Aviva’s UK&I GI business boosts premiums in 2023 despite slight undiscounted COR rise

Aviva’s UK and Ireland general insurance (GI) business grew its premiums by 16% in 2023 despite seeing a slight rise in its undiscounted combined operating ratio (COR).

In a trading update, the insurer revealed that the GI arm secured £6.64bn during the year, up from £5.74bn in 2022.

This was driven by growth across personal lines, with premiums increasing 24% year-on-year, while the commercial lines arm also grew 10%.

However, across the UK&I GI business, the undiscounted COR rose from 96.4% in 2022 to 96.8% in 2023.

This was driven by the commercial lines undiscounted COR increasing 1.3 percentage points to 97.9% due to higher weather and reinsurance costs.

On a discounted basis, however, Aviva’s UK&I GI arm saw the COR drop to 93.6%.

And Aviva said that it expected the underlying COR to benefit this year from the earn through of rating actions taken in 2023.

“In GI, we remain focused on pricing appropriately for the ongoing inflationary environment,” the insurer added.

“Overall, we expect the rating environment to remain favourable in personal lines, with some moderation of rate increases in commercial lines.”

Group

Meanwhile, across the group, Aviva secured an operating profit of £1.47bn in 2023, up from £1.35bn in 2022.

Chief executive Amanda Blanc said the insurer had made “significant progress” during the year and was building “a clear track record of strong and consistent performance”.

“Aviva is financially strong and we are trading consistently well,” she added.

“Our prospects have never been better. We have leading businesses in growing markets, a fantastic brand and we are investing substantially to make service better for our 19m customers.

“All the ingredients are in place to ensure Aviva continues to deliver an outstanding performance for our customers and our shareholders. I’m certain we will.”