IFRS 16: The Road to Compliance

Cognitive lease data extraction solution – an imperative for 1FRS 16 compliance

The IFRS 16 - Leases standard will take effect on January 1, 2019. The new standard requires lessees to recognize a majority of the leases on their balance sheets. In addition, IFRS 16 requires a broader range of data elements compared to the earlier standard. Enterprises including financial institutions, which typically enter into a large number of agreements to lease a variety of assets, will therefore need to modify their accounting processes and ensure quick and accurate extraction of lease data elements.

To achieve IFRS 16 compliance, banks will need to enhance data extraction processes. The way forward lies in adopting a solution built using cognitive technologies such as natural language processing (NLP), optical character recognition (OCR), and machine learning (ML) to automate the capture and extraction of lease data. However, before embarking on an implementation, banks must

• Assess their ability to collate the necessary data
• Identify new systems and processes that may be needed for data extraction
• Identify the technology stack most compatible with the existing IT landscape