Sri Lanka, July 9 -- More foreign investment and industry growth is envisaged with Sri Lanka life insurance industry poised to adopt the global accounting standard for insurance contracts, IFRS 17, panelist opined at the CT Smith Securities investor forum titled 'Navigating Growth and Value in Life Insurance,' held recently in Colombo.

Today's IFRS 4 focuses on a company's stock price and gross written premium (GWP), but lacks correlation to its value creation. Profitability in insurance is assessed by assets and excess cash over reserve liabilities. A growing company may show flat profitability due to new business claims, leading to challenges for analysts and investors, Senath Jayatilake, CEO Union Assurance said.

He said IFRS 17 intr...