Accounting standards for insurance contracts will remain a priority as the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) looks at its future strategic direction.

The insurance project is only one of four that have been given highest priority to be completed.

A number of other projects have been deferred or dropped from the board’s future schedule after the board reviewed its future time commitments. They will be put out for consultation, leaving a number of questions remaining about the IASB’s future work on developing International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

IASB Chairman Hans Hoogervorst says another issue is how the board balances its time commitments with developing new standards and maintaining the existing ones.

“Up until now, the agenda of the IASB has largely been determined by the need to support a first wave of jurisdictions adopting IFRS,” he said.

Comments on the IASB’s proposed future direction close on November 30 with board discussion based on the feedback to take place in the first quarter of 2012.