What is now our third in-focus session, which we hope will give you a better insight into our UK commercial business. In 2020, we covered our Canadian and health and protection businesses, and we'll continue with further deep dives later in the year to help you better understand how we are transforming our performance to drive sustainable long-term growth. I'm shortly going to hand over to Adam Winslow, who is the CEO of our UK General Insurance business, and sitting alongside him, Nick Major, the MD of our commercial lines business. Following Adam's presentation, which will last about 25 minutes, he and Nick will answer any questions you have. But before I hand over, a few brief remarks from me. As you know, our disposal program is now complete.
Aviva is financially strong, and we are looking to update on our capital return plans at our full year results in March. This means that our focus is now entirely on transforming the performance of Aviva so that we can capitalize on the significant growth opportunities across our three markets of the UK, Ireland, and Canada, and of course Aviva Investors. Our UK GI business is a significant contributor to the group. It has around 6 million customers and acts as an important customer acquisition engine. It makes a material contribution to group financial performance, accounting for 17% of group operating profit from our markets in the first half of 2021, and delivering an attractive solvency to return on capital of 14% in 2020. Having UK GI as part of the group also provides a significant capital diversification benefit of GBP 800 million.
The focus of today's session is, of course, commercial lines, which represents around half of our UK GI business. Over the course of Adam's presentation, you'll see that we have a strong UK commercial lines business that is well positioned in an attractive insurance market and is already building a track record of delivering profitable growth. We'll show that there are significant opportunities for further sustainable growth and that we have the core capabilities and a clear path to achieve this. With that, I'm going to hand over to Adam.
Thank you, Amanda, and thanks to you all for taking the time to join us today. Over the next 25 minutes, I'll provide an overview of the U.K. commercial lines market and why we think it's attractive. We'll take a closer look at our commercial business and why it occupies a leading position in the U.K. market, and finally, our strategic priorities to ensure we keep winning in this market now and in the future. There are three key messages I'd like you to take away from this presentation. Firstly, Aviva is recognized as the U.K.'s leading commercial insurer. We have a strong and robust financial track record. This is driven by the breadth of our distribution, underwriting, and digital capabilities, which support strong broker sentiment and profitability, aiming to deliver a sub-94% combined operating ratio.
Secondly, our UK commercial lines business is a key growth area for Aviva, generating important operating profit and cash growth. From 2017 to 2020, the business has delivered a double-digit underwriting profit and gross written premium CAGR. Thirdly, we have a robust strategy in place to win and drive continued profitable growth, supported by investments in both capability and technology. The business will continue to be a consistent profit contributor, targeting over GBP 200 million annual profit by 2024, and we aim to deliver a 9% CAGR increase in gross written premium from 2020 to 2024. I'll go into more detail on each of these areas over the coming slides. To start things off on slide 7, I'll talk through the UK commercial insurance market, broken down by the 4 segments, all of which Aviva competes in, and their different dynamics.
In each segment, our approach is centered on the needs of our customers and distribution partners, thereby differentiating our propositions. Brokers still dominate the small and micro segment, but they are seeking to automate processes and generate efficiencies through digital solutions. Aviva are well placed to benefit from increasing digital synergies with the mid-market sector through our market-leading Fast Trade platform. Moving on to mid-market and UK corporate, these segments continue to be dominated by regional, national, and international brokers as clients value advice when placing insurance risks. Again, this is a strength of Aviva's, with leading broker sentiment and trust scores from the entire broker community, demonstrating the importance we place on these relationships. We've delivered consistent, profitable growth in the UK corporate segment through considered underwriting appetite expansions, investment in our multinational capabilities and network, as well as selective hiring of expertise.
We further leverage this expertise to grow our global corporate presence in the wholesale and specialty markets. This market offers considerable headroom for further growth, with approximately GBP 15-20 billion of gross written premium within our defined underwriting appetite that we aren't currently writing. Our business is structured across two divisions. Our SME business manages the small and micro and mid-market risks, while our GCS business focuses on UK corporates and Global Corporate and Specialty lines. Commercial lines in the UK is benefiting from supportive conditions for growth. We're currently seeing hard rates across many lines of business, and as the graph demonstrates, UK commercial insurance rates increased by 27% in the third quarter of 2021 versus the same quarter of the prior year. This tailwind supports profitable growth over the short to medium term as Aviva seeks to continue an already impressive growth trajectory.
We expect this period of significant pricing growth to slow gradually but remain attractive throughout 2022. The right-hand side highlights a number of trends which will continue to shape the market over the coming years and provide further opportunities for growth. I'll highlight a couple of these. Firstly, the rate of digital adoption is accelerating, especially for smaller businesses. This is driving the development of efficient broker solutions and direct-to-customer propositions. Aviva's Fast Trade platform has benefited from this trend as brokers continue to digitize. Secondly, there's increasing importance placed on strong broker relationships underpinned by excellent service. Significant broker consolidations have created both opportunities and challenges. I'm therefore pleased this is an area where Aviva continues to see favorable sentiment that's materially ahead of our peers based on independent surveys. Now, let's look at the strong strategic position of our business.
You heard earlier from Amanda on the important contribution our U.K. business brings to the wider group. But turning specifically to our U.K. commercial lines business, we've managed to deliver an impressive double-digit compound growth since 2017, which is projected to reach circa GBP 2.6 billion gross written premium in 2021. Importantly, this growth is a healthy mixture of volume, rate, and high retention, and delivers a profitable, low-volatility combined operating ratio. We've delivered a consistent mid-90s core through the tail of the soft market, giving us confidence that we can deliver on our targets as rate and ongoing improvement of the portfolio burn through. This reinforces our strategy of underwriting-led profitable growth, which encourages brokers and customers not only to place but also retain their business with Aviva.
This sustained performance positions Aviva as the clear UK industry leader, and we were delighted to have been recognised by recently winning Commercial Lines Insurer of the Year at both the Insurance Times and British Insurance Awards in 2021. As one of Aviva's core businesses, leveraging mutual synergies with other parts of the group has never been more important and is something we truly focus on. Amanda mentioned the GBP 800 million of capital diversification benefit UK GI provides. This is significant and means UK GI is more capital efficient than most in the market. You've also heard Amanda previously speak about how the breadth of our businesses supports earnings. For example, when commercial lines was impacted by COVID business interruption claims, we were well supported by our personal lines and life businesses, thereby demonstrating the value of a diversified model. There are a few other examples to mention.
