Consequently, in view of a number of insurance  firms in Kenya being under statutory management or undergoing receivership, the shift 
on the accounting approach for insurance contract was not certain on determining the improvement of the negative aspect going into the future in view of financial  performance considering that most research on financial performance were mainly done during the operation IFRS 4. IFRS 17 research done were mainly speculative considering IFRS 17 was not in operation. On this premise, the research was carried out to establish the effect if any on accounting for insurance contracts and financial performance by comparing the effect of determinants of financial performance under 
IFRS 4 and under IFRS 17.

The determinants of financial performance considered were Incurred claims ratio, Expense ratio, Investment yield, Leverage and Liquidity. The determinants were considered on the overall in view of financial performance based on Return on Assets (ROA). The research design considered was quantitative research design with ex-ante (IFRS 4) and ex-post (IFRS 17) approaches where secondary data was collected from 50 firms mainly from their websites, IRA annual and quarterly publications and AKI annual publications for a period of four years; 2021 – 2022 (IFRS 4) and 2023 – 2024 (IFRS 17).

Diagnostic tests and treatment were done on the data to run multiple regressions analysis on IFRS 4 and IFRS 17 for comparison by considering ROA as the dependent variable and determinants of financial performance as the independent variables. Further, the effect on determinants of financial performance was reviewed further in view of IFRS 4 and IFRS 17 by use of Gray’s comparability index on raw data and running of simple regression analysis on standardised data while considering IFRS 17 as the base value and dependent variable respectively. The results of the analysis indicated that IFRS 17 had a strong overall fit and predictive power as compared to IFRS 4 in view of comparison of the multiple regression models of the IFRSs (IFRS 17 and IFRS 4).

Moreover, the determinants of Financial performance were not fully explained by reviewing them from IFRS 17 using IFRS 4 by in view of all the analytical models results. In consequence, the study concluded that there exists an effect of accounting for Insurance contracts and financial performance in view of a superior predictability realisation of financial performance on IFRS 17 as compared to IFRS 4 and the inability of IFRS 4 determinants of financial performance to determine the similar determinants under IFRS 17 to a great extent. Hence, the research recommends full implementation of IFRS 17 in view of its superior financial performance predictive ability so as to enable improvement on financial performance measurement and reporting with a focus on its attributes approaches of valuations of assets and liabilities which may impact sustainability on future financial performance in view of factors such as the yield curve. However, the research recommends further studies on the same approach on other jurisdiction across the globe to enable a broader view. Moreover, the research needs to be carried out also in the future in view of understanding in detail the critical aspects of IFRS 17 of risk adjustment and future cashflow discounting which are dependent to the yield curve to a significant extent. 

Further, the research needs to be also be carried out on a broader perspective on the determinants of financial performance to enable an extended view of the outcome in the research.