IFRS 17 - stepping a path through the implementation journey

In November 2018, IASB voted to defer the effective date of IFRS 17 for one year unanimously, setting the new effective date of initial application of the Standard to be the 1 January 2022. The proposed deferral is subject to public consultation, which is expected within 2019 but it would be safe to suggest that insurers could start incorporating the above mentioned deferral in their implementation plans. The final decision and official IFRS change to the effective date will take place once the public consultation has been concluded.

The IASB also tentatively decided to defer the fixed expiry date for the temporary exemption to IFRS 9 in IFRS 4 by one year so that all insurance entities can apply IFRS 9 for annual periods on or after 1 January 2022.

How IFRS 17 will be introduced?

The standard is tentatively effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2022 with early application permitted. Entities must apply the standard retrospectively unless impracticable in which case the modified retrospective approach or the fair value approach is applied.

The implementation of the standard is likely to bring significant changes to an entity’s data, processes, systems and people requirements, and will require much greater co-ordination between many functions of the business, including Finance, Actuarial and IT.

Want to know where to start or end with IFRS 17 planning?

With a tentative date for IFRS 17 effective from 01 January 2022, insurers should by now have completed planning and started on their implementation journeys. Our timeline helps you make sure you have the key stages of the IFRS journey covered, from initial scoping to reporting your year-end 2017 IFRS17 compliant results in Q1 2022.

This tentative ‘go live’ date for IFRS 17 means that right to left planning is required. Many insurers are considering a substantial parallel run of their solution to identify issues and to ensure that the results make sense. Should this be your plan, any solution for your business needs to be live in production by Q4 20120, leaving you only a short window to complete your implementation.