The customer synergies are clear and supported by a powerful Aviva brand that encourages brokers and customers to place business with us. In claims, our wholly owned Solus motor repair network manages claims for both the retail and commercial businesses, enabling us to generate scale benefits and efficient supply relationships in the face of inflationary headwinds. The Aviva Connect platform has been a massive success since its launch in 2020, enabling both commercial lines brokers and life IFAs to access required documentation and self-serve their clients through a single digital portal. This obviously also supports efficiency within Aviva. Finally, we have an ability to leverage shared relationships. For example, through our dedicated client relationship management team, we recently won a new health and protection scheme with Marks and Spencer due to an existing strong commercial and personal lines GI relationship.
A key priority for the Aviva group is driving forward innovation. I'm focused on the general insurance business leading the way in this space. We recently launched a commercial property telematics proposition for brokers, which includes a suite of connected sensors to provide early warnings on commercial property perils. This supports reduced claim costs through loss prevention, improved retention, and enriched underwriting data. We work closely with our global data science practice, Quantum, in the development of our mid-market Commercial Intelligence Tool. This tool automatically brings together multiple data sources, enabling quicker and more informed decision makers so that underwriters can produce quotes in seconds rather than hours or even days. We're also leveraging the group's relationship with Founders Factory to provide access to new opportunities and technology ecosystems.
We have pilots ongoing to develop innovative solutions to some of the key issues facing the general insurance industry, such as flooding and supply chain management. An area which is critical to the future success of Aviva is sustainability. There are several examples across the commercial lines business where we're leading the way. As you would have seen in the press, combustible cladding is a real issue for many people living in the U.K. today, and I'm proud that in commercial property we made a commitment to offer fair renewal terms for all impacted existing customers. This was at a time when most carriers stopped writing new business in this space. We paused to understand the evolving risk and were the first in the market to reopen our standard product to new business.
To date, over 3,900 lease holders have benefited from an affordable new business proposal, many of whom were previously uninsured. In the mobility space, where we know innovation and new technology is driving change at a rapid pace, we've partnered with Darwin Innovation Group to launch the first fully electric automated passenger vehicle on U.K. roads, and we'll use the data to help build the future model of motor insurance. We're also investing in our motor repair capability in Solus, ensuring our engineers are trained with the latest skills to meet increasing demand for electric vehicles. In addition to exiting the fossil fuel market in 2019, we focused heavily on growing our renewables portfolio, and we now ensure 75 gigawatts of installed renewable energy capacity across six continents, and we're aiming to be a top three renewable energy insurer in the London market by the end of this year.
The team and I are committed to becoming a net zero insurer by 2040, and we're building the frameworks to track the carbon intensity of our underwritten assets. So looking at our commercial lines business, starting with the four segments I previously highlighted, we've been deliberate about where we choose to participate, with much of our focus on the digital and U.K. corporate segments where we're the number one U.K. player, a position which has been achieved through strong capabilities and enhancing our core strengths, which are outlined at the bottom of the slide. As you'd expect, my ambition and our ambition is to be the number one across all domestic segments we participate in, and I'll come on to our approach to achieve this. We've grown the commercial portfolio in a targeted and measured fashion.
This has been delivered across all business lines, with motor, property, and liability split across our SME and corporate businesses, and financial and specialty lines sitting within UK and global corporate. We've delivered a growing and balanced portfolio, but importantly, have also taken robust action to cleanse the book where we've seen underperformance. This is including GBP 70 million of strategic exits since 2018, as our focus remains on profitable growth. That said, we've experienced rapid rate-driven growth across financial and specialty lines, and our recent growth in motor has been targeted through mini fleets, where we've seen strong profit opportunities. I'm confident the motor book will grow further following the launch of our motor trade product later this year. Our commercial portfolio is optimized with a healthy mix of short, mid, and long tail businesses supporting our ability to manage volatility to varied risk events.
One-off weather events typically impact our asset-based short tail lines, whereas economic factors lean towards long tail risks. We're comfortable with our tail mix, ensuring exposure isn't overweight in any one single area. While we focus on our gross underwriting, Aviva has suitable reinsurance in place to support this growth, and our reinsurance programs are centrally managed with our Canadian and Irish general insurance businesses. Net exposure to our largest U.K. and overseas perils is significantly reduced and provides sufficient cover to absorb one-in-250-year risk events. Underwriting-led growth remains our focus, and we have clear separation between our trading and technical underwriting teams. This enables active challenge and independent oversight of our frontline trading decisions, specifically where we can't automate our underwriting. Now I'd like to focus on how we operate across our business segments.
We've worked hard to create customer journeys built around their specific needs and feedback. As a result, we've developed market-leading solutions underpinned by technology and internal and external data. This allows us to efficiently service customers through our broker relationships. In the small and micro market, this is built around our digital Fast Trade extranet platform and growing range of e-trade products, which between them support over 250,000 policies. We've delivered profitable growth in this segment due to efficient digital solutions that enable low-friction broker journeys. In mid-market, our Commercial Intelligence Tool offers high levels of automation and efficiency through the use of data. Even when this doesn't allow full automation, it augments the underwriting process and enables our regional trading teams to focus on assessing complex cases and applying their expert judgment.
This tool has helped our underwriters assess over 50,000 policies in the last 12 months and better understand our customers' needs to tackle underinsurance, highlight key gaps in cover, and support higher retention. In the GCS space, there's a greater reliance on the technical expertise of our underwriters due to the complex and bespoke nature of risks, and we've recruited significant market talent over the last 24 months, adding 18 corporate underwriters in 2021 alone. Additionally, our workflow management system automates processes, enabling underwriters to focus on risk assessment and client engagement. Turning to SME, where we have a track record of delivering profitable growth across our small and micro and mid-market businesses. We delivered a gross written premium CAGR of 5.5% from 2017 to 2020, and plans are in place to achieve an 8% CAGR out to 2024.
