First year's application of IFRS 17 in the financial statements of European insurance companies

In this article we provide the results of European insurers' first time application of IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts'. We have selected a sample of 24 large European insurers and analysed the disclosure in their 2023 annual reports of this first application of significantly changed principles in the accounting for insurance contracts. At the date of transition most insurance companies reported a decrease in opening equity, although the reasons for the difference are hard to compare due to the various policies that IFRS 4 allowed and the different transition approaches used. We identified areas of improvement with regard to a further disaggregation of groups of portfolios, analyses of the changes related to the insurance liabilities and sensitivity analyses disclosures. The comparability between insurers in our sample is impeded by the use of options provided by IFRS 17 and by the EU. Half of the companies in our sample presented an (adjusted) operating result as alternative performance (profit) measure in which area explanations can be improved.