Now’s the time for insurers to rebuild, not just report, with IFRS 17

Insurers see IFRS 17, the global accounting standard that requires them to measure and report insurance contracts in real time with transparency and consistency, as a compliance hindrance. They must break free from legacy mindsets and realize that this regulation shines a light on the decades of technical and process debt—making it the catalyst needed to redefine operations.

Smart insurers are already partnering with leading service providers to redesign their business with IFRS in mind. Here we outline how laggards can do the same.

Ditch outdated thinking to survive the IFRS 17 shift

IFRS 17 replaces IFRS 4 and brings a transformative approach to valuing and reporting insurance contracts. Simply put, it requires insurers to recognize revenue more accurately over time, calculate future liabilities using up-to-date assumptions, and disclose profits and risks associated with each contract. insurers must recognize revenue, calculate liabilities, and provide clear disclosures of the contractual service margin (CSM) and risk adjustments, all in real time. Additionally, discount rates should be aligned with prevailing market conditions, and financial results must be presented with a level of detail not previously required. In summary, insurers need to be much more accurate and faster with their reporting.

The harsh reality is that the decades of technical and process debt mean insurers are not equipped to do that. As a result, they’re retrofitting existing systems and layering new reporting demands upon outdated infrastructure. But this is a risky patchwork. It slows down reporting, increases reconciliation errors, and ultimately undermines transparency—hindering any future transformation efforts.

The message is clear: if insurers do the bare minimum to satisfy the regulation, they may survive the initial audit. But forward-looking insurers see it as a ‘burning’ platform for change, as a senior financial leader explained at a recent HFS roundtable:

IFRS is more than a new standard. It’s a mirror that reflects the true maturity of an insurer’s operating model. This is the inflection point we needed to break free from decades of system silos and manual interventions.

Leading insurers are turning IFRS 17 into a competitive weapon

Forward-thinking insurers are using IFRS 17 as a burning platform to break silos and enable real-time decision-making across finance, risk, and operations. For example, a global P&C insurer migrated 1.2 million policies to the cloud, accelerating processing by 30% and reducing technical debt. Finance and actuarial teams co-developed a unified reporting backbone, embedding IFRS into day-to-day decision-making.

Another insurer embedded dynamic pricing models and stress-testing frameworks as part of its IFRS 17 readiness. This enabled forward-looking insights into profitability, helping the CFO office make better capital allocation decisions and strengthen regulatory positioning.

These examples prove that insurers are already using IFRS 17 as a driving force for transformation. Here are five key steps to make that happen:

• Rebuild the core: Modernize finance and actuarial systems with cloud-native platforms that support real-time, scalable IFRS 17 reporting—not just at quarter-end, but every day.
• Embed intelligence into forecasting: Use AI and predictive analytics to model earnings volatility, capital exposure, and risk scenarios, making finance a forward-looking, decision-shaping function.
• Automate to accelerate: Replace spreadsheet chaos with end-to-end compliance automation. Prebuilt dashboards and rule engines streamline workflows and reduce audit risk.
• Connect the dots across the enterprise: Integrate policy, claims, and finance systems to eliminate reconciliation bottlenecks and unlock clean, connected data across functions.
• Become a partner for outcomes more than implementations: Work with service providers that go beyond tech delivery, bringing accelerators such as Assure BPM, AI-powered pricing models, and managed services to reduce internal burden and drive transformation at scale.

The Bottom Line: Ticking the IFRS 17 compliance box is easy for insurers. Building a smarter, faster, future-ready insurance enterprise is the real challenge and will need the right partner.

Success will belong to those that adhere to compliance requirements while also reinventing the wheel.

IFRS 17 is the strategic reset insurers didn’t know they needed. It’s exposing the cracks and creating the case for modern systems, stronger data foundations, and finance that’s wired into the core of enterprise decision-making. With the right service provider partnerships, IFRS 17 stops being a reporting burden and becomes a catalyst for enterprise agility, insight, and growth.