IFRS 17 summary and timeline
A summary of IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts, including information on current proposals and a timeline of past amendments, announcements, exposure drafts and consultations.
Summary
IFRS 17 applies to issued insurance and reinsurance contracts, reinsurance contracts held and investment contracts with a discretionary participation feature that are issued by an entity that also issues insurance contracts. Contracts may be grouped for accounting purposes.
Issuers of insurance contracts should report them in the statement of financial position at the total of:
- the fulfilment cash flows, being current estimates of amounts that the entity expects to collect from premiums and pay out for claims, benefits and expenses, adjusted for the timing and risk of those amounts, and
- the contractual service margin, being the expected profit for providing insurance cover
Where a contract is expected to be profitable, the profit is recognised over the term during which insurance coverage is provided; where a contract is expected to be loss-making, the expected loss is recognised in profit or loss immediately.
The amount recognised in the statement of financial position should be remeasured at each reporting date, taking into account current discount rates and estimates of the amount, timing and uncertainty of cash flows.
The change in the carrying amount of insurance contracts is included in profit or loss or disaggregated between an amount presented in profit or loss and an amount presented in other comprehensive income. This is an accounting policy choice.
The premium allocation approach (PAA) is a simplified approach that is available to measure some short-term insurance contracts.
The measurement requirements are modified for reinsurance contracts held and insurance contracts with direct participation features.
The standard also has extensive disclosure requirements.
Timeline
| Date | Update |
|---|---|
| 16 May 2022 | Adoption of IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts by the UK Endorsement Board. |
| 9 December 2021 | IASB issues Initial Application of IFRS 17 and IFRS 9—Comparative Information, a narrow-scope amendment to the transition requirements in IFRS 17. |
| 28 July 2021 | IASB publishes Exposure Draft Initial Application of IFRS 17 and IFRS 9—Comparative Information with narrow-scope amendments to transition requirements for insurers applying IFRS 17 and IFRS 9 for the first time. The comment period is open until September 2021. |
| 25 June 2020 | IASB issues amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts to help companies with implementation |
| 17 March 2020 |
IASB decides on new effective date for IFRS 17 of 1 January 2023 |
| 26 June 2019 | IASB proposes to amend IFRS 17 in ED/2019/4 Amendments to IFRS 17 |
|
18 May 2017 |
IASB issues IFRS 17 Effective for annual periods starting on or after 1 January 2021. |
Looking for the standard?
Practical guidance on this standard is now on our main IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts page, with links to eIFRS, the full text standard, eBooks and other resources.
