The CFO Forum and Insurance Europe—representing 23 of the continent’s largest insurers and 95% of premium income—call for a delay of the IFRS 17 implementation deadline to Jan 1, 2023.
In a joint letter, the two organizations highlight the standard's three issues around the level of aggregation, transition and presentation that might lead to potential impact on operational complexity and costs.
This current call for delay came after IASB’s announcement of deadline delay to Jan 2022 last year.
According to the letter, the organizations also asked for additional changes to IFRS 17.
“The IASB has chosen not to propose amendments for several identified important issues, and for other issues, has proposed less effective amendments,” the letter states.
The two organizations said that annual cohorts—when it comes to the level of aggregation—should not be used for contracts in the variable fee approach with significant mutulization.
In terms of presentation, the two groups suggest changes to remove the inconsistency between group and solo reporting that is solely due to reporting frequency.
In addition, the two organizations demand that the criteria for the modified retrospective approach should be more principles-based.
Other issues that the two groups point out include the proposed definition of “proportionate” for reinsurance, which would still create “significant” accounting mismatches.
