IAIS Prepares To Brief Accounting Regulators

March 21, 2007 at 01:31 PM
Share & Print

Members of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors are developing their organization's response to efforts to update international accounting standards for insurance contracts.

A contracts subcommittee of the IAIS, Basel, Switzerland, session, held a full-day discussion on international standards recently during the spring meeting here of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo.,

The discussion touched on the exit value of liability, as well as on whether standards should treat life insurers and property-casualty insurers differently.

The IAIS held the discussion to talk about efforts by the International Accounting Standards Board, London, to establish international accounting standards.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board, Norwalk, Conn., could decide to incorporate some or all of the IASB's international standards in its Generally Accepted Accounting Principles reporting requirements. That, in turn, could impact U.S. statutory accounting, according to experts following the discussions.

The Group of North American Insurance Enterprises, New York, is trying to explain to the IAIS why separate life and non-life models are needed, according to GNAIE Executive Director Doug Barnert.

GNAIE represents both life insurers and property-casualty insurers.

Some rules that make sense for life insurers may not make sense for non-life companies Barnert says.

"Mortality is more predictable than hurricanes," Barnert says.

Predicting the next 10 years of mortality losses is probably much easier than predicting the next 10 years of hurricane losses, Barnert says.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Related Stories

Resource Center