Last week, the Department of Finance at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) launched their Joint Actuarial Center with Yingshang Technology (Snail Insurance Network) and the SUSTech Education Foundation.

SUSTech University Council Chairperson Guo Yurong, Secretary-General of the National Insurance Industry Association Shang Jingguo, Director of the Shenzhen Financial Service Center Tang Qi and Founder of Yingshang Technology Shang Mengmeng all attended the launch. Senior leaders of SUSTech, the insurance industry and finance university luminaries were also present for this announcement.

The newly named Yingshang-SUSTech Joint Actuarial Center is the first center that SUSTech has developed in conjunction with an internet-focused insurance institution. It will seek to promote innovation and development in the internet insurance industry, enabling opportunities for the industry with technology-enabled insurance.

The Center will also set up an AI laboratory, a professional internship base and an actuarial science doctoral program in conjunction with the University of Hong Kong. Within these development plans, the Center will closely integrate with the insurance industry and seize the opportunities that arise in order to promote the long-term health of Internet insurance.

Assistant Professor of Finance Wang He briefed the audience about the Department’s actuarial project, and how the Department of Finance had been rooted in practical, industry-oriented education since its establishment in 2017. Actuaries from large scale insurance institutions had been given opportunities to give the lecture to students, and four actuarial education programs are offered to SUSTech students. It has also developed a joint doctoral program with the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science of the University of Hong Kong.

Chairperson Guo Yurong said that the Yingshang-SUSTech Joint Actuarial Center is expected to become a center for financial research while integrating R&D into insurance technology. She anticipated that the development of a talent pipeline within the Center would result in improved connections with the insurance industry and improved results, providing a transformative effect and creating an integrated innovation platform.

Founder Shang Mengmeng said that the establishment of the Yingshang SUSTech Joint Actuarial Center would promote innovation, reform and development of the Internet insurance industry. There would also be more cross-border integration and mutual trust. The Center would focus on the existing resource advantages of both SUSTech and Snail Insurance, in their development of understanding insurance customer demands and behaviors. The Center would also seek to incorporate natural language processing and R&D into insurance coverage under multiple scenarios. Big data and machine learning will play a big role in the Center’s improved understanding of the insurance market and industry.