Preliminary results year ended 31 December 2008
05 March 2009
14. Exceptional items
We have reported exceptional items of £551 million (2007: £nil) in the year. These include £142 million for the transfer of the lifetime wrap platform, write-down in preparation for sale of the British School of Motoring in the UK and closure the structured settlement business in the US. The costs also include £304 million after reinsurance for the discounted cost of strengthening our latent claims provisions, mainly in the UK, and £126 million for the settlement agreed by our Netherlands life business for its unit-linked policyholders, following an industry-wide challenge on the level of fees. The remaining balance relates to brand migration costs of £37 million offset by £58 million benefit from settlement of a disputed Australian tax liability and the consequent release of a provision for interest charges.
Under MCEV exceptional items were £754 million, reflecting the higher cost of the Netherlands unit-linked settlement on an MCEV basis.