Mazars wins IFRS 17 consultancy of the year for many reasons. Firstly, it supports their clients in anticipating the operational and financial impacts of IFRS 17 and IFRS 9. Secondly, Mazars participates in working groups to examine technical issues in implementing the standards.
The consultancy also regularly presents at various conferences to share its knowledge of IFRS 17.
Mazars has a team of more than 100 IFRS 17 technical specialists and actuaries in Europe and in the UK. And InsuranceERM's judges were impressed with the company's strong UK and EU-wide practice and thought leadership.
Partner James Isherwood, for example, has extensive standard setting lobbying experience at the CFO Forum. Technical accounting director Vitalina Kobernik joined Mazars in late 2020 from the International Accounting Standards Board where she was a member of technical staff and was involved in IFRS 17 standard setting.
In Europe, technical partner Cedric Tonnerre helped shape IFRS 17 with his input as a member of the Technical Expert Group and the Insurance Accounting Working Group of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group.
Isherwood says: "It's important to understand sentiment around IFRS 17.
"It's important for those rushing to complete implementation to know the context to help them sidestep the landmines that they could quite easily walk into."
Kobernik says: "Our IFRS 17 journey did not just happen in one day. As the standard evolved, our practice and client understanding have evolved too."
Mazars expects to see optimisation work on IFRS 17 to continue past the go-live date of January 2023, but it also plans to help insurers with digital transformation, data governance, infrastructure automation.
Other priorities for the consultancy include sustainability reporting as more insurers are focusing on the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. The sustainability disclosure standards, including the one to be issued by the recently established International Sustainability Standards Board, will increase this focus going forward.
