Insurance companies run on accounting rules that do not exist anywhere else in finance: premiums, claims and technical provisions all demand treatment that a general accounting background rarely prepares anyone for. The Arab British Fellowship Training Academy built this Insurance Accounting and Financial Performance Analysis programme to close that exact gap, walking participants through how insurers prepare, read and analyse their financial statements – from recognising premiums and reserving for claims to accounting for the investments and expenses tied to underwriting activity.

Because IFRS 17 now governs how insurers report worldwide, the programme also builds a working understanding of the standard alongside the liquidity, profitability and solvency indicators used to judge an insurer’s financial health, and gives participants a structured way to read annual reports and plan ahead financially.

Who Should Attend?

• Accountants and finance staff working in insurance companies, or in the accounting firms that serve them.
• Financial managers, internal auditors and staff of investment or finance departments inside insurance institutions.
• Financial analysis specialists looking to move into the insurance sector.

Knowledge and Benefits:

After completing the programme, participants will be able to:

• Build a solid grounding in the accounting principles unique to the insurance industry.
• Analyse insurance companies’ financial statements to a professional standard, applying the reporting rules specific to the sector.
• Calculate technical provisions and reflect them correctly within the financial statements.
• Assess an insurer’s financial performance across profitability, liquidity and solvency.

• Module 1: Why Insurance Accounting Needs Its Own Rulebook
  • Origin, evolution and types of insurance (life, general, reinsurance) and their financial traits.
  • Local and international regulatory authorities and the laws shaping insurance accounting.
  • Governance and transparency requirements specific to insurance companies.
• Module 2: Core Accounting Foundations Inside an Insurer
  • How insurance accounting differs from general accounting, and the matching principle applied to premiums and claims.
  • Technical accounts versus general accounts, and the daily transaction recording cycle.
  • Preparing the initial accounting statements insurers rely on.
• Module 3: Reading an Insurer’s Financial Statements
  • Components of the balance sheet for insurance companies.
  • Analysing income statement items tied to insurance operations.
  • Special features of the cash flow statement in insurance.
• Module 4: Technical Provisions – Calculation and Impact
  • Definition and types of technical provisions (claims, unearned premiums and others).
  • Methods for calculating and estimating provisions.
  • How provisions feed through to the financial statements.
• Module 5: Accounting for Premiums and Reinsurance
  • Recording collected and deferred premiums, and treating unearned premiums.
  • Reinsurance and ceded premiums.
• Module 6: Accounting for Claims, from Receipt to Settlement
  • Stages of recording claims, and accounting estimates for claims under settlement.
  • Differences between direct and reinsured claims.
• Module 7: Insurance Investments and Their Returns
  • Types of investments used by insurers (bonds, stocks, real estate and others).
  • Investment policies suited to insurance companies, and linking return to financial results.
• Module 8: Revenues, Expenses and Underwriting Results
  • Sources of operating and non-operating revenue, and technical, administrative and underwriting expenses.
  • Timing differences in expense recognition.
  • How the profit or loss from underwriting activity is calculated and linked to operational profitability.
• Module 9: Analysing Financial Statements – Trends and Ratios
  • Horizontal and vertical analysis of the balance sheet and income statement, and interpreting results for decision-making.
  • Liquidity, profitability, efficiency and solvency ratios specific to insurers.
• Module 10: IFRS 17 in Practice
  • Why IFRS 17 was introduced, and its core measurement and presentation principles.
  • Key differences from previous standards, and the resulting changes to statement presentation.
  • Implementation challenges and the effect on profitability and solvency indicators.
• Module 11: Contract Duration and Actuarial Estimates
  • Characteristics of long-term versus short-term insurance contracts.
  • Accounting differences between them, and the impact of actuarial estimates on the financial statements.
• Module 12: Commercial Insurance versus Takaful Accounting
  • Shariah and accounting principles behind Takaful insurance.
  • Separate accounts for policyholders and operators, and the effect on reading financial statements.
• Module 13: Managing Financial Risk in Insurance Companies
  • Types of risk: actuarial, investment and operational.
  • Mechanisms for controlling risk, and the role of financial analysis in measuring risk levels.
• Module 14: Financial Planning, Expansion and Acquisitions
  • Preparing annual budgets and forecasting revenues and expenses from historical data.
  • Financial indicators for evaluating expansion opportunities, feasibility analysis for acquisitions, and post-merger accounting considerations.
• Module 15: Annual Reports and Where Insurance Accounting Is Heading
  • Components of an insurer’s annual report, extracting key indicators and comparing performance over time.
  • Digital transformation and artificial intelligence in financial reporting and analysis.