APRA deputy chair, John Lonsdale, has told the country's actuaries that they must go beyond traditional financial risks and take on non-financial risk assessments in their work.Speaking at the Actuaries Summit in Sydney yesterday, Lonsdale said: "On the whole, the issues that have caused industry the most grief over recent years stem from the failure to identify and mitigate against non-financial risks."Actuaries must learn to find the story behind the raw numbers and then have the courage to speak up, if they are truly to fulfil their role of assisting with the sound and prudent management of an insurer, and ensuring the protection of policyholder interests is adequately considered."Lonsdale pointed to APRA's recent report analysing the self-assessment carried out by 36 of the country's largest banks, insurers and superannuation licensees, which identified big area for improvement in the management of non-financial risks.Findings from the self-assessment include: accountabilities are not always clear, cascaded and effectively enforced; acknowledged weakness are well known and some have been long-standing; and risk culture is not well understood and therefore may not be reinforcing the desired behaviours."As a result of the self-assessments, we have intensified and more precisely targeted our supervision of entities, and in some cases we are considering imposing additional capital requirements due to the materiality of the weaknesses identified," Lonsdale said."Left unaddressed, the consequences of non-financial risks become distinctly financial in nature."He said APRA was concerned that the range and severity of non-financial risks, such as cyber-attacks, was growing much greater.And he said APRA would be less patient with the time taken by uncooperative entities to fix matters."In such a high-risk environment, the role of the appointed actuary becomes more crucial to protect both the interests of the institution and its customers."A new prudential standard, CPS 320, which takes effect from 1 July, will strengthen the influence of appointed actuaries in life, general and private health insurance, where they provide expert advice to boards and management on key risks."Actuaries must be prepared to probe, test and challenge boards and management about the wisdom of their decisions, and potential risks they may not have fully considered."