UAE Business: Market readiness for IFRS 17 in Mena varies: AM Best – Gulf Digital News

UAE Business: Market readiness for IFRS 17 in Mena varies: AM Best – Gulf Digital News

The level of preparedness in the Mena region for IFRS 17 varies significantly by country and by insurer, ahead of the standard’s effective date of January 1, 2023, said global credit rating agency AM Best in a new report.

Although several countries in the Mena region continue to report under local accounting standards, IFRS is the prevailing accounting regime and the implementation of IFRS 17 is expected to affect a significant proportion of insurers operating in the region.

The transition to IFRS 17 will be accompanied by considerable data and IT system requirements, significant changes to financial statement presentation and the simultaneous adoption of IFRS 9 (the new accounting standard for classifying and measuring financial instruments), which all increase the complexity of the implementation and the importance of good preparedness.

The Mena region includes countries whose insurance markets and insurance regulatory bodies are at various stages of development and maturity. In general, AM Best views companies operating in the region’s more mature regulatory environments as demonstrating greater readiness for IFRS 17. This is particularly the case for the region’s larger, market leading, insurers.

Preparedness largely reflects the implementation of regulatory IFRS 17 roadmaps in these jurisdictions, with insurers required to comply with preparation and