Powering financial transformation: How we delivered a game-changing IFRS17 solution for a leading South East Asia life insurer
Introduction
A leading Hong Kong-based life insurance and asset management giant set out on a bold mission: to implement International Financial Reporting Standard 17 (IFRS17) across its Asia-Pacific operations. IFRS17 is a landmark shift in insurance accounting, replacing IFRS4 to create a globally consistent, transparent framework for reporting financial performance. It allows investors, analysts, and regulators to compare insurers with confidence — a game changer for the industry.
But transforming regulatory compliance at this scale was no small feat. It required seamless collaboration across finance, actuarial and data and technology teams to reshape the financial and tech ecosystem—from overhauling actuarial systems and general ledgers to building brand-new Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) transformations, CSM and sub-ledger modules and configuring complex reporting capabilities.
What the client needed
The client needed an experienced partner with capabilities in finance, actuarial and data & technology who could:
- Build a robust solution aligned with IFRS17 standards
- Run comparative reporting under both IFRS4 and IFRS17
- Transition smoothly to Business-as-Usual (BAU) reporting under IFRS17 while meeting tight Working Day Timetable (WDT) deadlines
- Provide 24x7 Application Management Services (AMS) to keep the IFRS17 ecosystem running like clockwork
The solution? A cutting-edge architecture on Azure, powered by the following:
- Azure Synapse
- Azure Data Factory
- Azure Data Lake Storage
- Gen2
- Databricks
- SSIS
- SAS
- Control-M
- Power BI
- SunGL
- PowerShell
The Deloitte difference: Turning complexity into clarity
We delivered across every phase, helping the client unlock major outcomes:
- 2022–2024 IFRS17-compliant reporting: Produced balance sheets, P&L, and disclosures
- Comprehensive solution design: Tackled reinsurance, expense allocation, dual accounting, group reporting, ETLs, measurement models, and more
- Robust development and testing: Development and testing of the solution that encompasses technology components, including
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Azure Data Warehouse, SAS Subledger (five models in SAS– PAA GMM, PAR GMM, NON-PAR, VFA, Reinsurance), SunGL across 10,000 accounts, 12,000 data attributes, 500 tables - Automated workflows, VA disclosures, and customisable financial dashboards
- Solution built: Developed a solution that comprised 600+ SSIS packages, 1,000+ stored procedures, 400+ ADF pipelines, and 100+ customised SAS macros.
- Data quality mastery: Built Audit, Balance, Control (ABC) frameworks across staging, abstraction, and foundation layers
- End-to-end support: Delivered problem management, run-and-maintain services, and infrastructure support for seamless operations
What sets us apart? The Deloitte way
- Delivered IFRS17 success across 10 Southeast Asian countries by enhancing data, systems, processes, and controls
- Ran one year of smooth comparative reporting post-go-live
- Provided application and infrastructure support across the full tech stack, with expert incident, service request, and enhancement management through JIRA and Confluence
- Strengthened governance and security, introduced project management tools, and minimised vulnerabilities during upgrades
Tangible business impact
- Stabilised IFRS17 compliance: Delivered regulatory-aligned reporting on time without compromising WDT
- Enhanced user experience: Zero wait time, automated processes, and accelerated data extraction
- Cost savings: US$1.35M in hard savings and US$1–1.5M in soft savings
- Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Cut service requests and manual effort (saving 10–15 man-days)
- Incident reduction: 20–25 percent fewer incidents thanks to better handling
Drilling in success: Sustained impact, zero disruption
With our proven implementation strategy, world-class AMS support, and optimised governance, we ensured a smooth transition to BAU across 10 entities, achieving nearly 40-50 percent runtime improvement and almost zero business disruption. And we’re not stopping there: We continue to drive process optimisations, uncover improvement areas, and introduce automation across the solution ecosystem — future-proofing the client’s IFRS17 journey.
Key achievements
- Flawless operations: Real-time application and server monitoring, alerting systems, and stability assurance
- Enhanced governance: Close collaboration with business users to reduce data and process issues
- 25+ major enhancements: Including SAS performance boosts to improve user experience and WDT adherence
- Smooth change management: Successfully deployed major updates in Half Year ’24 and Full Year ’24 releases
- Targeted process improvements: Strengthened handshakes between client teams and third-party vendors
- Sharper data quality: Detailed sessions with data owners, additional checks, and reduced downstream failures
Christine Ahn