This will be enabled by our key strengths, including fast and seamless broker journeys, driving strong satisfaction scores, and a winning distribution strategy focused on client relationship management and supporting our key brokers. Regional brokers are critical to our SME success, and we really value these relationships, which account for around 60% of the SME portfolio. There is an opportunity to further capitalize on these relationships and the leading broker sentiment we have, and we'll accelerate regional growth through initiatives such as enhanced sales and underwriting capacity and expanding our high-margin specialty lines product offering. These products can be seamlessly cross-sold by our regional trading teams via our automated commercial intelligence tool. Profitably growing regionally traded business is a key focus area for commercial lines moving forward. As I mentioned before, digital solutions play a key role, and they've underpinned our success in the small and micro segment.
Aviva are a key leader in this space, with over 70% of our small and micro business transacted digitally today. We have two clear strategic focus areas to increase this figure while ensuring we adapt and stay relevant as digital adoption gathers pace. Firstly, we must continue to digitize our existing business. This includes further developing our award-winning Fast Trade extranet platform and expanding our e-trading product suite. We will increasingly digitize the customer value chain to deliver a smooth and cost-effective solution for brokers that encourages them to place their business with Aviva. However, the distribution landscape is evolving, with the market being increasingly disrupted by new entrants, modernising traditional players, and changing customer buying behaviors. Aviva is responding to this through the development of an agile IT technology stack that I'm convinced will enable us to efficiently distribute products via new digital partners.
This will also provide the capability to deliver a new direct-to-consumer proposition should the market present a sizable new business opportunity in the future. This initiative will allow us to protect existing business as well as generate incremental growth, and we're targeting for over 90% of our smaller premium business to be transacted digitally by 2023. Our UK corporate and global corporate and specialty business has also delivered well above market growth in recent years, with GBP 1.1 billion gross written premium in 2020, making it the fastest growing business in UK GI over the period. This success is built on our underwriter-led trading model for bespoke and complex risks, supported by strong broker relationships and leading technical capability.
It's important to note this growth has been delivered through a combination of targeted underwriting expansions, increased rate, underlying new business growth, and strong retention, which was 89% in 2020, supported by our client relationship management model. There's a clear opportunity to accelerate this business organically, and we'll invest in technical expertise to meet broker demand and optimize underwriting processes through an improved use of data while maintaining top quartile efficiency. I believe gaining access to a greater share of in-appetite business by broadening our distribution capabilities is also a key lever for growth in this segment. So I've touched on some of our core strengths, and now I'd like to focus on the areas that we believe drive a competitive advantage and are critical to our commercial business remaining the UK market leader. Our distribution partner relationships are a key strength and differentiator for us.
It truly is one of the standout areas for Aviva Commercial Lines. Our separated distribution function sits outside the P&Ls, enabling end-to-end visibility across intermediaries and provides a single point of contact for each broker across all business lines. We treat our intermediary relationships as partnerships, and being the clear partner of choice is due to the value we place on the role of the broker, and they will continue to advise their clients on insurance and risk management requirements now and in the future. We've invested in these relationships, such as specialist distribution capability to suitably manage broker needs, or through the Aviva Future Leader Programme, which promotes independent broker talent and supports them to become qualified. I think the results speak for themselves. In a recent broker survey, Aviva were ranked number one across every single sentiment metric validating the service we provide.
This sentiment is this sentiment, and unrivaled trust ensures Aviva are consistently presented opportunities to underwrite broker business as they know we will deliver. I've spoken at length about growth. However, our expense management over the same period is equally impressive. We've played a key part in the overall group expense reduction program and believe commercial lines is more efficient than our local market competition. The top graph on this slide demonstrates the benefits of increasing scale in 2020, as our newly recruited underwriters have generated improved gross written premium per FTE. This growth has been supported by an increase in digitization and automation across the business to simplify and streamline processes where we can. This enables underwriters to focus on complex risks and reduces manual tasks.
Our digital business is already a market-leading and low-cost operation and will naturally improve expense efficiency as we continue to grow and scale this channel. We've also reduced FTE through the consolidation of our regional underwriting centers, focusing on where we can generate the most business while maintaining broker sentiment. Expense management will remain a key focus for our business, driving structural efficiency and low-cost growth, and our near-term ambition is to deliver a sub-12% net expense ratio, which we believe is market-leading. Clearly, one of the main roles of an insurance company is to be there for our customers when they need us most, either at the point of claim or preferably helping to mitigate risk in the first place. Our commercial lines claims team supported claims costs of GBP 1.3 billion in 2020 during what was a difficult period for everyone.
This team provides highly skilled in-house capability and focuses on delivering superior indemnity management and great customer outcomes. We use data and technology to directly manage claims costs, which in turn supports our continuing fight against fraud. For example, we recently implemented a new screening fraud tool to assist in the validation and quantification of claims. For bodily injury claims, we use automation technology to scan medical reports and remove human error in the valuation process. During COVID, we were able to flex our claims capacity to respond to increasing instances of peak demand. For example, in the face of major storms, when we received almost a year's worth of claims in a single month, we were able to maintain the claim service we're proud of, supporting our brokers and customers in their time of need.
Turning to risk management and prevention, we have an award-winning risk management solutions team of 120 consultants providing technical support and guidance across all business lines. Our offering ranges from digital self-serve functionality for smaller businesses through to customized client support for more complex risks. This has enabled the team to handle around 40,000 engagements and review over GBP 1 trillion worth of assets in 2021 alone. This capability not only helps our clients better manage and understand their risks, a service which they genuinely value, but also generates primary insight for Aviva to enhance and improve underwriting risk selection. Central to the performance of our commercial lines business is a comprehensive suite of controls and processes to ensure that growth is controlled and profitable. We have a clearly defined underwriting strategy by segment, product, and geography, and we monitor our portfolio against this appetite.
Underwriting strategies are overlaid with a robust governance and oversight process, which has multiple levels of challenge and review. We also continually review the performance of the portfolio to ensure any emerging claims trends are captured within our pricing models. One example of active performance management is through our tiering strategy, whereby we've differentiated rate increase and retention targets depending upon the current pricing, performance, industry segment, and risk factors of our renewing book. While we've invested heavily in bringing in underwriting capability across the business, we've also invested in developing our exposure management systems and have dedicated wordings, pricing, and business intelligence teams in place. Our focus, as I said earlier, is primarily on our gross underwriting, but we also use our scale to buy cost-effective reinsurance cover and manage net exposures. This reinsurance provides adequate protection as we look to further scale our commercial lines business.
