IFRS 17 establishes principles for the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of insurance contracts within the scope of the standard. This will be the first time that insurance companies will have to account for insurance contracts through a single reporting model.

It replaces IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts, an interim standard, which permitted insurers largely to continue to apply their existing (local) accounting practices. This means that insurers may apply different accounting policies to measure similar insurance contracts they write in different countries.