Insurance accounting serves important functions, such as disclosing information to capital market participants, like investors and debtholders. This function not being unique to insurance accounting, it also informs policyholders about the performance of their insurer. Moreover, and like all financial firms, insurers alike are subject to a regulatory oversight. Major supervisory actions are taken based on accounting information, including the determination of solvency of insurance companies. Other aspects, like dividend payouts and taxation are also addressed by accounting.
 
These diverse demands led to the development of several accounting rule sets: Statutory accounting serves the needs to determine distributions. Since information demanded by capital markets is not sufficiently provided by accounting, even not by information accounting, other tools like the Embedded Value have emerged. With the introduction of Solvency II in the European Union in 2016, a detailed directive on insurance oversight, also the disclosure of market-consistent balance sheets has been made compulsory. IFRS 17, which will supersede IFRS 4 by 2023, will provide for further major changes in international insurance accounting.
 
These aspects are setting the scene for this workshop on insurance accounting. We will witness presentations from Japan and Europe which will open up new perspectives and deepen our mutual understanding of accounting and solvency regulation in both regions.