General Insurance

In our general insurance business we continue to write business for profit not for volume, with the trends in business volumes broadly in line with the first nine months of the year. However, we have seen exceptional weather claims of around £100 million in the final quarter of the year which will impact the combined operating ratio for the full year. This has been driven particularly by the storms in both Ireland, where exceptional claims were around £80 million, and in the UK.

Returning to top-line growth is a priority in our UK general insurance business. Through the year we invested in building the Aviva brand in the UK. This has established us well in customers’ minds and already the Aviva brand is as strong as Norwich Union was a year ago. Through our ‘Aviva deal’ direct marketing campaign we sold more motor policies in the fourth quarter than in the same period in the previous three years.

In addition, in January this year we launched our Corporate Risks business focusing on larger corporate risks. Reaction has been positive with a number of contracts already secured.