As part of the UK GI business, we have a collective GBP 150 million net retention for a UK cat weather event, which brings significant capital benefits. Additionally, our exposure to an overseas cat event is capped at GBP 25 million. In both instances, we buy sufficient reinsurance to adequately cover a 1-in-250-year risk event. So before I leave you with some key takeaways, I'd like to recap our target to deliver profitable growth and further transform the performance of our UK commercial business. As you've seen, the underlying results of the business have been strong over the last few years, and we expect 2022 to continue that trend. We'll leverage the hard market over the short- to medium-term whilst continuing to invest in our digital underwriting and distribution capabilities for longer-term profitable growth.
We're targeting over GBP 200 million of IFRS operating profit at a sub-94% COR by 2024, and I'd like to reiterate that this is a strong proxy for cash generation from the GI business. Our ambition is to establish Aviva as the clear UK market leader across all commercial line segments we participate in. So in summary, our UK GI business is a key contributor to the group, consistently providing cash, operating profit, and gross written premium growth, while also supporting mutual synergies. Within that, our commercial lines business is the UK leader with strong underwriting capability and a track record of delivering profitable growth.
I outlined why we believe this is an attractive market with clear opportunities, and we have robust plans to capitalize on these, including continuing to scale our efficient digital business, delivering against the strong reputation we hold in the regions to boost mid-market growth, and organically growing the corporate segment through our underwriting-led trading model. This is all underpinned by unrivaled strength in domestic distribution and the fantastic relationships we have with our brokers. So thank you for listening, and I think it's a good time to open up for Q&A. So back to you, please, Amanda.
Thanks, Adam. So now we're going to move on to Q&A. This is the technical bit, and I'll explain quickly how we're going to work this. So if you want to ask a question, then please can you click on the raise hand in Zoom.
When we call your name out, we'll unmute your line, and you can go ahead and ask your question. Once you've asked your question, or if you wish to withdraw your question, then please, can you lower your hand in Zoom. And the last thing I want to say before we open up is obviously today's event is about our UK commercial business, so if you can try and focus your questions on this business as much as possible, please, and we'll try and get through as many questions in the time that we have. So with that, our first question, I think, comes from Farooq. So Farooq, we'll open the line for you. Can we have your question, please?
Sorry, I just unmuted. Apologies for that. Thanks very much and good morning.
In terms of your top-line growth ambition, could you explain your underlying pricing assumptions and what you see, particularly in property in terms of pricing trends in the next kind of year and what you're seeing on the ground? Thank you.
Perfect. Thanks, Farooq. Nick, perhaps that's something for you.
Sure. So I think regarding top-line growth, as you've seen, it's a good mix right the way across the portfolio in terms of the growth that we've achieved to date, and that will continue going forward. In terms of sort of pricing out, I'm not going to give specific details around rate plans, but I think it's fair to say we're in a hard market environment for most lines of business.
We expect 2022 to see a softening of the rate environment, but still, it'll still be a very, very attractive rate environment for acquiring new business and also for renewing our existing portfolio. To come on to your specific point around property, I think it's fair to say that the wider property market, particularly the international property market, has been challenged in 2022 due to a number of nat-cat events. And I think that will continue to provide solid rate pressure regarding some of the loss activity that we've seen in that segment.
Thanks, Nick. And thanks, Farooq. Maybe the next question will come from Barrie Cornes, please. Barrie, we'll just unmute your line.
Thank you. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Terrific. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got three.
First of all, over the years, Aviva's blown hot and cold over large UK and multinational corporates, particularly in the London market. So the question really is, what makes you think you've got it right this time? Secondly, on slide 15, you show the mix between short, medium, and long-tail risks. And if I'm trying to get a feel for the size of the liability book within UK commercial, could you give me a percentage split perhaps on that? And the last question is, in terms of the broker consolidation that you've mentioned, is this putting downward pressure on the rating environment, either the rates or terms and conditions? And on the flip side, is it increasing pressure on your terms of business? Thank you.
Thanks, Barry. Adam, maybe you can take question three first, and Nick, then come to you to do questions one and two.
Thank you for the question, Barrie. We do think broker consolidation will remain a trend, certainly for the foreseeable future. As you've heard me say during the presentation, actually, I think Aviva are very well placed with regard to our broker sentiment and the way we work with our brokers. Is that leading to a downward pressure on rate? No, I don't think we see that. I think, as Nick's just said, we see a very positive rating environment, and we have an underwriting-led trading model. So no, I don't think broker consolidation is, at the moment, presenting us any challenges to our business.
And on the terms of business, Adam?
And on the wider terms of business, I think, look, we have a very commercial relationship with all of our brokers. We trade effectively with them.
The terms of business do differ by the size, scale, and shape of brokers, but I'm pleased with the position we're in.
Thank you. Nick?
Sure. I think, so the large UK corporate market and its attractiveness and why we think we can do it well. I think in 2016, we really started to invest, particularly in our GCS business. It has been underwriter-led. It has been very cautious in terms of appetite expansions. As Adam's alluded to, we have a continuous re-underwriting approach all the way across the portfolio, but particularly within GCS. We've seen a number of portfolio rationalizations in terms of exiting business that we don't feel is sustainable. We have a very cautious approach when it comes to our approach to weather perils.
And also, for example, in the lines of business that we choose to write with regards to North American exposures, we don't write any long-tail U.S. casualty risk. So it's very controlled, it's very cautious, and it's led by, I think, market-leading expertise in terms of the talent that we've recruited into this business, with a very, very, very tight framework, as we've alluded to, of checks and balances and control to make sure we're executing those very clearly defined, documented strategies. And also, we've built significant broker relationships and improved the breadth of those relationships in the marketplace as well. And I think it's been mutually beneficial. We've come in at a time when capacity in certain areas has been strained, so we've been able to grow profitably in our chosen segments.
I think the final question around short, medium, and long-tail risks and the casualty proportion. I think you can see on slide 15, we're saying it's about 20%. And in that 20% of long-tail, you've got EL, you've got professional indemnity, a bit of FI, latent defects, and legal indemnities. I'm not going to give a further split than that, just to say I think it's a very, very well-balanced portfolio between short and long-tail risks. And you'd expect us within that long-tail to have an element of EL and respect to disease, but again, we've got no major concerns over that split.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thanks, Barry. Larissa, if you can unmute, or we'll unmute you, your question next, please. Thank you very much and good morning.
