Aviva publishes general insurance update for 2022

According to the insurance giant, its GI businesses in the abovementioned countries continued to trade positively over the closing months of last year. For Aviva, this demonstrates “the clear benefits” of the group’s diversification across its general insurance products and markets.

“For full year 2022 we estimate a group combined operating ratio of circa 94.6%, consistent with the guidance we gave at our Q3 trading update in November,” announced Aviva on Wednesday. “The group’s dividend guidance and outlook for capital returns remain unchanged.

“We continue to price appropriately for the high inflation environment, in particular in UK personal lines, responding at pace to emerging data and trends.”

Weather numbers

In terms of weather figures, Aviva provided an unaudited breakdown.

“At a group level, weather experience for the full year 2022 has been broadly in line with our long-term averages (LTA), and marginally above LTA in the fourth quarter,” noted the insurer. “Over the course of 2022, weather experience in the UK and Ireland was only marginally above LTA (+0.4pp), while it was below LTA in Canada (-0.9pp, with no fourth quarter weather events).

“In the UK we have been focussed on supporting our customers during and after December’s freezing weather, for which we estimate a cost of circa £50 million.”

Aside from issuing the update, Aviva also held an investor and analyst briefing on the company’s GI personal lines business in the UK.