The National Insurance Commission (NIC) has taken steps which will ensure that insurance industry financial reporting complies with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) ahead of the 2012 deadline. The regulator exposed Heads of Finance and Operation staff in top management to a one-week intensive workshop on the nitty-gritty of the global financial reporting format, facilitated by Price Water House, a reputable audit firm. Mr. Simon Nerro Davor, Deputy Commissioner, NIC, disclosed to Business and Financial Times that the workshop was aimed at getting insurers ready for the IFRS, stressing that the participants were drawn not only from finance and planning strategy but from different relevant disciplines to understand, appreciate and cross fertilise ideas on issues governing IFRS. The facilitators emphasised that the idea behind IFRS is to develop in the public interest, a single set of high quality, understandable and enforceable global accounting standards that will require high quality, transparent and comparable information and financial statements to help participants in various global markets and other users of information to make economic decisions. They averred that the IFRS Board is determined to promote rigorous application of the standards. They also said IFRS will work actively with national standards to bring about convergence of national accounting standards -- emphasising that once a nation adopts that standards, it will become easier for investors from any part of the world to invest in the country.