The Bermuda Monetary Authority has boosted its ranks with the addition of two new members to its team.

Rick Shaw and Gina Smith have been handed the roles of director of actuarial services and actuary in the actuarial services department, respectively.

Mr. Shaw and Mrs. Smith are members of a newly-created team formed to provide actuarial support to the BMA Insurance department.

Mr. Shaw has more than 20 years' experience in a number of international markets. His most recent actuarial position was manager of Tower Perrin's Bermuda office and he has advised a number of governments and private corporations on a range of actuarial and strategic issues, and has regulatory and supervisory experience in Australia and other countries.

He has also worked for the Australian Government Actuary and advised both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Mrs. Smith, a Bermudian and graduate of the Berkeley Institute, is the Island's first, and currently only, qualified female actuary. She brings more than 20 years' of experience of working in the actuarial field to the post, beginning in 1985 when she was employed at Tillinghast, a Tower Perrin Company, as an actuarial analyst.

Mrs. Smith, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in Actuarial Science, earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation in 1991, and also qualified as an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society in 1994 and a Certified Catastrophe Risk Analyst in 2006.

She also previously worked as an actuarial analyst for American Reinsurance Corporation and XL Insurance Company, and was assistant vice-president and actuary for AON Re, where she worked in the capacity of chief reserving actuary for LaSalle Re.

In her most recent role as assistant vice-president and actuary for Endurance Specialty Insurance, she had responsibilities in the areas of loss reserving, catastrophe modelling and special projects, which involved assisting underwriters with the evaluation of risk and exposure.

Commenting on the appointments, Jeremy Cox, supervisor of insurance at the BMA said: "We are delighted that Rick and Gina have joined the Authority. They both bring a wealth of knowledge in the field of actuarial science to our team and will augment our existing supervisory resources very effectively, particularly in the area of insurance supervision.

"Having a team of highly qualified, skilled professionals is essential to us and the addition of Rick and Gina will no doubt assist us greatly in fulfilling our responsibilities as a leading risk based financial services regulator."

The Actuarial team will bring dedicated, in-house actuarial expertise to the Authority's supervisory function for insurance. This team will support other teams from an actuarial standpoint where such analysis is required in carrying out the insurance department's responsibilities. This shall include but may not be limited to supporting the Assessment & Licensing Committee, on-site inspections, review of statutory financial returns, run-off company management, implementation of the Risk Based Capital Model and technical regulatory requests.