Insurance firms required to furnish details as per international standards

The insurance companies have been bound to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) about details of assets, liabilities, expenses and revenues in line with international financial reporting standards which are adopted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan and notified by the commission.
In this regard, the SECP has issued SRO No 88(I)/ 2017 to notify Insurance Accounting Regulations, 2017 for insurance sector here on Tuesday. According to the SRO, the new regulations shall be applied to the regulatory returns and the published financial statements. However, the annual accounts for the period ended on December 31, 2016 and quarterly accounts for the period ending March 31, 2017 shall be prepared in accordance with the previous requirements.
For the purposes of preparing regulatory returns and published financial statements, an insurer carrying on life insurance business shall comply with the requirements of Part-A and an insurer carrying on non-life insurance business shall comply with the requirements of Part-B.
Where an insurer is required to submit consolidated financial statements in accordance with the provisions of section 237 of the Companies Ordinance, 1984, or the applicable international financial reporting standards, the insurer shall not be required to submit the consolidated regulatory returns, the SECP said.
The insurer shall not be required to submit explanatory notes to the regulatory returns except as specified in these regulations or as specified in the forms of regulatory returns. Where the SECP is satisfied that it is not practicable to comply with the requirements of these regulations in a particular case or class of cases, the commission may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, relax such requirements, subject to such conditions as it may deem appropriate, the SECP added.