The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) draft document on how insurance contracts are treated in an insurer’s accounts is expected to be released in the second half of the year.

The final accounting standard is still scheduled to be in place from January 1 2015, according to an IFRS update.

Before releasing a new draft of the standards, the IFRS will look at the changes made during various discussions and assess whether the issues have been understood.

It will also look at whether the changes have been adequately discussed and reviewed.

Committees from the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board have spent the past few years discussing the various components that make up an insurance contract.

They have now agreed on how to treat the definition of “insurance contract”, the scope and unbundling of insurance contracts and measures to calculate liability.

Items such as reinsurance and short-duration contracts have also been discussed and agreement has been reached on how they will appear on the balance sheet.

Topics still to be discussed include volume information, residual margins and disclosure.

The accounting bodies have also not yet discussed transition details and the implementation date for the new accounting standard.