Month: October 2025

The global financial system thrives on stability, and accounting standards like International Financial Reporting Standard 9 (IFRS 9) are designed to bolster it. Introduced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, IFRS 9 mandates a forward-looking “Expected Credit Loss” (ECL) model, requiring banks to provision for potential loan losses much earlier than before. The […]

For many South African businesses and financial institutions, the adoption of IFRS 9 Financial Instruments in 2018 initially felt like a daunting compliance exercise. Replacing the ‘incurred loss’ model of IAS 39 with a forward-looking ‘expected credit loss’ (ECL) approach introduced significant complexity. However, years on, it’s increasingly clear that IFRS 9 has moved beyond […]

The introduction of IFRS 9 Financial Instruments marked a seismic shift in global financial reporting, nowhere more evident than in the credit-intensive South African banking sector. Replacing the old “incurred loss” model of IAS 39, the new Expected Credit Loss (ECL) model requires financial institutions to proactively provision for potential future credit losses, fundamentally reshaping […]

1. The Financial Revolution: From “Incurred” to “Expected” For decades, the standard way businesses accounted for potential customer defaults—or bad debts—was using the old Incurred Loss Model (under IAS 39). This approach was fundamentally reactive: a provision for a loss was only made once a trigger event occurred, such as a missed payment, a legal […]