end-to-end financial accounting system for the new standard at the business level, integrated big data with the finance innovatively at the technology level, and cultivated a team that knows both technology and business at the talent level, adding scientific and technological power that contributed to the successful implementation of IFRS 17 project.”

“We are proud to win The Asian Banker’s 2023 Best Compliance Risk Technology Implementation in China in partnership with CPIC,” said Wilson Ho, Vice President and Managing Director of SAS Greater China. “This award is a recognition for the accomplishments of SAS® Solution for IFRS 17 and risk technology implementation.

“We are also very grateful to CPIC for their trust and recognition. It is our joint efforts that made this honor possible.”

As the first digital management system uniformly built by an insurance group, the CPIC IFRS 17 project – based on SAS data analytics and AI – has created a new generation of financial data management system for insurance services. It is a model of digitalization and intelligentization in the insurance industry, functioning to track, audit and manage all IFRS 17 compliance steps and promote collaboration among actuarial, finance and risk control teams.

Learn more about the SAS Solution for IFRS 17 at sas.com/en_us/software/solution-for-ifrs-17.html.