Aegon UK profits up as boss signals post-Brexit commitment

Adrian Grace

Aegon UK says it is confident that service problems relating to transferring customers to a new system have been rectified.

Adrian Grace, chief executive, said that lessons had been learnt as the group prepares to move a further 350,000 people and £9 billion of assets on to its platform before the end of June.

The Aegon group has its headquarters in the Netherlands and operations in Europe, the Americas and Asia. 

Its British arm has been moving from its pensions and insurance roots to provide more digital capabilities so financial advisers and customers can manage investments online.

Aegon was criticised over the transfer of Cofunds, which it agreed to buy from Legal and General in 2016, to its in-house platform. Customers had problems signing in and some payments were delayed. Mr Grace acknowledged those issues but pointed out that more than a million customers were transferred last year. He said that the focus for the coming months was to ensure the smooth movement of the final batch of Cofunds customers.

“We want to make sure this is right, to make sure we have learnt the lessons from previous migrations and that from our perspective this goes as seamlessly as possible,” he said.

Mr Grace noted that the savings from the deal, mainly in IT costs, were expected to be about £60 million. 

Mr Grace confirmed the may not have ended its acquisition interests. “Our goal is to continue to consolidate this market and should things emerge in the second half of this year and beyond we would have a look at them,” he said.

He also stressed uncertainty about Brexit has not made the pensions and investments group less likely to invest in the UK.

Expressing confidence that directors in Holland would support expansion moves in the UK, Mr Grace added: “I’ve never been told they would not make more money available in the UK, quite the reverse. They are encouraging me to build and diversify.”

For the Aegon group as a whole underlying pre-tax profit fell by more than 3 per cent to £1.8 billion, in part as a result of weaker stock market trends in the final quarter of last year.