The Actuaries Institute says some of the International Accounting Standards Board’s proposals for a single insurance contract standard must be reassessed if it is to work for all preparers and users.

It says the Australian industry has extensive experience using most accounting concepts proposed in a standards board exposure draft that aims to improve the comparability of financial reporting between jurisdictions.

But it claims some of the proposals introduce complexity to the process, and it suggests some “critical changes” and important clarifications.

The institute says the approach proposed in the exposure draft is similar to regulatory reporting in Australia adopted for general insurance financial statements following the HIH royal commission.

“The main features of the current Australian general insurance regulatory and financial reporting regimes have been in place since 2002 and 2004 respectively and in our experience have worked well, with no major implementation problems.”