Financial Reporting in Insurance and International Financial Reporting Standards

AbstractFinancial reporting obligations for financial institutions, including insurance companies, have increased in recent years and insurers needs to stay up-to-date on the latest revisions of International Financial Reporting Standards and data reporting requirements and to comply with it. Many of these reporting obligations on listed and large non-listed insurers will benefit the insurance industry in the long term but it is challenging and costly task for insurance companies. The complexity of organizing high-quality data, transparent and structured reporting processes for different purposes (e.g., financial and regulatory reporting, CSR reporting, and many other types of reporting at local level) with internal and external stakeholders within a specified time frame, have become a strategic initiative, value-based investment, and opportunity for growth of insurance companies. To meet the various reporting requirements while overcoming reporting challenges, insurance companies need to ensure effective data governance and oversight in their reporting processes, which require considerable staff resources, and expertise in a wide variety of area, including appropriate IT architecture setup. In this chapter, we will analyze financial reporting obligations for insurance companies and evolution of the international accounting standards for the insurance industry. Moreover, we will discuss some practical issues facing insurers to comply with different regulatory, financial, and business reporting requirements to fulfill their reporting obligations.