Morning.
I have three as well, please. The first one on SME commercial lines.
What is your outlook for premiums and pricing strength in line of inflation, growing CPI? The second one, still sticking to the small and medium segment, are you expecting any regulatory influence in the same manner that we saw in personal lines? And then the last one on your expense ratio. You did say that you want it to be 12%, currently 13%, and that you expect digital scale benefits to be core to reaching that target. What else needs to be done to reach that, and would that require a capital commitment?
Thanks, Larissa. So maybe, Nick, if you could pick up questions one and Adam, if you can pick up two and three. Thank you.
Sure. So the outlook for sort of premiums and rate with regards to inflation, so our expectation in 2022 is that we will continue to see positive rate, certainly in the UK mid-market and in the global corporate segment, that will comfortably exceed the inflation predictions that we've got built into plan. So I think that rating environment is sustainable.
And on the second question on regulation, look, I think with things like consumer duty coming down the track, I think we do see an increase in regulatory pressures. But actually, I think they are more probably heavily focused on the intermediary side of this business. Bear in mind, the bulk of this business is intermediated. And consequently, when it comes to sort of customer outcomes, the role of the broker there is clearly the primary factor from a regulatory perspective.
On your third question on the expense ratio and sort of scale benefits to the digital, look, when you say a capital commitment, are we continuing to invest in digitizing, simplifying, and automating our business? Yes is the answer to that. We don't disclose a precise number, but we are making investments, partially because, look, we see the whole market wanting to digitize in the smaller end in the way we've described. And so clearly, that's a very cost-efficient business for us to play in. And then in terms of developing new digital next-generation solutions for the wider insurtech and fintech ecosystem, we are making investments in our digital next-generation platform. All of those, as we continue to scale the size of the business, will generate enhanced expense efficiencies.
Thanks, Adam. Thanks for those questions, Larissa. Maybe next week can move on to Greig Paterson, please.
Greg, we'll just unmute you.
Can you hear me?
We can. We can.
Happy New Year, everybody.
Happy New Year to you too.
And may all your dreams come true in 2022. And in that regard, let me ask two questions. One is, I'm trying to understand what you think the drivers are for continued rate hardening in 2022. What are the key industry and what you think the rate situation will be in 2023? And second of all, it's a more sort of high-level question. You are facing in SME sort of segments, a whole bunch of fintech digital players. And in the sort of more higher commercial lines, all the commentary that you are making, if I listen to one of your competitors about how they would improve, they're making the same noises.
So I'm trying to understand what the sort of magic gold dust is that you guys have. What is unique about Aviva that allows you to, a, take advantage of the rate, but also gain share? So what is the key three key differentiating factors that others aren't doing in commercial lines?
Thanks, Greg. So maybe, Nick, if you could pick up what's driving the continuing rate hardening for 2022 and then your 2023, and then Adam, you can pick up the SME question and.
Yeah. So I think there are a number of factors that will feed into this. So we've already touched on more broadly claims inflation, particularly in kind of the U.K. SME environment. I think there's also still some performance concerns. We touched on that earlier on when I commented on property, particularly international property.
But I mean, you think about UK flood events that we had in July this year as well. So there's a couple of factors there. What's going to maintain a positive rate outlook? I think there is still a lot of discipline in terms of the deployment of capacity. There is no shortage of capacity outside of very select areas such as cyber and perhaps some large towers on some D&O or potentially PI risks. So I think the market is maintaining that discipline. There are pockets of underperformance, some of it driven by cat perils. You've got general trends around inflation. So I think there's a good mix of reasons that different segments of the market are going to maintain a positive outlook into 2022.
When you get into 2023, I think we're assuming that that will soften back to sort of longer-term inflationary levels, but there will still be certain segments that will be challenged. If you take cyber at the moment, we know that large corporate is experiencing rate increases of over 100%. And you see that coming through, and it skews some of the overall figures that we showed you before in the Marsh Index, which is again skewed towards the large corporate and would have a chunk of cyber and big D&O policies in there.
Okay. Thanks, Nick. Adam?
Thanks for the question, Greg. On the SME front, I appreciate the point you're making. I think there are a few advantages Aviva has. And I think the first is a macro one. I think our brand is better known, and people are more aware of it.
I think you see that in some of the presentations Amanda gives in terms of brand awareness and sentiment more generally. I point to our broker relationships that I previously talked about as being a differentiator. And then I point to our data science capability, the Quantum team, the fact that we have a number of effectively proprietary data sources across that diversified model I've talked about that I think does give us an opportunity to underwrite SMEs potentially more effectively than some of our competitors. And the fact that we have both the personal lines and the commercial lines business means that a lot of the digitization trends we see are actually a pickup of a trend that's been in personal lines for probably a decade, if not longer.
So I think it's that combination of factors that actually does allow us to potentially compete more effectively in this space than others might be able to.
Thanks, Adam. And thanks for the questions there, Greg. Next up, Oliver Steele, please. Oliver, if we can just unmute your line.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking the time.
Good morning.
So two questions. The first is just coming back to Larissa's question about the investment you're making into this particular business. Is that included within your expense ratio target, or should we see any element of that as exceptional expenses? And actually linked to that, can you confirm that the progression from whatever it was, 13% to sub-12% expense ratio is a sort of straight line rather than any sort of particular lump of investment in the near term? And then the second question is on cyber.
What's your attitude to cyber as you expand into the London market? And do you have a sense of, well, can you give us a net exposure figure for any cyber losses as well?
Okay. Thanks, Oliver. Nick, maybe you could start with cyber, and then Adam, you can pick up the investment question.
Sure. Yeah. We have a very cautious approach to cyber. Our proposition is really focused on supporting our SME customers in this space. So the limits that we have are relatively modest. It's a segment that we think we can appropriately underwrite and understand the risk. And also, we can provide services that wrap around those customers in terms of advice, protection, and support. We have kind of pushed our appetite up into sort of the mid-market space, again, very, very cautiously. We have significant reinsurance in terms of our net position with regards to cyber.
