Issues Paper and comment letters—Insurance Contracts

The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) was the predecessor body of the IASB. In April 1997, the IASC approved a project on Insurance Accounting. In November 1998, the IASC approved the scope of the project.

Issues Paper on insurance contracts

In December 1999, the IASC published an Issues Paper on Insurance as the first step in a project on insurance accounting.

The Issues Paper was developed by the IASC’s Steering Committee on insurance. The Issues Paper identified:

• the different forms of insurance contract and the specific characteristics that were considered relevant in determining the appropriate accounting treatment;
• the accounting and disclosure issues and arguments for and against possible solutions to those issues; and
• the tentative views of the Steering Committee at the early stage of the project.

It was published together with an accompanying booklet that:

• contained 82 illustrative examples;
• summarised relevant national Standards and requirements in 17 countries;
• summarised the main features of the principal contracts found in eight countries;
• contained a glossary of terms used in the paper; and
• summarised the tentative views expressed in the paper.

The Issues Paper was open for comment until 31 May 2000.