- General insurance premiums rose 19% in constant currency to £11.8 billion; UK premiums rose 28%, with personal lines up 57% after the Direct Line acquisition [1].
- Wealth net flows rose 31% to £10.9 billion and wealth assets under management reached £267 billion [1].
- The Solvency II cover ratio rose to 179% from 176%; Aviva expects the high 180s by year-end and kept its 2026 target of about 11% operating EPS growth [1].
Aviva said general insurance premiums rose 19% in constant currency to £11.8 billion in the first nine months of 2026, and its estimated Solvency II shareholder cover ratio rose to 179% from 176% at the end of June [1]. The London-listed insurer, which describes itself as the UK's only diversified insurer, published the trading update on Friday, Nov. 13 [1].
Much of the premium growth comes from Direct Line, which Aviva bought on July 1, 2025: the 2025 comparison period includes only three months of Direct Line's results [1]. In the third quarter alone, with Direct Line in both years, group premiums rose 1% to £3.71 billion and UK personal lines rose 5% [1]. Chief Executive Amanda Blanc said "Aviva is in great shape" and that the company expects earnings per share "to grow broadly in line with our target of 11% this year" [1].
Insurance: growth and claims
*Constant currency; 18% at reported rates [1]. UK personal lines premiums rose 57% to £5.26 billion, helped by Direct Line and a new home insurance partnership with Nationwide, while UK commercial lines fell 5% as Aviva held prices in a softening market [1]. Canadian premiums rose 2% in constant currency to £3.3 billion [1]. The group's undiscounted combined operating ratio, claims and costs as a share of premiums, improved to 93.8% for the nine months, but the third quarter alone was 94.9%, against 94.0% a year earlier, because Canada's ratio jumped to 101.5% on weather-related catastrophe claims [1]. Aviva said it remains on track for a full-year UK and Ireland ratio below 94% and for Canada to approach 94% [1].
Elsewhere, protection sales slipped 2% to £260 million, health sales fell 31% to £81 million, and retirement sales fell to £3.5 billion from £5.3 billion as bulk purchase annuity volumes halved to £1.9 billion [1]. Aviva said year-to-date bulk annuity volumes, including deals where it is preferred provider, reached £5.8 billion and are not expected to rise materially before year-end [1].
Wealth, capital and Direct Line synergies
Workplace pension net flows rose 34% to £7.3 billion, including £1.5 billion transferred from the Mercer Master Trust in the first half, and adviser platform flows rose 21% to £4.2 billion [1]. Aviva now has 6.1 million wealth customers and repeated its aim of at least £280 million of wealth operating profit by 2027 and more than £500 million by 2032 [1].
Capital generation added 8 percentage points to the solvency ratio in the quarter and the interim dividend took off 5 points [1]. Aviva expects the ratio to reach the high 180s by the end of 2026, including more than 7 points from the remaining Direct Line capital synergies [1]. It expects about £130 million of cumulative run-rate cost synergies from the deal and the remaining more than £350 million of its over-£500 million capital synergies by year-end [1]. Centre liquidity was £1.3 billion at the end of October, and cash remittances should total about £2.3 billion for 2026 [1]. The update does not announce a new share buyback. Aviva said it is on track for its 2025-28 targets: 11% annual growth in operating EPS, IFRS return on equity above 20% by 2028 and more than £7 billion of cumulative cash remittances over 2026-28 [1].
Further sources
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