I don't anticipate us moving aggressively into the large corporate space anytime soon, although, of course, the rating environment is increasingly attractive in that space. But for us, this is a very, very cautious approach driven by relatively modest limits and an area of the market that we understand, supported by very significant reinsurance. So our net exposure is, I'll say, modest.
Thanks, Nick. Adam, on the investments?
So I think the easy answer to your questions is yes and yes. Yes in that all the investments we're making are in the numbers I have shared with you. And yes, it is a linear progression rather than lumpy. There are no exceptionals, and everything is in our plans.
Thank you.
Thanks, Oliver. Okay. We're going to go to Autonomous now. We don't actually have a name. It says London Huddle Autonomous.
Andrew, I'm assuming that it's going to be you, but perhaps you can just let us know that.
Yes, it is me. It's Andrew Crean. And thank you for doing these series of presentations. I really appreciate them. They're very useful. I have a number of areas I wanted to just ask about. The first one is, what is your actual market share in UK commercial? Is it a fragmented market where you could benefit from inorganic as well as organic growth? The second question I wanted to ask was to unpick a little bit this GBP 200 million profit target for 2024 because GBP 3.2 billion of premium in 2024 with less than a 94% combined actually means you get an underwriting profit of GBP 200 million. So where's the investment income in that target? And related to that, you're already at a 93.6% combined in the first half of 2021.
So if you're improving the expense ratio, are we actually talking about you deteriorating the claims ratio from this point out to 2024? Is that what you're thinking? Thirdly, just within that, I think UK has gone to reserve strengthening, which is always something of a concerning sign. And I was just wondering whether you could talk a little bit about that and reassure us as to why we're not about to see a large pickup in reserve strengthening, which happened in Canada a few years ago. And finally, a detailed question. I know that Michael Gove is trying to inveigle the building industry, and I think talking about inveigling the insurance industry into paying for the replacement of cladding. Is that an issue you've had discussions with the government about? And is it something which the insurance industry may need to pick up some of the bill for?
Okay. Thanks, Andrew. I think I got 5 questions there, but I'll just make sure that we go through them all. So maybe we can pick up first off the market share point, Adam, on UK commercial, and then we'll just go through them one at a time.
Thanks, Andrew. It's actually quite difficult to get to specific data here because everyone thinks about the market slightly differently. For example, how people describe the mid-market versus the corporate market does vary by firm. Based on our data and analysis, it would show we've got a sort of low single-digit share of each of those separate parts of the market, and we're looking to grow that share progressively over time in the way I've described.
Okay. Thank you. Did you say low single digit there? Yeah. Thank you.
Sorry, low double digit. Sorry.
I was going to say you did say single digit.
I apologize. I'm glad you corrected me, but I'm glad you caught me up on that.
So yes, a low double-digit share. Apologies for that. Let's get that right. There is a bit of a difference. There is a big difference. You're right, between the two. So yes, a low double-digit share that will rise in single-digit percentage terms over time. So we are looking to grow, as I said, both the small and micro mid-market and UK corporate GCS side of the market. And Adam, did you also want to pick up the investment income point on the GBP 200 million profit by 2024? Yes. I mean, look, we are an underwriting-led business. That's where we expect most of our profit to come from as opposed to sort of long-term investment income.
We are obviously looking at how we optimize our LTIR at the same time, but I'm very happy to guide you towards that the vast majority of our profits will come from our underwriting.
Thanks, Adam. And Nick, maybe you could pick up the deterioration on the claims rate, or if there is a deterioration on claims ratio and the reserve strengthening.
Yes. I think the indication we gave at half year of 93.6, I mean, obviously in H2, we would have seen some impacts from weather events. But I think that the outlook for sub-94, I think, is consistent with our underwriting appetite and strategy that we've set out. It isn't just driven by expense. Clearly, there is an element of expense improvement, 1.5 points as we've alluded to. We are also targeting, obviously, an improvement in claims ratio.
So how much we can pull out of the rate environment and the improvement in claims ratio, claims indemnity, etc., potentially might deliver some further improvement on that target that you've talked about.
Okay. Thank you. And I'm going to pick up the last few points on cladding and reserve strengthening.
Yeah. So on reserves, you're right, Andrew. We did see some very, very small strengthening at the beginning of the first half of last year. We know exactly what that was. That was COVID-related. I would guide you towards the fact that there's nothing in the second half that I would want to flag, and there are no systemic issues that I would want to flag. So from my perspective and our perspective, our reserves are entirely adequate as things stand.
On the cladding issue, actually, I think the insurance industry wasn't drawn into effectively the remediation debate, if you will, in the same way that the buildings industry was. And so while I absolutely believe the insurance industry has a role to play in the way I described earlier, then no, from a remediation perspective, we aren't in scope.
Could I just follow up on one side part? If you're already at 94, you've got 1, 1.5 points of expense savings, and you further believe that you're going to get further benefits on the claim side, why are you only shooting for 94?
Maybe I can pick that up. So we're not going to set targets at today's session, Andrew. And obviously, we are well, we've sort of said we would like to be below 94.
I think Nick pointed out the fact that the market, that we will not get as much rate through the market as we go on. The market is competitive. We've got inflation that needs to be built in as well. I think we're just trying to manage everybody's expectations that we believe that a below 94 combined operating ratio would be a good that would be a good outcome. We'd also like to see some growth in some of the areas. So I think we're just sort of trying to manage expectations.
Okay.
Okay. Thanks. Next, maybe Steven Haywood, please.
Hi. Good morning. Morning. Yeah. I've got three questions as well. It's a quite impressive target to more than triple your average underwriting result from around the GBP 50 million level that you've achieved for the last few years.
Can you describe what's different this time, or what was the problem in the past as to why you couldn't achieve those levels? Secondly, your 2021 premiums were up about 15%. What amount of this was from rate changes, and what amount of this was from a number of policy increases? And then thirdly, obviously, the average UK commercial rate increases were higher in 2021. You've got a chart showing that it was well over 20%. Does this mean that you are losing market share because the average rate increases are higher than yours, or is there some nuance that's going on underlying this? Thank you.
Okay. Thanks, Steven. Nick, could you pick up the last two points there around the difference between rate and new business and the average rate increases? Then, Adam, I'll come to you for the first point.
