Insights into IFRS Insurance - Greater certainty for new insurance accounting rules

The unprecedented scale of the reform to achieve consistent profit reporting across the global insurance sector is now fully visible. Preparing for the multi-year implementation effort is an imperative for all insurance companies immediately after their 2012 earnings release next year.

A substantial leap forward

During November the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) has made a substantial leap forward in removing the uncertainty that surrounded, for the past several months, the timing and content of the fundamental reform of financial reporting rules for insurance companies.

The repercussion of these new decisions is about to produce a significant impact across the global insurance sector, since insurers’ major concern around uncertainty has been addressed. Some of the global software houses have already invested thousands of man-days in the development of solutions to address this challenge and ‘first-movers’ are already developing an approach to the implementation challenges.