Strategic Report | Governance | Financial Statements | 33
Cash and other assets Other assets (primarily cash) remained consistent at £1.3bn at 31 December 2023 (31 December 2022: £1.3bn). The Group holds significant amounts of assets in cash, so as to protect against liquidity stresses. Insurance contract liabilities Insurance contract liabilities increased to £24.1bn at 31 December 2023 (31 December 2022: £19.6bn). The increase in liabilities reflects the new business premiums written and decrease to the valuation rate of interest, offset by mortality assumptions changes and policyholder payments over the period. Other liabilities Other liability balances decreased to £791m at 31 December 2023 (31 December 2022: £872m) due to a reduction in loans and other payables. IFRS net assets The Group’s total equity at 31 December 2023 was £1.2bn (31 December 2022: £1.1bn). Total equity includes the Restricted Tier 1 notes of £322m (after issue costs) issued by the Group in September 2021. The total equity attributable to ordinary shareholders increased to £883m (31 December 2022: £783m). DEFERRAL OF PROFIT IN CSM As noted above, underlying operating profit is the core performance metric on which we have based our profit growth target. This includes new business profits deferred in CSM that will be released in future. When reconciling the underlying operating profit with the statutory IFRS profit it is necessary to adjust for the value of the net deferral of profit in CSM. Net transfers to contractual service margin includes amounts that are recognised in profit or loss including the accretion and the amortisation of the contractual service margin: Year ended 31 December 2023 Year ended 31 December 2022 (restated) Gross insurance contracts £m Reinsurance contracts £m Total £m Gross insurance contracts £m Reinsurance contracts £m Total £m CSM balance at 1 January 1,943 (332) 1,611 1,489 (205) 1,284 New Business initial CSM recognised 380 (37) 343 320 (50) 270 Accretion of interest on CSM 79 (12) 67 41 (6) 35
Changes to future cash flows at locked-in economic assumptions
203
(136)
67
213
(96)
117
(156)
27
(129)
Release of CSM
(120)
25
(95)
Net transfers to CSM
506
(158) (490)
348
454
(127) (332)
327
CSM balance at 31 December
2,449
1,959
1,943
1,611
RESTATEMENT OF ALTERNATIVE PERFORMANCE MEASURES As noted earlier, certain of the Group’s APMs and KPIs have been affected by the implementation of IFRS 17 as a result of changes to risk parameters and other measurement factors in the underlying statutory accounts. The opportunity has been taken to make other changes to the derivation of the KPIs at the same time as implementing IFRS 17, notably: • The impact of demographic changes on the valuation of LTMs has been reclassified as an investment value change instead of being included with insurance experience and assumption changes. This change treats the full return on LTMs as investment return and recognises their reduced significance within the investment portfolio. • Non-recurring expenses have been reallocated to new business acquisition expenses or development expenses within underlying operating profit or to strategic expenses. This has also been reflected and aligned to the classifications used for measurement of Solvency II capital generation. The table below compares the new business profits, Underlying profit and Adjusted operating profit before tax as presented in the Annual Report and Accounts in 2022 under IFRS 4 (previous accounting standard) with the equivalent APMs based on the IFRS 17 accounts: New business profit £m Underlying operating profit £m Adjusted operating profit £m As presented in 2022 Annual Report and Accounts under IFRS 4 233 249 336 Changes in allowances for credit defaults 38 25 25 Changes attributable to replacement of IFRS 4 prudent reserves with IFRS 17 risk adjustment 2 (9) (9) Change to the classification of demographic assumption changes and experience variances in respect of LTMs – – 24 Reclassification of expenses (1) (6) (6) Other differences (6) (2) (9) As presented in 2023 Annual Report and Accounts under IFRS 17 266 257 361 Dividends In line with our stated policy to grow the dividend over time, the Board is recommending a final dividend of 1.50 pence per share bringing the total dividend for the year ended 31 December 2023 to 2.08 pence per share. The 20% growth in total dividend is ahead of the 15% 2022 dividend growth rate.
MARK GODSON Group Chief Financial Officer
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