Insurance groups urge delay on IFRS 17 until 2023 as 'significant issues not addressed’

Insurance bodies have called on the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to delay the implementation of IFRS 17, the new accounting standard, to 2023, saying a “number of significant issues have not been addressed”.

The group calling for the delay includes Insurance Europe, the Canadian Life & Health Insurance Association, the Insurance Council of Australia and the Financial Service Council of New Zealand.

IFRS 17 is intended, among other things, to increase transparency. It requires a company to measure insurance contracts using updated estimates and assumptions that reflect the timing of cash flows and any uncertainty relating to insurance contracts.

It had been scheduled to be effective at the beginning of 2021, but following industry lobbying, the implementation date was put back to 2022. Now the group of associations is calling for a further delay of one year.

“While recognising that the IASB has made improvements in a number of areas, the associations warned that a number of significant issues have not been addressed and added that additional changes are still required to obtain a high-quality standard that can be implemented at a reasonable cost,” the group said.

The associations said more time was needed to “ensure a strong global commitment to the new standard”.

It said significant implementation concerns that have been raised by the industry remain and must be taken into account. They called for a delay in the global effective date of IFRS17 until 1 January 2023 “in order to ensure a successful implementation”.

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