News - Insurers converting well to IFRS, claims survey.

(From Reinsurance)

Major global insurers have responded well to the enormous challenge in moving to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and many companies have gone beyond the minimum of disclosure required to comply, as evidenced by the sheer weight of the recently published financial statements, according to a new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

However, while the accounts are considerably longer and provide valuable new information, the survey suggests that, in some areas, the wide degree of discretion in presentation has made accounts harder to compare.

The survey also found that many of the financial statements tended to be less clear and harder to follow than before, as a result of experimentation in implementing some of the changes and the different approaches taken with presentation.

Alex Finn, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers said: "The latest changes represent the most significant shake-up in financial evaluation and reporting for the insurance industry in recent times. The huge increase in the length of the new accounts is testament to the amount of extra work involved. And yet, there is a great deal more work to come, given that IFRS is still ...