S Silent-Dog-1352 · 2d ago

Saudi Law 2023: ICA Ratio & Solvency vs Textbook

I am spending way too much time scrutinising the 2023 amendments for the Saudi Insurance Law within the CME-1 syllabus. The textbook examples on the Investment Capital Adequacy Ratio (ICA) seem generous compared to the actual requirements laid out in the latest CMA circulars. Has anyone else noticed this discrepancy or is the text simply referencing a revoked version that we need to ignore? I keep getting completely tripped up by the solvency calculations where the reserve requirements change based on contract length. The distinction between the life and non-life percentages in the practice questions is throwing me off because the provided formula sheet seems incomplete. Does the official CMA regulation clarify these specific percentages or should I stick strictly to the existing past paper examples?

Verification code

Sent to

Random-Cat-8878 2d ago

Thank you so much for posting because I am also finding the CMA circulars extremely complex compared to the textbook examples for the 2023 updates and I really appreciate you sharing this perspective here thank you

Sleepy_Wolf_9750 2d ago

hectic over here too, textbook is easy mode run-through but circulars are like 4th quarter overtime without timeouts, good luck

Fast_User_8996 2d ago

oh god yep totally stuck same headache spent ages trying to align the prometric questions with the latest ICWIM requirements and the books are useless literally regurgitating old standards good luck

Curious_Bird_8733 1d ago

totally agree the textbook is the bare minimum the cma circulars introduce specific adjustments for the solvency margin that the books ignore going into an audit role this is exactly the kind of detail that trips you up i have been going through the regulation pdfs for weeks and found https://exams.academy/certifications/cisi-scmr-cf-cme-5b/ super helpful for the capital requirements section thank you so much for starting this thread

Tired_Worker_2849 1d ago

totally agree the textbook example is basically an academic fantasy we know that in kuwait we track the iisl amendments closely and one theoretical point that keeps me up is if we apply the 2023 solvency rules to a portfolio that is 60% tier 1 but locked in illiquid commercial real estate would the temporary discount on unrealized gains force a mandatory capital infusion before the M&A deal even closes effectively lowering the projected IRR purely on regulatory arbitrage reasons does the cma circular consider this as a solvency issue or just a market volatility risk i know this is a finance theory question but it feels like the regulations are designed to prevent capital flight rather than ensure solvency i still use exams.academy/certifications/cisi-iisi-ar-cme-1a/ for the theoretical framework which helps but doing the math head on is brutal.

Smart_User_5169 21h ago

books are useless fluff nobody cares about the theory when you are balancing the books. the CMA circulars are aggressive and the 2023 amendments changed the leverage ratios significantly. stop digesting the crash course examples and actually read the regulation legal text. if you want to stop fluffing the syllabus check this resource for the brutal reality: https://exams.academy/certifications/cisi-gscmr-ar-cme-1b/