November 6, 2013 | version française

IAA issues Exposure Draft of model International Standard for Actuarial Practice regarding IAS 19 Employee Benefits

The International Actuarial Association (IAA) has released for comment an exposure draft of the International Standard of Actuarial Practice 3 (ISAP 3) on actuarial services regarding IAS 19 Employee Benefits. IAS 19 is an accounting standard adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board that addresses accounting requirements for employee benefits. ISAP 3 will be a model standard intended for adoption by actuarial standard-setting bodies, as appropriate.

This exposure draft has been prepared by the IAS 19 Task Force of the Actuarial Standards Committee (ASC) of the IAA, and approved for exposure by the ASC.

The purpose of ISAP 3 is to serve as model for guidance to actuaries when performing actuarial services in connection with IAS 19 Employee Benefits. Although the reporting entity is responsible for all the information reported in its IFRS report, in practice, an actuary may provide advice on a range of issues arising from the reporting entity’s application of IAS 19. This can include the measurement of short-term employee benefits, post-employment benefits, termination benefits, and other long-term employee benefits, and related disclosures in the IFRS report.

This ISAP is intended to:

  • Facilitate convergence in actuarial practice in connection with IAS 19 within and across jurisdictions;
  • Increase reporting entities’ and their auditors’ confidence in actuaries’ contributions to reporting of employee benefits in accordance with IAS 19;
  • Increase public confidence in actuaries’ services for IAS 19 purposes; and
  • Demonstrate the IAA’s commitment to cooperate with the IASB to achieve better its objectives as envisaged by the Memorandum of Understanding between the IAA and the IASB, such as developing standards that provide high quality transparent and comparable information in IFRS reports and to promote the use and rigorous application of the IFRSs.

The exposure draft is available on the IAA website and can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

Transmittal Memo
Exposure Draft of ISAP 3
Amendments to Glossary for ISAP 3 Exposure Draft

The IAA welcomes comments from actuarial standard-setters and any other interested parties from jurisdictions around the world.

Responses should be sent by e-mail to ISAP3.ED.comments@actuaries.org with the subject heading “ISAP – IAS 19” by Friday, 14 March 2014. Responses will be published on the IAA website unless respondents explicitly request otherwise.

This activity directly supports the IAA’s strategic objective to develop model international standards and promote the global convergence of actuarial standards. To learn more about the work of the IAA in this area, please contact the Director of Technical Activities at the Secretariat.