Insurance sector well on its way to IFRS conversion: PwC survey

In Canada, large public companies and those in rate-regulated sectors – including the insurance industry – are closer to completing conversion to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) than their smaller counterparts, according to a PricewaterhouseCooper’s sponsored survey.
Conducted by the Canadian Financial Executives Research Foundation, the survey found that of the larger, rate-regulated companies polled, more than half (53%) said their status of completion was 60% or higher. In June 2009, 80% of public companies remained short of the halfway mark in their overall conversion process.
The utilities sector is leading the pack, with 73% of respondent companies in this sector reporting more than 60% of the conversion complete. The insurance industry follows in second with 63%, a PwC release says.
“The size of the company usually plays a big role in terms of expertise and available resources,” said Diane Kazarian, PwC Canada’s national IFRS leader. She noted 30% of companies with revenues less than $49 million said they did not have the resources required to implement the conversion.
Of all of the Canadian companies surveyed, 28% anticipate a decrease in reported net income and 22% expect earnings per share to fall as a result of the conversion to IFRS.