CMA implementation IFRS 17 insurance contracts

Muscat: The Capital Market Authority (CMA) has announced to investors and the public that, starting from the year 2023, the conventional re/insurance companies in the Sultanate of Oman have commenced the adoption of the IFRS 17 insurance contracts as a replacement of IFRS 4 which was issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Unlike the previous standard, the new regulation identifies specific accounting approaches. This could impact the insurance company’s financial statements to various degrees based on the insurance contract’s nature. It is worth noting that the IFRS 17 will eventually elevate the disclosure quality and thus enhance transparency on the insurance contract-related risks.

Additionally, it enables comparison of the financial statements among insurance companies either locally or globally, which provides in-depth detail to the public, investors and stakeholders. Moreover, the CMA urges all insurance companies to engage regularly with investors and stakeholders to emphasise changes that might occur to the company’s business and financial statements to support investors in the process of financial analysis which is based on high-quality data to enable effective decisions.

The impact of the initial implementation of the mentioned standard will be replaced in the equity section and financial performance of the third quarter of this year.

 The CMA is keen to provide the required support to all listed companies, investors and consumers, and given the challenges encountered by the insurance sector, particularly companies, audit firms and actuaries in the implementation of the new standard and in addition to the operational and regulatory difficulties faced by companies that require further time to implement the new standard, the CMA decided to extend the disclosure period of listed re/insurance companies’ financial statements for the third quarter of 2023 to 60 days from the end of the quarter.