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MALAYAN INSURANCE CO., Inc. has become the first insurer in the Philippines to achieve full readiness for the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 17, two years ahead of the Insurance Commission’s (IC) deadline.

“One of the most complex parts of the project was retrieving and preparing historic data going back to 2018,” Frederick Pineda, senior vice-president and chief financial officer at Malayan Insurance, said in a statement on Monday.

A coordinated effort across departments was essential — the actuarial team managed assumptions and cash flow modeling, the information technology team pulled usable data from legacy systems and the finance team assessed the accuracy and analyzed the outputs, he said.

Just as important was the collaboration required to identify the right data and assumptions for the system. “Doing this manually would have been near impossible,” he added.

Malayan said it used SAS’ IFRS 17 software solution, developed by data and artificial intelligence firm SAS, to meet stringent reporting requirements.

“With the implementation of a robust technology platform specially designed to meet the complex standard requirements, it allows key capabilities such as generating accurate and automated cash flow calculations, modelling of the contractual service margin and producing audit-ready reports,” the company said.

Malayan said its financial reporting cycles have “dramatically shortened” with the new system now generating IFRS 17-compliant figures in under 30 minutes with fully traceable outputs.

“We needed a system that could offer detailed traceability — from the raw data to the final figures. SAS stood out with its strong functionality, cost-effective implementation, and transparency. It gave us the confidence we needed, especially during user acceptance testing,” Mr. Pineda said.

In March, the IC extended the industry-wide deadline for the adoption of Philippine Financial Reporting Standards 17 (PFRS 17) — the local version of IFRS 17 — to Jan. 1, 2027, from the original Jan. 1, 2025 deadline, citing the industry’s need for more preparation time.

IFRS 17, issued by the International Accounting Standards Board in 2017 and adopted locally as PFRS 17 in 2018, sets updated principles for the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of insurance contracts in financial statements. — Aaron Michael C. Sy

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