Dame Amanda Blanc

The insurer revealed in a trading update that its commercial revenue fell 5%. Personal lines premiums were up 57% to £5.26bn, an increase from £3.35bn during the same period last year.

Commercial lines premiums dipped from £2.92bn in the first nine months of 2025 to £2.77bn in the first nine months of 2026. The insurer revealed that underwriting discipline supported profitability in softer market conditions as it continued to prioritise profitable growth over volume.

Overall, Aviva secured £8.02bn in UK premiums, up 28% on the same period last year. The UK undiscounted combined operating ratio grew to 93%, a 0.6 percentage point improvement, reflecting favourable prior year development and weather experience.

Altogether, Aviva general insurance premiums increased from £10bn to £11.8bn. Its retirement division reported that nine-month bulk purchase annuity volumes, policies used by defined benefit schemes to transfer liabilities to insurers, halved to £1.9bn, following an increase in market competition. It reached £5.8bn. It recorded £4.6bn written across 2025.

It highlighted that deals signed, or in the pipeline, refer to the insurer as the “preferred provider”. Health insurance fell 31% to £81m, due to slower growth in the market and in small business channels.

Its second-largest market, Canada, saw an increase in claims for severe weather and catastrophe, weighing on underwriting profits, while premiums rose 2% year to date to £3.2m.

In its wealth division, assets under management grew by 19% to £267bn, while its customer numbers grew to 6.1m, which Dame Amanda Blanc credited to the wealth business becoming the “number one UK player”.

She said: “Aviva is in great shape. Our performance has been excellent in the first nine months of 2026, demonstrating once again the benefits of scale across our diversified business. We continue to deliver strong, profitable growth, particularly in the capital-light areas of General Insurance and Wealth.

“We grew General Insurance premiums by 19% and, at the same time, improved profitability. In the UK, premiums are up 28%, boosted by our home insurance partnership with Nationwide and the great progress we are making with Direct Line.

“We see many opportunities to continue our profitable growth in General Insurance, including growing Direct Line motor and home policies on price comparison websites, the launch of Aviva pet insurance this year, and through our market-leading businesses in Canada and Ireland. We are also continuing to deliver for our customers. Last month we started rolling out our AI virtual assistant for customers and our new multi-vehicle cover is now live, so a family with several cars can now insure them all under one policy.

“In Wealth, we are the number one UK player and have grown assets under management by 19% to £267 billion. Our strong momentum continues with flows up 31% to £10.9 billion and we now have over six million Wealth customers. We see significant opportunities for Aviva to expand further – across our Workplace, Adviser and Direct businesses – giving us confidence that we will achieve at least £280 million of operating profit in Wealth by 2027 and greater than £500 million by 2032.

“We are confident about the remainder of 2026 and expect earnings per share to grow broadly in line with our target of 11% this year. Aviva’s continued strong trading, our strengths in artificial intelligence, and our leading market position, reinforce our confidence that we will meet our three-year financial targets and grow earnings over the longer term.”