Yes. I think the rate increase is shown in the slide deck, particularly the 27%, as I've said. That's actually a Marsh index. That's not our data. So we are clearly below that at a portfolio level from 2021, running at about 10% across the business and about 14% within GCS. We're very nicely aligned to the data points on there when it comes to the property and casualty rate strength that you've seen in the market. So I think we are performing and tracking in line with what we've seen in the wider market in terms of our rate gain.
And for 2021, this between rate and new business?
Yeah. Sure. It's about 55% rate, 45% volume in terms of 2021.
I think as we move into 2022, we expect to see that switch, and we expect to see greater new business volumes, obviously, as the rate environment starts to soften from its current levels.
Okay. Thank you. Adam?
Look, in terms of our underwriting results and sort of history versus where we are, I think focusing on where we're going to deliver our projected growth. You heard me talk about the underwriting talent, particularly within GCS and mid-market. And I think leveraging that underwriting talent to grow our book and then see the rating environment earn through, those will be two areas where we'd expect to see a positive return in our underwriting results. The expense-based efficiency I've talked about, particularly with an eye on digitization, is another area that will obviously benefit our underwriting results as well.
And using things like our commercial intelligence tool to identify underinsurance, drive better customer outcomes, and potentially cross-sell some of the sort of specialty lines, GCS classes into the mid-net worth book. I think a combination of all of those things is where we will see profitable growth coming from. And all of those things have required investment. And I think probably historically, it's in the recent past we have invested and seen the benefits of that investment come through in our commercial lines business.
Thanks, Adam. Thank you, John. Oh, sorry. Thank you, Stephen. Now we're on to Dom. Heads up there, Dom. We're going to just take you off mute, please. Any questions from you?
Hello, folks. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Hello. Thank you so much for this presentation. Really, really helpful in getting under the skin of the business.
I've got lots of questions, but let me stick to 3. The first is, one of the interesting things that you highlight is the strength of your relationship with your brokers. From the outside, one might look at a brokerage channel and think, "Well, the reason customers use brokers is to get a good price and good terms from whichever insurer offers."
We've lost you.
Offers the best terms. And sorry, I had a call that's cut me out. It'd be helpful if you could give us some examples of how you translate that strong relationship with brokers into commercial benefits for yourselves. What are the points in that relationship which actually create new business or create profit? The second question is on the target. So 7% growth in gross premium, which is very ambitious. And I was just curious whether you have the same target for net premium.
Clearly, reinsurance pricing is going up, but net is what drives the profit and the capital generation and so on. And then a third question, I guess related to that. Adam, you said that the operating profit is a good guide to cash generation. Now, I would have guessed that actually the high level of growth would consume quite a lot of the capital, and so that in turn would have some impact on your ability to remit. So let's say you're growing the risk in the business by 7% a year. If your ROE is 14%, that'll be consuming about half of the just funding the growth would consume about half of the profit. So are there other factors to think about when thinking about the remittance capacity that means that actually your sort of payout ratio, as it were, is more like 100%? Thank you.
Okay. Thanks, Dom.
So maybe, Adam, I think if you can start with the strength of the broker relationships. And then, Nick, if you can pick up the GWP growth and then back to Adam.
Thanks for the question, Dom. It's not an easy one to specifically answer because I think it does vary a little bit by the size and scale of the broker and the part of the market. So an example to try and bring to life the question you've asked would be things like sharing risk appetite with the brokers.
So as we've moved into different parts of the market, particularly sort of the specialty lines, we may have worked with a certain broker for a number of years, but actually, because we know them so well, then spending time with them to understand and explain our risk appetite, make sure they know our underwriters, and understand what risks they should be showing to us, I think is one element of sort of efficiency in the relationship. In the mid-market SME businesses, the vast majority of that is regionally traded business. And I think one of the huge advantages we have there is our regional underwriting center spread, as you will have seen on the slides, across really the whole of the U.K. footprint. And it's those local regional relationships with the broker and more often than not with the client that actually creates then the opportunity to succeed.
GWP versus NWP. So NWP will track in line with GWP. I mean, we're a gross line underwriter. We take, we look at the gross exposures. Obviously, we have a reinsurance and a fronting component within that. So it will track in line, but be slightly below.
And then, Adam, on the cash generation.
Yeah. Look, we aren't a very capital-intensive business in the way most general insurers aren't. And I think the benefits of the diversification that we've talked about in the presentation do help us in that respect. I think it might be easier to discuss this more during our full-year results, our upcoming full-year results, where there's probably more detail we can share at that point with you.
Thank you. I would just add one other thing to the point around why we do so well.
I mean, as having been a competitor of Aviva for so many years and sort of looked in envy at the strength of the relationships, things like the team do a brilliant job with the Future Leader Program where they take a succession in brokers' offices around the UK, and they train these ladies and gentlemen for their new CEO roles or new leading roles in the brokers' offices. I think the loyalty that that brings is absolutely huge. And you can't put a pound note on it, or you can't put a percentage of business written on it. But I do think that it does mean that there's a huge loyalty and a real appreciation of supporting those regional brokers as they go through the growth. So I just thought I would add that because I think it's a very soft point, but it's a really important point.
That's really helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Will Hardcastle, please, if you can just unmute.
Yes. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess firstly, on inflation, can you help us to understand how you're managing the inflation risk beyond just pricing, perhaps on claims management, procurement, and what reinsurance protection you have in place to mitigate the risk on longer tail lines specifically? Secondly, you've given some color there on cyber earlier. One data point that might be helpful is, what would a clash reinsurance cover limit the exposure to, to any one event, perhaps? And finally, you've broken down the tail risk between short, medium, and long. I guess, is it fair if we put some numbers to that, thinking about average tail for our investment assumptions? It would be somewhere between maybe four to five years? Is that a fair assumption? Thank you.
Okay. Thanks very much.
Adam, will you pick up the claims inflation point, and then Nick, you can pick up the cyber and the tail risk, please?
Thanks for the question, Will. Look, we're watching claims inflation very carefully. It's an industry issue rather than an Aviva-specific issue. We're looking at it. We're using the data and the data science practice I've talked about to understand it first. We're obviously moving it across into our pricing models. And I do think we have some additional levers, like the fact we own a motor repair network in the form of Solus, that allows us effectively to mitigate, if you will, some of the inflationary headwinds you've been asking about.
