The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation is working to produce a proposed standard by June 30 and is meeting weekly in Europe to iron out any differences.

But this deadline might fall behind as there are still a number of issues to resolve and a draft standard is planned for release before the end of this year.

A final version of the standard will probably be finalised next year. 

Global insurers are supporting the need for a high-quality insurance contract accounting standard.

The various meeting held during the past year have supported the current measurement approached based on cashflows as an insurer fulfils the contract and a discount rate can be used for a top-down approach.

The new proposed standard will include a revised treatment of acquisition and overheads cost.

But the groups still have to reach an agreement on unbundling proposals for contracts, how to unlock residual margins and the approach to non-life contracts that are over-engineered.

To date the IFRS Foundation has received 255 comments on the proposed standard, with the bulk of submissions coming from Europe.

Most of these submissions were from people involved in the preparation of insurance contracts with accountants, actuaries and regulators making up a proportion of the rest of the respondents.

There have been 110 meetings so far with more than 1000 people involved. In the Asia-Pacific region, 30 meetings have been held.

Two more meetings have been scheduled for June to try and resolve the outstanding issues including unbundling, contract boundaries and the discount rate.