During July 2016 the staff invited test participants to participate in the external testing of the forthcoming insurance contracts Standard. The objective of the external testing was to provide the International Accounting Standards Board (the Board) with evidence about:
- how entities will interpret specific requirements in the forthcoming Standard (i.e. whether the forthcoming Standard can be applied consistently); and
- what operational difficulties, if any, entities will encounter in applying the requirements of the forthcoming Standard (i.e. is the forthcoming Standard operational).
Test participants were requested to answer a questionnaire. The questionnaire included relevant extracts from a staff draft of the forthcoming Standard.
The methodology and results of the external testing were discussed together with sweep issues identified from the external testing at the Board’s November 2016 meeting.
Information on the November 2016 agenda papers is available here.
Previous field work
The topic-based external testing is intended to supplement the field work the Board has undertaken in three previous rounds of field work, as follows:
- Round I: between September 2009 and December 2009. The Board considered the results when it developed the 2010 Exposure Draft (ED)Insurance Contracts;
- Round II: between September 2010 and January 2011. This second round tested the proposals of the 2010 ED; and
- Round III: between June 2013 and October 2013. The third round tested the revised proposals of the 2013 ED.
