AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REGULATOR PUBLISHED INSURANCE RULES

The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) yesterday published new standards that will require the insurance sector to account differently for life and non-life insurance products, and to define whether a life product is real insurance, or a savings product in disguise. AASB technical director Angus Thomson said that “we are going from a position of a one-stop shop to a situation where life and general insurance will be considered as separate contracts”. AASB chairman David Boymal said that the standards should be formally approved on July 15.