As a publicly listed company, UNIQA is obligated to prepare its consolidated financial statements according to internationally accepted accounting principles. In accordance with Section 245a of the Austrian Commercial Code, the company has prepared the consolidated financial statements exclusively in agreement with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as applied within the European Union. These consolidated financial statements and Group management report therefore do not follow the accounting principles according to the Insurance Supervisory Act, rather the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the International Accounting Standards (IAS) in the versions applicable to this reporting period. No early application of modified standards was performed.
Since 2005, UNIQA Versicherungen AG has applied IFRS 4 published in 2004 for insurance policies. This standard demands that the methods of accounting and valuation be largely unaltered with regard to the technical items.
The present Group financial statements were therefore prepared, as in previous years, in compliance with IFRS 4 and in accordance with the regulations of the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US-GAAP). For balancing the accounts and evaluation of the insurance-specific entries of the life insurer with profit participation, FAS 120 was observed; FAS 60 was applied for specific items in the health, property and casualty insurance and FAS 113 in the area of reinsurance. The unit-linked life insurance, where the policyholder bears the investment risk, is stated according to FAS 97.
The financial instruments were balanced in accordance with IAS 39 including the information required by IFRS 7, as most recently amended in November 2009. Aside from recording the securities under “Held to maturity”, “Available for sale”, “At fair value through profit or loss” and “Derivative financial instruments (held for trading)”, additional disclosures for securities available for sale are reported in the following investment categories, which were utilised for the internal risk reports:
- Shares in affiliated companies
- Shares
- Equity funds
- Debenture bonds not capital guaranteed
- Other variable yield securities
- Participating interests and other investments
- Fixed interest securities
In the 2010 financial year the following new and modified IFRS have become mandatory for the first time:
The modification of IFRS 2 (rev. 06/2009), share-based compensation, clarifies the way the share-based compensation with cash settlement is entered on the balance sheet. The new regulation does not affect UNIQA.
The revision of IFRS 3 (rev. 01/2008), mergers, and IAS 27 (rev. 01/2008), Group and individual company annual reports, particularly affects modifications in the balance sheet representation of non-dominant shares, successive acquisition of holdings, costs related to acquisitions and conditional purchase price components. The impact of these new regulations on UNIQA in the 2010 financial year stems mainly from the costs related to acquisitions that can no longer be capitalised.
The amendment of IAS 39 (rev. 07/2008), financial instruments: recognition and measurement - eligible hedged items, clarifies how the designation of portions of cash flows or of risk affects the hedged item and to what extent inflation risks can be designated as a hedged item. The new regulation does not affect UNIQA.
