IASB issues amendments to IFRS 17 insurance contracts to help companies with implementation

Written by Adam Cadle

25/06/2020

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has today issued amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts aimed at helping companies implement the standard and making it easier for them to explain their financial performance.

The fundamental principles introduced when the board first issued IFRS 17 in May 2017 remain unaffected. The amendments, which respond to feedback from stakeholders, are designed to reduce costs by simplifying some requirements in the standard; make financial performance easier to explain; and ease transition by deferring the effective date of the Standard to 2023 and by providing additional relief to reduce the effort required for applying IFRS 17 for the first time.

Hans Hoogervorst, chair of the IASB, said: "We have listened to feedback and made changes to IFRS 17 that will help companies with the implementation of this much-needed standard."

The deferral of the effective date by two years, to annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2023, is intended to allow time for an orderly adoption of the amended IFRS 17 by jurisdictions around the world. This should enable more insurers to implement the new standard at the same time.

The board has also issued an amendment to the previous insurance contracts Standard, IFRS 4, so that eligible insurers can still apply IFRS 9 Financial Instruments alongside IFRS 17.

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