Actuarial Society of Hong Kong

The Actuarial Society of Hong Kong (ASHK, Chinese: 香港精算學會) is the professional actuarial body of Hong Kong. It is governed by an elected council with 15 members including a president and a vice-president. The ASHK is one of the Full Member Associations (FMA) of the International Actuarial Association (IAA).^[1]

The objectives^[2] of the society include:

• add values to the actuarial community;
• promote education in actuarial science;
• serve for public interest related to the actuarial aspects of public, social and economic and financial matters.

The statutory role of an appointed actuary in Hong Kong is stipulated in the Insurance Ordinance^[3] in Hong Kong that who should be a Fellow Member of the ASHK.

The predecessor of the Actuarial Society of Hong Kong (ASHK) is the Actuarial Association of Hong Kong,^[1] founded in 1968. In 1994, the ASHK was formed by 34 founding members including practicing actuaries and senior officials of various insurers.^[4]

In one of the year books in the 1980's, the below description of the history of the ASHK's predecessor, the Actuarial Association of Hong Kong, was quoted as follows:

"The Actuarial Association of Hong Kong was founded on November 3, 1967. The following is a brief sketch of its historical background from founding to now.

The idea of forming an actuarial association in Hong Kong was conceived by two actuaries (the only two qualified actuaries at that time) and their associates and certain people in the Government Census & Statistics Department of Hong Kong in 1967.

With the encouragement of Mr. F. W. Stephens, actuary of AIA, Mr. Edmund Tse, took up the secretarial function in organizing a founding committee. A number of preparatory meetings were held in the SwissRe office, where the only other actuary Mr. Kevin Claridge held his office, from August to October 1967. Consequently, it became possible to hold a general meeting of the interested parties on November 3, 1967 at the AIA Penthouse, where the proposed articles of association prepared by the founding committee were accepted and five provisional officers and committee members were elected. They were Mr. Kevin Claridge, Mr. F. W. Stephens, Mr. Edmund Tse, Mr. Y. K. Chan and Mr. Benjamin Mok. These five people became founding members of the Association, got ahead with the registration for formality and also went on to serve as the Association's officers and committee members for its first year (1967-1968). There were twelve members during the first year of the Association. The Association has grown even since in terms of membership and activities. Up to now the total number of members exceeded 70.

In 1971 the Association was affiliated to the International Actuarial Association.

The objects of the Association are to afford discussions of papers of actuarial interests and various subjects and to assist actuarial students in their examinations. During the early years there were not many students nor many qualified actuaries to give papers. Nevertheless, we managed to present papers each year during the first three years. Two were presented by Mr. Kevin Claridge and one by Mr. K. M. A. Barnett, Director of Census and Statistics Department.

By 1971 we have relatively more actuarial students and also more actuaries with the advent of the pension consulting and insurance brokering business in Hong Kong. The year 1970-1971 was the first time we had as many as three papers in one year which is the minimum rate which we have maintained ever since. It was also during that period of time that we started our practice of 40:60 coinsurance of post-meeting dinner charges with a view to attracting more members to meetings and fostering members relationship. In 1972 we saw the birth of the first qualified actuary (F.I.A.) from amongst the locally trained actuarial students, Mr. Peter Luk who was subsequently elected President for 1972 to 1973. Then in the year of 1975 two more actuarial students qualified for the F.I.A. who are Mr. Patrick Poon and Mr. Y. S. Yang. In 1977 Mr. Frank Chan qualified as F.I.A. Up to now we have seen four local persons qualifying as actuaries since the founding of the Association.

In January 1979 a Life Insurance Seminar was successfully organized which was the first one in the history of the insurance industry in Hong Kong. In May 1980, Life Insurance Seminar II was again organized and the main impetus behind this Seminar stems from the success of that year. More than 150 participants attended the Seminar, which has proved to be one of a historic events for the Association."

As in 2025, the ASHK has over 1,600 active members, including practicing actuaries, students and retired members.

There are four classes of ASHK membership,^[5] namely Fellow Members, Associate Members, Student Members, and Honourary [sic] Members.

A Fellow Member of the ASHK (with the credential FAHSK) is a fellow member an international actuarial body approved by the Council, having appropriate professional actuarial qualifications and practical experience, and have passed two papers of the ASHK Certificate (Certificate in Hong Kong Insurance Markets and Regulations) (or equivalent). An FASHK is eligible to take on statutory role as an appointed actuary (AA) or a certifying actuary (CA) in Hong Kong.

An Associate Member of the ASHK is an associate member an international actuarial body approved by the Council, having appropriate professional actuarial qualifications and practical experience.

Persons who have not yet achieved an associate level from any actuarial body may apply to be a Student Member of the ASHK, without voting rights. Members taking student membership are further classified into Ordinary Student Members and University Student Members.

The Honorary Membership of the ASHK is a prestigious recognition awarded to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the actuarial profession. Candidates can be nominated by members to the council and seek approval by members at the annual general meeting (AGM).

The Fellow Members of the ASHK can use the FASHK designation, where the FASHK mark has been registered with the Trade Marks Registry of Intellectual Property Department officially since February 2020.^[6][7]

The ASHK has also distributed a digital badge to all FASHK in good standing.

The ASHK has always been taking a leading role in professional actuarial matters in Hong Kong, including assisting the Insurance Authority in establishing and revising Insurance Guideline (GL) under Legislative and Regulatory Framework.^[8]

The society also holds seminars and webinars for members relating to professionalism, actuarial practice, and market updates.

Since 2019, the ASHK has offered its own professional actuarial examination for the ASHK Certificate (Certificate in Hong Kong Insurance Markets and Regulations), which has become a requirement to be a Fellow Member of the ASHK since then.

The ASHK also organizes annual conferences including the General Insurance Conference, the Innovation Conference, the Health Insurance Conference, and the Appointed Actuaries (AA) Symposium.

Moreover, the ASHK organized the grand Asian Actuarial Conference (AAC) twice which respectively attracted over 700 attendees in 2018 and over 1,000 attendees in 2024, those are global industrial leaders and actuaries in the insurance sector, reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s Insurance Hub.

The ASHK has an official quarterly published newsletter publicly available. In 2024, the ASHK Newsletter was reformed to the ASHK Magazine called Actuzine (精誌), which has its contents enriched with more sections and columns.