Former Hannover Re CFO joins IASB board

ELKE König, chief financial officer of Hannover Re until 2009, has been appointed to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The body, which is run by a private association supported by governments and industries, is active in setting reporting rules for businesses on a global scale.

Its current proposals on the treatment of financial instruments in the accounts of banks and insurers have become the subject of a sharp controversy.

Dr König, who is 56, will thus play an important role, not only in the insurance-related work of the IASB. She was appointed for five years. “The position is full-time, and I will move to London,” she told Insurance Day. Her term begins in July 2010.

For seven years, she ran the finances of Hannover Re and left when chief executive Wilhelm Zeller retired. Before, she was head of the accounting department at Munich Re. Dr König is regarded as one of the top experts on balance sheet rules.

Currently, Dr König is non-executive chairperson of Hannover Finanz GmbH and member of the supervisory board of Deutsche Hypothekenbank Aktiengesellschaft.

She has been a member of the CFO Forum of European insurers, where she has already been actively engaged in the IASB’s project on insurance contracts.