IFRS 17/TFRS 17 Insurance Contracts

IFRS 17, “Insurance Contracts” (“IFRS 17”), the standard that the insurance industry has been waiting for issuance for many years, has been issued by the IASB on 18 May 2017 and based on the recent amendments it is planned to be effective from 1 January 2023. The standard will bring significant changes to financial reporting, including changes to systems, processes and data requirements. Therefore, the insurers will need to assess the implications and plan their implementations carefully.

The IASB’s aim is to provide more transparency and comparability, compared to current accounting standards. This means big changes for the way that financial information will be presented by insurers. The Standard is complex and, therefore, adoption will require adequate planning to ensure the impact on your organisation is understood, allowing you to maximise the value from your implementation project and minimise disruption to your business.

IFRS 17 presents opportunities to harness data more effectively, to improve the structure of your finance function and to better inform your decision making. Significant effort needs to be put into assessing the requirements of IFRS 17 as it will have wide reaching implications, and will impact staff involved with systems, data and processes, not just finance and IFRS 17 project teams.

As a leading provider of professional services to insurance organisations across the globe, PwC has extensive knowledge of the issues and challenges that insurers face with IFRS 17. Helping you to plan and understand how you can use IFRS 17 outputs to better inform your decision making is our priority. Our experts, best in their areas, are ready to help to support you in this journey.