Description: The implementation of the IFRS 17 insurance accounting standard has brought significant changes to the financial reporting landscape of insurance companies. With new disclosure requirements and altered profit analysis, understanding and interpreting future profitability have become a topic of concern for the industry. While stability remains a key objective for insurance companies, the earning patterns might become more volatile especially when the contractual service margin (CSM) is exhausted, and a loss component (LC) needs to be established. Reinsurance, a common risk mitigation tool, can play a pivotal role in managing earnings volatility and minimizing losses for onerous measurement units. In this article, we propose a new key performance indicator (KPI) called “loss recoverability” to assess the performance of reinsurance treaties in achieving these objectives. We explain how this KPI can be utilized in multiple scenarios to evaluate the effectiveness of reinsurance strategies and pursue stability in earning patterns.

Description: The article “IFRS 17, Economic Volatility, and Reinsurance” (IFRS 17, Economic Volatility, and Reinsurance | SOA) was designated the best article published in Reinsurance News in 2022. It looks at providing industry insights on preparing for the new global accounting standard. The article was submitted by Paul Sauvé (RGA) and it appeared in the June 2022 issue.

Description: This article highlights some key implications for onerous contracts under IFRS 17.

Description: IFRS 17 is causing insurers to rethink their investment management and ALM strategy. The presenters examine issues arising under IFRS 17 and IFRS 9 and the resulting challenges facing insurers, including the volatility and impact on financial statements. Solutions will be proposed including a discussion on how to deal with the disconnect between economic and accounting results. A case study will present the tradeoffs insurers must consider to optimize their portfolio under IFRS 17.

Description: This article lays conceptual foundations associated with projecting investment-related discretionary elements of various life insurance and annuity products. It outlines potential implementation approaches that may be appropriate when calculations are performed in a risk-neutral setting. The article concludes that crediting rates in risk-neutral models can be projected as in real-world models, except that the modeled provision for expected credit losses should be modified to equal real-world expected losses initially, but over the projection reflect management’s evolving expectation, moving ultimately to risk neutral expected losses.

Description: The discount rate is one of the most critical topics in IFRS 17 and may have important repercussions on product profitability. The presenters will cover practical implementation considerations, including alternative approaches to illiquidity premium calculation for business supported by fixed assets with credit risks. Other implementation considerations will also be covered, including granularity of setting the discount rate, application to new business, and implications on asset and liability modeling. The presenters will then discuss how discount rates could be utilized in an Economic Scenario Generator (ESG) to assist IFRS17 calculations, particularly for risk-neutral valuation of the time value of options and guarantees.