Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited has responded to the International Accounting Standards Board’s Exposure Draft ED/2013/7 Insurance Contracts (‘the 2013 ED').

We remain fully supportive of the objectives that the Board is attempting to fulfil in this phase of the insurance contract project. A comprehensive standard on accounting for insurance contracts will be of great benefit to investors and will improve financial reporting given the lack of an IFRS in this area. We are also supportive of the time spent with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in trying to achieve a converged solution.

We note that the Boards continue to have different views on certain aspects and would urge them to focus on those differences as part of their joint re-deliberation of their exposure drafts in the coming months. Joint re-deliberations should not, however, detract from the IASB’s objective of finalising a standard in the near term. The 2013 ED presents important improvements relative to exposure draft ED/2010/8 Insurance Contracts (‘the 2010 ED’). We are generally supportive of the Boards’ approach to unlocking of the Contractual Service Margin (CSM), the presentational split of interest expense from insurance contracts between profit or loss and other comprehensive income (the “OCI solution”) and the new transition provisions. However, we have specific concerns about some of these aspects.

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