FRS 103 Insurance Contracts
FRS 103 Insurance Contracts
This FRS consolidates existing financial reporting requirements and guidance for insurance contracts. Entities that are applying FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland, whether or not they are ‘insurance companies’, shall also apply this FRS to insurance contracts (including reinsurance contracts) that the entity issues and reinsurance contracts that the entity holds, and to other financial instruments that the entity issues with a discretionary participation feature.
The FRC has also issued Implementation Guidance to accompany FRS 103 Insurance Contracts.
The Table of Differences describes the relationships between UK and Ireland financial reporting standards and IFRS Accounting Standards.
Related impact assessments and feedback statements to the following publications.
Current edition
| Name | FRS 103 Insurance Contracts (September 2024) |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 10 September 2024 |
| Type | Standard |
| Notes | The September 2024 edition of FRS 103 incorporates all amendments issued up to September 2024. Some requirements, including those introduced by the Periodic Review 2024 amendments, are not mandatory at the time of publication. See Section 1 Scope for details. |
| Format | PDF, 857.1 KB |
FRS 103 Insurance Contracts and IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts
FRS 103 is not aligned with IFRS 17.
IFRS 17 was effective for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2023 and the FRC is likely to wait for several years’ implementation experience before considering alignment.
Conflicts between IFRS 17 and UK company law mean that it is not currently possible to align FRS 103 with IFRS 17.
Entities applying FRS 103 will necessarily be preparing ‘Companies Act accounts’ as set out in section 395(1) of the Companies Act 2006. The form and content of Companies Act individual accounts of insurance companies are required to comply with the requirements of Schedule 3 to The Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/410), which cannot be adapted.
The FRC concluded in 2019 that the approach and methodology that underpins IFRS 17 is so fundamentally different to the one that underpins the formats of Schedule 3 that for Companies Act accounts it is not possible to apply IFRS 17 whilst continuing to maintain compliance with company law.
In the absence of legislative change to permit alignment, the FRC may, once sufficient implementation experience of IFRS 17 has accumulated, explore whether, and if so how, to make other changes to modernise the requirements of FRS 103. Sufficient implementation experience of IFRS 17 is unlikely to be available before two full cycles of reporting have been completed but it may be later still.
Any proposed amendments are expected to be informed by stakeholder outreach, and subject to formal public consultation.
Superseded editions
| Name | FRS 103 Insurance Contracts (January 2022) |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 31 January 2022 |
| Type | Standard |
| Notes | The January 2022 edition of FRS 103 incorporates all amendments issued up to January 2022. |
| Format | PDF, 479.6 KB |
| Name | Amendments to FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland and other FRSs – Periodic Review 2024 |
| Publication date | 27 March 2024 |
| Effective from | 1 January 2026 (Early application permitted) |
| Type | Amendment |
| Notes | The effective date for a new requirement in Section 6 Transition to this FRS is 1 January 2024. |
| Format | PDF, 31.2 KB |
| Name | FRS 103 Insurance Contracts (March 2018) |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 28 March 2018 |
| Type | Standard |
| Format | PDF, 491.1 KB |
| Name | Amendments to UK and Republic of Ireland accounting standards - UK exit from the European Union |
| Publication date | 21 December 2020 |
| Effective from | 1 January 2021 (Early application permitted) |
| Type | Amendment |
| Format | PDF, 726.6 KB |
| Name | FRS 103 Insurance Contracts (Feb 2017) |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 1 February 2017 |
| Type | Standard |
| Format | PDF, 489.3 KB |
| Name | Letter from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to the FRC – Solvency II clarification |
| Publication date | 3 February 2017 |
| Type | Letter |
| Format | PDF, 98.0 KB |
| Name | FRS 103 Insurance Contracts (Mar 2014) |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 20 March 2014 |
| Type | Standard |
| Format | PDF, 521.0 KB |
| Name | Amendments to FRS 103 Insurance Contracts – Solvency II |
| Publication date | 26 May 2016 |
| Type | Amendment |
| Format | PDF, 369.0 KB |
| Name | Triennial review 2017 amendments |
| Publication date | 14 December 2017 |
| Type | Amendment |
| Format | PDF, 790.8 KB |