The body in charge of the UK’s actuaries discriminated against domestic students, a tribunal found, in a case that raises questions about the organisation’s governance at a time when its future regulation is uncertain.
An employment tribunal in London ruled that the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries unfairly gave Indian students an advantage in its exam process. The tribunal said that Roopesh Davda, who had brought the complaint, suffered from racial discrimination because of his nationality.
Actuaries use statistical and modelling skills to predict the chance of certain events happening, and are often employed by insurance companies. To be recognised as an actuary in the UK, students have to pass a series of exams with either the IFoA itself or an equivalent actuarial organisation overseas. It also accepts some university exams.
“These exams take years to pass,” said Mr Davda. “Working on them has taken up 17 years of my life.”
Mr Davda complained that the IFoA’s links with the Indian Actuarial Institute gave Indian students an advantage.
The IFoA sees the IAI’s exams as equivalent to its own, and so accepts passes in the Indian exams as part of its own qualifications.
The IFoA runs exams twice a year, as does the IAI. Indian students can take the exams run by both institutions, and so can take exams four times a year.
Mr Davda said that, as a UK citizen, he was unable to take the IAI’s exams and so could only sit exams twice a year.
“There are many advantages to taking exams multiple times. You can study once and take the exams twice, or else take two different exams,” he told the Financial Times.
The employment tribunal decided that this amounted to discrimination. It also found that the IFoA had discriminated against Mr Davda by “instructing, causing, inducing or aiding the Indian Actuarial Institute not to admit British nationals as students”.
A remedy hearing, which could award compensation to Mr Davda, is set for June 17. It is not clear if the ruling will have implications for other students.
In its 2017/18 review, the IFoA said over 32,000 of its exams were taken by students in 155 exam centres around the world. At the end of that period the IFoA had 16,000 student members globally.
In a statement, the IFoA said: “The IFoA is naturally concerned by the outcome of this case and we are currently considering the judgment in detail and legal options open to us. We are also in the process of discussions with the IAI. We do not consider it appropriate to comment further at this stage given that legal proceedings remain live.”
Mr Davda said: “They have spent an absurd amount on fighting this. They’re playing hardball against me.”
The IFoA has been overseen by the Financial Reporting Council since 2005. However last year’s Kingman Review, which made extensive proposals for reform of the council, said the body should not be responsible for overseeing actuaries in future.
“Neither the FRC, nor its successor body, is best-placed to be the oversight body. The Prudential Regulation Authority [which employs around 80 actuaries] is a much larger repository of regulatory actuarial expertise than the FRC and would be best-placed to take on all the actuarial responsibilities currently vested in the FRC,” the review argued.
