Hassan Scott Odierno
FSA, FASM
Hassan is a senior partner and director with over thirty years of experience consulting to insurance firms and takaful. He currently leads the training arm, learn@AP, exploring ways to add value to insurers throughout the developing world.
Hassan Scott Odierno has been with the company since 1996. His specialties are in life and takaful consulting. He has been the Appointed Actuary for insurers and takaful operators in countries such as Malaysia, Brunei, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Mauritius. He has been involved in assisting companies set up takaful operations from feasibility studies to product and model development and business projections in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Maldives, Dubai and Tunisia for both local companies as well as multinationals. He has also been involved in merger & acquisition exercises and other strategic projects for insurers in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt and Bahrain. He has been active in regulatory consulting in countries such as Jordan, Labuan, Tanzania, Thailand and Nigeria. He is the co-author of the World Bank Book on Takaful & Mutual Insurance, co-author of the book Essential Guide to Takaful and a contributing author to the book Health Insurance in Asia. He has also been the external adviser to four universities in Malaysia to their risk management and actuarial science programs.
Hassan is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, has a Bachelor of Science degree with high distinction in Mathematics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the USA and has an honorary Master of Science degree in actuarial science from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM).
Areas of Expertise
Publications
Accounting for Takaful under IFRS17 (9/1/2020) – Accounting for insurance is a complicated matter. It took the IASB nearly 20 years to produce IFRS17. Over the period during which IFRS17 was formulated, no submission was made to the IASB to determine its applicability to takaful. Now that the standard is out, takaful companies are scrambling to determine how to apply the standard… Read More
What makes a perfect Takaful company? (5/1/2020) – Whilst there isn’t a “perfect” Takaful company, there are certain situations which we see as being conducive to succeeding. We have listed some important factors based on our nearly 40 years of experience assisting clients to develop Takaful operations in a number of markets, with so many different types of value propositions and ideas: A… Read More
Transparency and Market Discipline forTakaful Exposure draft of IFSB and its relevance to IFRS17 (4/1/2020) – The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) has requested comments on its exposure draft 25: Disclosures to Promote Transparency and Market Discipline for Takaful / Retakaful Undertakings by 25th May. This is a good time to make your voice heard by commenting on this draft. There are a number of points in this draft which are directly relevant… Read More
Assistance schemes to help with Covid-19 and the Time Value of Money (4/1/2020) – The extension of the Movement Control Order or MCO is expected to bring grave hardships to the bottom 40% of wage earners otherwise known as the B40. The goal of this article is to explain how the time value of money affects whether you should take advantage of these programs and some of the effects over… Read More
Takaful at a Crossroads in Bangladesh (4/1/2020) – The World Bank is currently assisting Bangladesh in improving its insurance industry. This puts Takaful at a crossroad: will Takaful continue to look very similar to traditional (non-Takaful) products or will Takaful look different and unique? In my mind this is where we need to show the beauty of not only Takaful, but Bangladeshi Takaful. … Read More
Covid-19 and Actuarial Science for Life Insurance (4/1/2020) – A popular topic of discussion with our clients lately has been what the short and long term effects of Covid-19 will be on our actuarial work. Traditional year-end work in many of our markets has included the projection of solvency over the next several years, meaning as actuaries we need to make assumptions for the… Read MoreI have known and worked with Hassan for over 10 years. He has been the independent Actuary for the group I work for during this time and we have engaged him for work related to statutory valuations, embedded value and risk based capital reporting, product evaluation and pricing as well as several ad hoc assignments. Not only is his work rigorous and diligent from an actuarial perspective, as you would expect, but I have also found him to be pragmatic and entrepreneurial in his approach to assessing key issues. This is indeed a rare quality and leads to sensible outcomes. The value added to our organisation is most appreciated, not just by me, but our entire organisation. I have no hesitation in recommending him to anyone who is looking for these qualities.
Azim Dawood – Group Head of Actuarial, Risk and Compliance, Jubilee Holdings Limited
Mr. Hassan had been working with JyotiLife as the appointed actuary since June 2020. He was able to understand the local business dynamics from a global perspective. He has provided us with some great insights which has played a key role in our business both from a risk management and ROI point of view. In Dec 2022, JyotiLife underwent a merger with SuryaLife forming SuryaJyoti Life Insurance Co. Ltd. This was the first merger in life insurance industry in Nepal. Mr. Hassan has been like an extension of the core team and here too he played a critical role in supporting us with the merger in coordination with other actuaries, auditors and legal team members. Highly professional with a great focus on customer service, fantastic to be working with Mr. Hassan and the team.
Prakash Khatri – CEO, Jyoti Life Insurance
I worked with Hassan Scott for HLMT’s ICAAP project, and found his approach very practical. His understanding of the market is valuable to us having being in the market for more than 20 years, and his recommendations are good and easy to implement.
Khairil Anuar Mohammad Anuar – CEO, Co-opbank Pertama