China is reintroducing its qualification process for actuaries in order to plug a gap in the insurance market following the suspension of exams in 2014.

The country’s insurance sector has called for the resumption of the exams as actuaries are in short supply. In the insurance business, actuaries are professionals who assess risks using data analysis and other techniques. Actuaries play a key role in the field of insurance itself, as well as risk management, social guarantees, and other fields.

According to a report from Yicai Global, the exams will be held between Oct. 21 and Oct. 25 this year and are very technical and difficult. The exams will pave the way for future graduates to hold core positions at insurance firms.

The field itself is regarded as high-grade and specialized, with two stages in the qualification process. Applicants must first qualify as actuaries-to-be before they can become a formal actuary, according to documents released by the National Administration of Financial Regulation and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Prior to the resumption of the exams, actuaries in China could only specialize in two areas, namely life and non-life. This time around, regulators have added five fields to better meet the industry’s demands, including health insurance, social security and pension plans, financial risks management, assets management, and data science.

Elsewhere in the country, China also recently revealed new guidelines to boost the healthy development of its burgeoning cybersecurity insurance sector.

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