Insurnce Accounting Rules

Canada’s finance minister and its banking and insurance regulator are urging the International Accounting Standards Board to back away from new rules that would damage this country’s life insurers, according to sources.

Ottawa’s decision to wade into global accounting rules is the latest example of the unusually united front that Canada’s financial institutions, government and regulator are presenting on the world stage in the wake of the financial crisis.

Both Julie Dickson, head of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have sent letters to the IASB in support of the life insurance sector, sources say. The letters encourage the global body to look at possible negative consequences that proposed accounting changes could have on the life insurers.

A spokesman for OSFI said the regulator’s letter is not public. A spokeswoman for the minister of finance did not comment.

At issue are specific rules that would apply in the second phase of the International Financial Reporting Standards. The London-based IASB is expected to release a draft of those rules this summer. Read more »