The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is set to resume publishing its quarterly general and life insurance statistics reports next month, after consulting with stakeholders over new accounting standards. 

APRA says the first edition of the “enhanced” statistical publication will include data for the September and December quarters last year and the first three months of this year. 

The prudential regulator had announced in August last year it was suspending the September quarter report because of changes arising from the adoption of Australian Accounting Standards Board 17 Insurance Contracts. 

It said at the time the release of the impacted publications would resume for the December 2023 quarter but provided no timing for the resumption of the reports. 

In an update today, APRA says the new accounting standard resulted in “significant changes” in the reporting framework for insurers. 

“These changes have had an impact on the data presented in the quarterly insurance publications, which are based on now superseded reporting standards,” the regulator said. “APRA needs to revise the data presented in the impacted quarterly insurance publications to reflect the new reporting framework. 

“APRA’s approach has been to ensure that, where possible, the enhanced quarterly insurance publications will provide the same level of data transparency as the existing publication suite.” 

The regulator says submissions to its consultation over content revision and enhancement of data presentation were largely supportive. 

However, a number of stakeholders raised concerns around APRA publishing confidential data in its publications. 

“APRA has strict procedures and processes in place to safeguard the release of confidential data across all its public releases, including statistical publications,” the regulator said. “APRA intends to consult at a later date, on the confidentiality of data collected under the new insurance reporting standards. 

“Until data collected under the new reporting standards have been determined non-confidential, APRA will apply the necessary protections to its insurance publications.” 

The consultation received 12 submissions from insurers, industry bodies, and other interested parties, including five that were confidential. 

Click here for submissions to the consultation.