The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) along with other national standards setters is inviting companies to test out the proposed new accounting standard for insurance contracts.

The field test aims to collect evidence on how the proposals will be implemented in practice, along with their impact and the costs and benefits. The exercise is also designed to assess how useful and understandable the information contained in the disclosures will be.

FRC, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), French standards setter Autorité des Normes Comptables (ANC) and the Italian Organismo Italiano di Contabilité (OIC) is looking for participants for field testing which will start on 10 July 2013 with completed questionnaires due to be returned by 11 October 2013.

The questionnaire asks companies to apply the exposure draft rules to portfolios of insurance contracts and their related financial instruments and non-financial assets.

EFRAG and the national standard setters may also conduct follow-up interviews with participants, but any information obtained and used in the final report will not be identifiable to a particular organisation or individual.

Those who take part in the test will be invited to European workshops to be held in Brussels with IASB staff in October 2013.

Life and non-life insurance companies, along with reinsurers, bank-insurers and conglomerate groups are encouraged to take part, and any UK company willing to participate should contact Seema Jamil-O'Neill at [email protected]