Responsabilities of Board of Directors
Hi Graham,
Has the OSFI paper change since the Battlecards were first created? The third ORSA's key element is called 'Oversight' in the official paper, not 'Responsabilities of Board of Directors'. Do they mean the same thing? Also if that's the case, do you still approve of the description of that element in the Battlecards?
Speaking of which, in the Battlecards it says to look at the paper p8, orange box, but I can't seem to find that orange box anywhere.
Thanks,
Comments
Hey @jptardif2,
I just double-checked and the current version of the ORSA reading listed in the syllabus is 2017 which is the one I used, and I do see a box on page 8. Maybe it isn't orange - maybe it's pinkish? But anyway, it's a box shaded in a different colour. The text starts with: The insurer’s Board should review and discuss the ORSA...
About ORSA's third key element: I see that I worded it differently from the way it's listed in the table of contents of the source reading. I cannot now remember why I did that and I realize it's a bit confusing. But "Board Oversight" and "Responsibilities of the Board of Directors" should be near enough the same thing.
If you were to quote the reading exactly, this third key element would be:
This seems to distinguish between what the Board should be doing and what Senior Management should be doing, but if you read the source text, there didn't seem to be a clear difference beyond the standard division of duties. Namely that the Board oversees operations in general but the Senior Management attends to the actual day-to-day operations. I suppose you could memorize the relevant sentences from the source text but that seems too much even for the CAS!
To guide studying, I always go back to what has been asked on past exams. They don't always ask exactly the same question, so it's good to go a little beyond what has been asked in the past, but at some point you have to make a judgment call on how much detail to memorize. It's not a particularly long reading and it's been on the syllabus for a long time. They've pretty much run through all the different questions that can be asked on that topic so if you know the answers to the old questions, you should be in good shape.
@graham, this question might have been before its time, but it seems the version of the ORSA paper they were referring is now the one on the syllabus.
From what I can see from an old version of the paper found online, the previous version did have "board oversight and senior management responsibility" as a key concept for ORSA with the orange box referenced in the battlecard, but the current version found bellow does not, it has been replaced with a generic "oversight" concept.
https://www.casact.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/6C_OSFI_ORSA.pdf
The current version doesn't really talks about the board's duties at all, instead referring to OSFI's Corporate Governance Guideline as the source for the expectations regarding the board. The board's duties are discussed in section 2 of that paper, which is not no the current syllabus (only section 5 and annex B are).
Thus, I believe past answers regarding the board's duties are not on the syllabus anymore (although they might still be correct, in which cas the CAS may award points for them anyway).
Regarding the battlecard, the answer seem to still be consistent with the text, but this version has clarified it as a duty of senior management and not the board.
Well, it turns out there are 2 versions of this reading but they both have the same date on the first page. I had no idea I was looking at a different version. I will have to check this out and get back to you. Here's the first page of the copy I was using:
Ok, I've looked through the newer version of the 2017 version of this article and there really isn't much difference other than the 'Key Element' called Oversight. In the prior version it was called 'Board Oversight and Senior Management Responsibility' as shown above but there doesn't appear to be any material difference.