Jason Storah: Aviva ‘ruthlessly consistent’ and ‘ruthlessly boring’ in delivering service promises

Jason Storah, chief executive of UK general insurance (UKGI) at Aviva, described the insurer giant’s 2024 growth trajectory as “appropriate, consistent and disciplined” following the business publishing its 2024 full-year financial results on 27 February 2025.

In its trading update, Aviva confirmed that its UKGI operating profit had been boosted 66% year-on-year to reach £646m by 2024’s year-end.

Gross written premium (GWP) increased by 16% over this annual reporting period, while the business’ undiscounted combined operating ratio (COR) dropped from 96.8% for 2023 to 94.9% in 2024 – a 1.9 percentage point improvement.

Building on his three descriptors of Aviva’s 2024 growth story, Storah told Insurance Times: “[Aviva’s growth last year] was appropriate because we were growing in a hardening market, at least for a part of last year.

“It was consistent because we didn’t see big swings between months. We just saw a good glide path and trajectory. And it was disciplined because we always maintained focus on underlying cause, quality of the business and where the business was coming from.

“I quite like to be the company that’s ruthlessly consistent, sometimes ruthlessly boring, and just really focused on delivering what we said we’re going to do.”

Driving growth

In the insurer’s financial reporting, Aviva noted that premiums had increased in its personal lines book by 22% over the last 12 months, while commercial line premiums had grown by 12%.

Storah added that Aviva’s personal lines portfolio had grown by around £1.2bn over the last couple of years, particularly driven by a “standout” retail performance that had boosted the insurer’s “top line and bottom line”. In 2024, Aviva’s personal lines book grew 31%, he noted.

As for commercial line improvements, Storah explained that growth had come from across the portfolio – including small and medium-sized enterprises, mid-market and global corporates.

He said: “We’re very, very focused on underlying performance.”

Although acknowledging the insurer’s “very consistent growth” in commercial lines, Storah added that Aviva continues to be “very mindful of where rates are in the market”.

He continued: “What we saw last year was a very consistent market and if that changes, you will continue to see us be disciplined and appropriate and consistent in our underwriting.

“What we don’t want is to create short-term actions when, actually, we have a long-term view of what’s required to deliver a healthy return and healthy outcomes for customers.”

Aviva’s disciplined approach to its underwriting is also what is helping the firm navigate 2025’s softer market conditions, Storah added, ensuring that the insurer’s growth trajectory is “fit for purpose” against the backdrop of rate movements.

“Because we’ve maintained a really disciplined view on pricing, what we see around us doesn’t really change the way we’re performance managing ourselves,” he noted.

Future plans

Although Storah is toying with some “new and shiny things” that could come out of Aviva’s UKGI business this year, which he declined to divulge to Insurance Times, his main message to Aviva’s broker partners and the market at large is to expect “more of the same”.

He said: “We’ve got a few potentially new and shiny things across the general insurance business generally over the course of the next year.

“We have some really great artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives across the business, particularly in claims. It isn’t just business as usual. It’s keep delivering the business that we have and build on that with accretive investments, whether that’s in technology, in AI, acquisitions, partnerships, etc.

“We’ve got a really good pipeline of things to go after.

“But the overarching comment is more of the same, continued improvement and keep looking ahead with a long-term trajectory.”