Standards issued but not yet effective

Standards and interpretations in issue but not yet effective and has not been adopted early by the Group

The impact of the new standards, interpretations and amendments that are issued, but not yet effective, up to the date of issuance of the Group’s financial statements are disclosed below. The Group intends to adopt these standards, if applicable, when they become effective.

IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts (effective for accounting period beginning on or after 1 January 2023 with earlier application permitted as long as IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 are also applied) 

IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts (1 January 2023): Once effective IFRS 17 will replace IFRS 4 the current insurance contracts standard and it is expected to significantly change the way the Group measures and reports its insurance contracts. The overall objective of the new standard is to provide an accounting model for insurance contracts that is more useful and consistent for users. IFRS 17 applies to insurance contracts (including reinsurance contracts) an entity issues, reinsurance contracts an entity holds and investment contracts with discretionary participation features an entity issues provided it also issues insurance contracts.

The scope of IFRS 17 for the Group is materially consistent with that of IFRS 4. Investment contracts will be measured under IFRS 9. IFRS 17 requires that contracts are divided into groups for the purposes of recognition and measurement. Portfolios of contracts are identified by grouping together contracts which have similar risks and are managed together. These groups are then further divided into groups based on their expected profitability.

Contracts which are onerous at inception cannot be grouped with contracts which are profitable at inception. Contracts which are issued more than one year apart are not permitted to be included within the same group, although there is some relief from this requirement for business in-force at the date of transition under the transitional arrangements.

The standard introduces three measurement approaches, of which two, the general model and the premium allocation approach, are applicable to the Group’s business. The main features of these models are the measurement of an insurance contract as the present value of expected future cash flows including acquisition costs, plus an explicit risk adjustment, remeasured at each reporting period using current assumptions, and a contractual service margin (‘CSM’).

The risk adjustment represents the compensation the Group requires for bearing the uncertainty about the amount and timing of cash flows that arise from non-financial risk as the obligations under the insurance contract are fulfilled.

The CSM represents the unearned profit of a group of insurance contracts and is recognised in profit or loss as the insurance service is provided to the customer using coverage units. Coverage units are a measurement of the quantum of service provided across the life of the contract and are used to measure the service provided in the reporting period and release a corresponding amount of profit to the income statement. If a group of contracts becomes loss-making after inception the loss is recognised immediately in the statement of profit or loss. This treatment of profits and losses in respect of services is broadly consistent with the principles of IFRS 15 and IAS 37 applicable to other industries.

IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts (effective for accounting period beginning on or after 1 January 2023 with earlier application permitted as long as IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 are also applied) (continued)

Under the general model the CSM is adjusted for non-economic assumption changes relating to future periods. For certain contracts with participating features the variable fee approach is applied, this allows changes in economic assumptions and experience to adjust the CSM as well as non-economic assumptions, reflecting the variable nature of the entity’s earnings driven by investment returns. IFRS 17 requires the standard to be applied retrospectively. Where this is assessed as impracticable the standard allows the application of a simplified retrospective approach or a fair value approach to determine the contractual service margin. The measurement principles set out in IFRS 17 will significantly change the way in which the company measures its insurance contracts and associated reinsurance contracts.

These changes will impact the pattern in which profit emerges when compared to IFRS 4 and add complexity to valuation processes, data requirements and assumption setting. The introduction of IFRS 17 will simplify the presentation of the statement of financial position. It requires the presentation of groups of insurance (or reinsurance) contracts that are in an asset position separately from those in a liability position. The presentation of the statement of comprehensive income will change more significantly with IFRS 17 setting out how components of the profitability of contracts are disaggregated into an insurance service result and insurance finance income/expenses. IFRS 17 also requires extensive disclosures on the amounts recognised from insurance contracts and the nature and extent of risks arising from them.

Premium allocation approach (PAA): The Premium allocation approach is an optional simplified measurement model in IFRS 17 that is available for insurance and reinsurance contracts that meet the eligibility criteria.

The Group expects that it will apply the PAA to all contracts because the following criteria are expected to be met at inception.

Insurance contracts and loss-occurring reinsurance contracts: The coverage period of each contract in the Group is one year or less.

Risk-attaching reinsurance contracts: The Group reasonably expects that the resulting measurement of the asset for remaining coverage would not differ materially from the result of applying the accounting policies described above.

Under IFRS 17, the measurement of a group of contracts includes all of the future cash flows within the boundary of each contract in the group. Compared with the current accounting, the Group expects that for certain contracts the IFRS 17 contract boundary requirements will change the scope of cash flows to be included in the measurement of existing recognised contracts, as opposed to future unrecognised contracts. The period covered by the premiums within the contract boundary is the ‘coverage period’, which is relevant when applying a number of requirements in IFRS 17.

Insurance acquisition cash flows arise from the activities of selling, underwriting and starting a group of contracts that are directly attributable to the portfolio of contracts to which the group belongs. Under IFRS 17 insurance acquisition cash flows are allocated to groups of contracts using systematic and rational methods based on the total premiums for each group.

Under IFRS 17, only insurance acquisition cash flows that arise before the recognition of the related insurance contracts are recognised as separate assets and tested for recoverability, whereas other insurance acquisition cash flows are included in the estimates of the present value of future cash flows as part of the measurement of the related insurance contracts.

 

IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts (effective for accounting period beginning on or after 1 January 2023 with earlier application permitted as long as IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 are also applied) (continued)

Impact assessment – Non-Life Insurance

Although the PAA is similar to the Group’s current accounting treatment when measuring liabilities for remaining coverage, the following changes are expected in the accounting for Non-life contracts.       

Changes from IFRS 4	Impact on equity on transition to IFRS 17
Under IFRS 17, the Group will discount the future cash flows when measuring liabilities for incurred claims, unless they are expected to occur in one year or less from the date on which the claims are incurred. The Group does not currently discount such future cash flows	Increase
IFRS 17 requires the fulfilment cash flows to include a risk adjustment for non- financial risk. This is not explicitly allowed for currently.	Decrease
The Group’s accounting policy under IFRS 17 to expense eligible insurance acquisition cash flows when they are incurred differs from the current practice under which these amounts are recognised separately as deferred acquisition costs.	Decrease

 

The Group implementation project continued through 2022 with a focus on finalising methodologies and developing the operational capabilities required to implement the standard including data, systems and business processes. The current focus is on embedding the operational capabilities and determining the transition balance sheet and comparatives required for 2023 reporting.

Since the implementation project is currently ongoing, management believes that it is impractical to determine the amount of the effect of IFRS 17 in the current period.