Insurance Execs Make Case Before IASB

At press time, insurers were preparing to testify before an insurance working group of the International Accounting Standards Board, London, advocating for global accounting standards that reflect how the insurance industry operates.

Senior insurance executives represented by the CFO Forum, the Group of North American Insurance Enterprises, New York, and four Japanese life insurers were preparing to make their case before the IASB working group on June 29.

Collectively, they are representing 85% of the world’s life insurance market and 80% of the world’s non-life insurance market, according to Douglas Barnert, GNAIE’s executive director.

Among the points the CFOs were expected to make as the IASB culls information it will use in establishing international insurance accounting standards are:

–profit should be recognized on a release from risk basis;

–liabilities for life insurance should be measured on the present value of future cash flows with allowance for risk and uncertainty;