Aviva Ireland has reported a general insurance operating profit of €73m for last year, up marginally on the €72m reported in 2023.
It said its gross written premiums for the year rose by 23% to €584m from €521m in 2023, due to strong growth in both its personal and commercial lines business.
Aviva said its undiscounted Combined Operating Ratio (COR) for 2024 – a key measure of profitability in general insurance – improved to 94.8% from 96% the previous year.
The company entered the Irish health insurance market in 2024 with its health insurance partner Level Health. It started underwriting policies in the fourth quarter 2024 and said today it was “very happy” with progress so far.
Declan O’Rourke, Aviva Insurance Ireland’s chief executive, said the company continues to support the Government Action Plan for Insurance Reform to address the costs and availability of insurance.
Mr O’Rouke said that Aviva has responded positively by entering new sectors, launching new products resulting in the company insuring more risks and customers.
He noted that Aviva’s average prices for car insurance in Ireland are lower than they were in 2017 and lower than in the UK.
“To maintain progress, we urge Government to implement the Action Plan recommendation to set legal cost scales for personal injury. We also urge Government to work to reduce the plaintiff rejection rate in the Injuries Resolution Board, and to introduce Pre-Action Protocols to ensure more cases resolve without the need for costly litigation and long delays for all parties,” Mr O’Rourke said.
He said the company was “dismayed” to see the Judicial Council’s proposal to increase personal injury awards by 16.7%.
“We support proportionate compensation for those injured and pay all covered claims as quickly as possible, but Ireland’s awards for minor injuries are already many multiples of awards in both the EU and UK,” he said.
“We believe an increase of this magnitude at this time is not in the best interest of society as a whole and will reverse the positive impact of the decade long government action plan for reform.” the CEO stated.
“We are asking government to send this draft back to the Judicial Council to review the categories of injury individually to ensure they are fair to all parties, and to properly benchmark our awards with other EU countries,” he added.
Aviva Ireland’s parent group has today beaten annual profit expectations on double-digit growth in its general insurance premiums in 2024, and said its planned £3.7 billion acquisition of smaller rival Direct Line was on track.
The company, which offers car, home and life insurance in Ireland, the UK and Canada, reported operating profit of £1.77 billion for the year ended December 31, 2024, above a company-compiled analysts’ consensus of £1.67 billion.
Many insurers have enjoyed a profitable year by raising premiums for motor and home insurance in the face of inflation and natural disasters, including wildfires and storms.
Aviva’s annual general insurance gross written premiums for the year rose 14% to £12.2 billion, while growth at its UK and Ireland insurance, wealth and retirement business also exceeded expectations.
Shares in Aviva rose 1.9% in early trade to their highest since May 2018.
“There is so much untapped potential for Aviva to go after and I have real confidence in our ability to unlock this,” CEO Amanda Blanc said in a statement.
However, annual operating profit in Canada was slashed by a quarter over the year, following a spate of costly natural disasters.
Canada recorded its largest ever insured annual losses of C$8.5 billion in 2024, following wildfires in Jasper, a hailstorm in Calgary and flooding in major cities, data from the Insurance Bureau of Canada released last month showed.
Insurers like Aviva have long since recognised the pressures climate change have imposed on sound underwriting and in 2021, Aviva became the world’s first insurer to announce its ambition to become net zero by 2040.
It said today it remained committed to the task.
The US has in recent weeks derided net zero carbon emission targets, in line with President Donald Trump’s agenda. Last week, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright criticised the British government’s attempts to hit clean energy targets.
“While we are working towards our sustainability ambitions, we recognise that while we have control over Aviva’s operations and influence over our supply chain, when it comes to decarbonising the economy in which we operate and invest, Aviva is one part of a far larger global system,” it said in a statement.
