The Draft Statement of Principles (DSOP) is a report prepared by the Steering Committee (which had been established by the IASC) after reviewing the comments received on the Issues Paper, and presented to the IASB in November 2001. The IASB did not invite comment as it had not discussed the report.
Chapters 7, 13 and 14 were not finalised before handing over to the IASB, and the IASB did not agree to finalise this work as part of its responsibilities.
History
The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) started a project on Insurance Accounting in 1997. In December 1999, IASC’s Steering Committee for this project published an Issues Paper on Insurance (the Issues Paper). The IASC received 138 comment letters in response to the Issues Paper.
The Steering Committee greatly appreciates the number and high quality of responses to the Issues Paper. The Steering Committee considered the comment letters carefully at two meetings, spanning six days, and paid careful attention to the detailed, high quality and very well-reasoned explanations that commentators provided for their positions.
In considering the arguments presented by commentators, the Steering Committee paid most attention to the need for insurers to provide relevant and reliable information that users of their financial statements can use as a basis for economic decisions. The information disclosed by insurers should enable users to compare the financial position and financial performance of insurers in different countries; that information should also be comparable with information disclosed about similar transactions by enterprises that are not insurers. In reassessing whether its tentative views achieve these objectives, the Steering Committee used the IASC’s Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements.
In evaluating the comment letters, the Steering Committee also considered the level of support for the tentative views expressed in the Issues Paper. However, the Steering Committee placed less weight on the absolute levels of support than on the arguments presented. Thus, the Steering Committee is extremely grateful to commentators for providing such detailed and helpful comments.
The Steering Committee reviewed the comment letters and developed this report to the IASC’s successor organisation, the International Accounting Standards Board.
