IFRS 17 Series #1 - Introduction

Welcome to the first part of the IFRS 17 short series which looks at how we believe you can best prepare for the upcoming Standard.

Transcript

Liam O'Brien:

Hi, Liam here, from VantagePoint. We put together this short series of videos on IFRS 17 and how we believe you can best prepare for the upcoming Standard. We know that IFRS 17 might seem a long way away, but in order to facilitate your preparation, we've put together this short series of videos that will go through everything from data challenges, all the way to the project implementation.

Liam O'Brien:

I'm joined by Matt, our director here at VantagePoint, who runs our IFRS 17 practice. Matt, if you'd just like to take us through how you see the challenges and how we're going to outlay them, lay them out over the next couple of videos and kind of how we'll go through them and overcome some of those hurdles.

Matt Ben:

Sure. Thanks Liam. So there are five key areas that we are seeing that companies are facing challenges with. Previously, it was around accounting policy decisions, around the Standards, setting up the ways in which you're planning on accounting, getting that documented and also doing some high-level impact analysis. As we move into project implementation, the challenges are changing a little bit.

Matt Ben:

So firstly, data is a big challenge, bringing all the data together at the right place, in the right timeframes to fit with working daytime tables. Secondly, the calculations are pretty complex. So thinking about what solution you might need to have in place to support those calculations and how those calculations can operate at the degree of granularity required by the Standard. Moving on beyond calculation, you then need to start to think about how you explain those numbers. So being able to trace back from an output number or a double-entry journal and understand how that has actually been calculated, to help you validate and understand your IFRS 17 result.

Matt Ben:

After you understand the result, it's then you start to think about how you disclose and report on it. One of the major changes in IFRS 17 is the vast disclosure and reporting requirements that are imposed. So making sure you've got the agility and just generally the ability to report on your numbers is key. And finally, this is a multidisciplinary project. You're bringing together IT, actuarial, finance and also project resource, too. So one of the other key challenges we're working with our clients on is thinking about how you establish those projects and set them up for success.

Liam O'Brien:

Excellent. Thank you. So just if we're to run through and recap what we're going through in the next couple of weeks is basically your data challenges, your complex calculations, the clarity and explainability of your numbers, disclosure management and how we're going to report, and then finally running that project and actually making that real.

Liam O'Brien:

Great. Okay. Thank you very much. We look forward to the next series of videos. If this is completely irrelevant to you, please let us know and we'll stop here. Thanks very much. Bye-bye.

Start preparing for IFRS17 now, talk to us