Director of Capital Planning & Optimisation

At AIA we’ve started an exciting movement to create a healthier, more sustainable future for everyone.

It’s about finding new ways to not only better people's lives, but to better the communities and environments we live in. We need great Actuaries who want to be part of something bigger than finance alone. Because the better we can nurture our financial wellbeing as an organisation, the better we can support and make a difference for our customers when they need us most. By ensuring our products are well designed and priced, analysing business performance and ensuring proper management of insurance policies in-force, you’re not just safeguarding AIA’s financial wellbeing. You’re securing a better future for the people and communities we serve - today, tomorrow and for generations to come.

If that interests you, read on. 

About the Role

Lead the development and execution of the Group capital planning and optimisation agenda, ensuring that capital strength, capital generation, cash emergence and fungibility support the Group's strategic and shareholder objectives. The role provides senior management with forward-looking analysis and recommendations on the Group's regulatory, shareholder and economic capital positions; capital operating ranges; shareholder-distribution capacity; new-business capital efficiency; and Business Unit capital and remittance plans. It leads engagement with Business Units and Group functions to identify and implement actions that improve capital efficiency, sustainable free-surplus generation, cash remittances and return on capital, while maintaining resilience under stress.

Roles & Responsibilities

Group capital strategy and framework

• Lead the ongoing development of the Group capital management framework, including capital objectives, target operating ranges, internal capital resources principles, capital triggers and management actions.
• Assess the Group capital position across regulatory, shareholder, economic and stress-capital perspectives, including the interaction between these measures.
• Translate the Group financial strategy and risk appetite into actionable capital-management principles and decision frameworks for Group and Business Units.
• Monitor emerging regulatory and accounting developments and assess their implications for capital, free-surplus generation, cash emergence and remittance capacity.

Capital planning, forecasting and shareholder distributions

• Lead the Group capital-planning process and consolidate forward-looking projections of regulatory capital, shareholder capital, free surplus, cash generation and remittances.
• Assess the affordability and sustainability of dividends, share buy-backs and other shareholder distributions under base and stressed scenarios.
• Identify emerging capital and cash shortfalls, concentrations and fungibility constraints, and recommend mitigating actions.
• Prepare capital-position updates, distribution recommendations and supporting analysis for the Group CFO, Group Chief Executive, Chairman, Board and relevant governance forums.

Business Unit capital, cash and performance steering

• Set and coordinate Business Unit capital-generation, UFSG, net free-surplus generation and remittance targets through the strategic and business-planning cycles.
• Review and challenge Business Unit plans, assumptions and forecasts, with particular focus on capital resilience, fungibility, cash conversion, remittance constraints and delivery against Group objectives.
• Lead deep dives into material Business Units and regulatory regimes to identify trapped capital, remittance barriers and actions to improve sustainable cash emergence.
• Track delivery against capital and remittance plans, escalate emerging gaps and coordinate corrective actions with Business Unit CFOs and actuarial leadership.

New-business and in-force capital optimisation

• Lead analysis of new-business capital intensity, cash-emergence profiles and post-stress returns to support product-mix, pricing and growth decisions.
• Develop capital and cash metrics that enable management to steer new business towards the Group target financial profile.
• Partner with Business Units, Group Financial Business Management, Group Actuarial and other Group functions to evaluate product, ALM, reinsurance and balance-sheet actions that improve capital efficiency and return on capital.
• Evaluate in-force capital optimisation opportunities, including potential changes to internal capital treatments, asset-liability strategies and reinsurance solutions.
• Provide capital-management recommendations on material product matters with remittance or Group capital implications; the role advises and recommends rather than acting as the formal product approver.

Stress, recovery and regulatory capital

• Represent Group Capital Management in the development and review of the Group ORSA, recovery plan and related stress and scenario-testing frameworks.
• Review capital and liquidity triggers, severe stress scenarios, recovery options and the credibility of proposed management actions.
• Assess interactions between Group and local solvency requirements and their implications for capital resilience and distributable capital.
• Support regulatory and rating-agency engagement on the Group capital-management framework, capital strength, ALM and management actions.
• Lead preparation of capital-management materials for supervisory colleges and other senior regulatory forums.

Leadership, governance and communication

• Lead and develop the Capital Planning & Optimisation team, setting priorities, allocating work and ensuring high-quality delivery of recurring and strategic outputs.
• Coordinate cross-functional work across Group Capital Management, Treasury, Actuarial, Risk, Investor Relations, Financial Business Management and Business Units.
• Act as a senior adviser to the Chief Capital Officer and Group CFO on capital, cash and shareholder-value matters.
• Prepare and present clear recommendations for senior executives, governance committees, the Chairman and the Board.
• Build capital-management capabilities across the Group through executive education, Business Unit engagement and communication of the Group capital framework.
• Represent the function on relevant actuarial, methodology, accounting and capital-governance working groups and committees.

Minimum Job Requirements

• Minimum 15 years relevant experience in life insurance, actuarial, capital management, finance or a closely related discipline, including significant experience in a regional or Group environment, ideally in Asia Pacific.
• Professional actuarial qualification or equivalent deep technical expertise in insurance finance and capital management.
• Advanced understanding of life-insurance regulatory capital, economic capital, shareholder capital, free-surplus generation, ALM, reinsurance, stress testing and financial reporting.
• Demonstrated experience in capital planning, financial forecasting, Business Unit challenge and the development of management recommendations.
• Strong commercial understanding of how product mix, pricing, investment strategy, ALM and reinsurance influence earnings, capital generation, cash emergence and shareholder returns.
• Ability to translate complex actuarial and capital analysis into clear decisions and recommendations for senior executives and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong judgement, executive communication, influencing and stakeholder-management skills.
• Proven ability to lead teams and complex cross-functional programmes across multiple markets.

Build a career with us as we help our customers and the community live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives.

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