Nick?
Yes. In terms of cyber and potential clash events, so clearly we've got an element of what's called silent cyber, which can sit within some core policies within the new portfolio, which actually we've been underwriting out actively for the last couple of years. And as I said, we've also got very specific reinsurance on our affirmative cyber products. But I think it's fair to say for an RDS, a realistic disaster scenario, our retention would be in line with the wider numbers we've given for cat events. The man-made cat would be the same as natural perils.
Okay. Thank you. On the tail risk?
So this was just a question again, I think, about reinsurance.
And it was the average length of the tail risk.
Very, very difficult to give a detailed answer on that. It's going to depend by individual line of business, I'm afraid.
So I don't think it's something we can give a proper answer to here now.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks for the question there, Will. Next up, Ashik.
Yeah. Hi. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Yeah. Thank you. And good morning, everyone. Just one question I have is around the GCS market. So I mean, GCS is a space where a lot of other large companies have gone things wrong, largely because people have written specialty and liability lines. So can you give a bit more color on what your plan is around GCS? Is it mainly, and I'm talking about international GCS rather than just UK domestic GCS, are you planning to do specialty liability, or is your focus mainly on the cat side? What sort of combined ratio are you expecting?
Because, going back to Andrew's question, if you're trying to flag a flattish combined ratio between now and three years out, is it largely driven by your targeted growth in the GCS space? Because GCS most likely should be a higher combined ratio business, or is it like your growth is mainly diversified? So just trying to get a bit more sense around the GCS line.
Can we do a Nick will be able to give you the types of business that we write and what the focus areas are and what the sort of expected core, Nick?
Yeah. So you're right. Look, the core has been slightly higher than the SME business. In terms of our appetite in GCS, again, it's a very balanced across a number of lines of business and segments. I said we've got very, very detailed underwriting strategies. There are some areas we don't claim.
We've said we've exited the fossil fuel market. When it comes to North America, we really only write first-party risks. So that's sort of property, construction, marine cargo, renewables. We don't do any long-tail third-party US classes. We have a very limited appetite to geographic risks in Latin America, for example. So I think it's a very tightly controlled, conservative approach. There are certain areas in the wider market we've chosen not to enter, areas like aviation, marine hull, trade credit, and political risk. We've been really clear and controlled in terms of where we want to play. And also, we've chosen to rationalize that portfolio as we've been growing, putting significant exits in certain areas where we've seen underperformance, both from a pricing or a loss perspective. So you're going to see a conservative approach to growth in areas that we understand and in geographies that we understand.
Just one follow-up on that. Would you say that the average reinsurance program in GCS would be a lot higher compared to your SME book, or would you say there's not much difference?
There's not a huge. We tend to core products, motor, property, casualty. We buy. We benefit from the purchases across GI as a whole. For our sort of specialty lines, so construction, marine cargo, renewables, we have, again, a pretty modest net retention position, which we would expect to continue. And the same for our financial professional lines area, which we've obviously been growing very rapidly, but again, with pretty conservative nets. So in terms of are we aligned with the wider market, I would say we're in the mix. We're absolutely in the mix in terms of what our competitors would be retaining and what their reinsurance structures would look like. We're not the most aggressive.
We're not the most cautious.
Thank you. Thanks, Ashik. Next up is Blair, please. Hi, Blair. Oh, I think you might still be on mute. There you go.
Yeah. Thank you. And good morning. Just a couple left for me. Just maybe coming back to the question that Andrew asked earlier, you're targeting 9% premium growth, which is quite impressive and a one-point improvement in the combined ratio. But I think the profits growth is only expected to be about 8%. So are you anticipating lower investment yields or any change to the reinsurance strategy that means the profits growth is lagging somewhat? And secondly, just on the 9% target, I was slightly nervous when a company has top-line growth targets in P&C, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Just on that 9%, how much of that's coming from the London market venture that you've just started?
Finally, just going back to the point that Ashik just made about the GCS market, there's a lot of big players out there, truly global P&C players have struggled in that market. So what do you think gives Aviva the right to win in that market? Thank you.
Okay. Thanks, Blair. I mean, Adam, would you pick up the first two questions, and then we'll come back to Nick on the GCS market?
Thanks, Blair. Look, no material changes in our reinsurance are being, as Nick's described. I think we believe our program is absolutely the right structure to enable us to grow in a controlled way and manage our net retentions. I think from an LTIR perspective, again, not going to front-run sort of 2021 numbers here, but certainly there are investment returns rather on our investment book.
We are obviously looking to continue to optimize, if you will, the risk and reward balance of our asset allocation strategy. I think in terms of the second question, which was the London market venture. The London market venture versus mid-market. I'd actually guide you towards, and we're not providing a split between where our growth is coming from, but there is more mid-market SME growth in the plan than there is London market growth in the plan. So if that's helpful to sort of calibrate, if you will, your own analysis, that's what I'd guide you towards. And I think that probably helpfully segues into the GCS question and our right to win.
Yes. I mean, it's driven very much by the appetite that we've defined. So we are not trying to do everything for everybody.
And I think some of the global players have come unstuck trying to do that. For example, when we're writing and targeting multinational, we have a non-owned network to be able to service those. But we're very, very clear in terms of what our appetite is. It's going for not the major, major globals that want very bespoke service globally. It's the next tier down where we can have much more of a standardized approach and model. And actually, it's a segment, in my experience, which is being far more profitable than the true major globals. And then when it comes to appetite, it's about discipline and being really clear what you're prepared to write and where you're prepared to write it. And I think, as I said, we have documented strategies for every line of business, also driven by geography.
We review that in terms of how we're growing and where we're growing. It is very tightly controlled, linked to the reality that this is not just a top-line game. This is all about delivering underwriting profit. That's how we're all incentivized. That will underpin our growth agenda, which includes, as I said, significant exits where we see profitability challenges or underperformance across the GCS portfolio. So our approach, think of us as a multi-niche player rather than doing everything for every one player.
Thank you.
Is it possible to just come back on the first question? Could you square the circle between the 9% top-line improving margins and only 8% bottom line? Does that just mean there's fat in your bottom-line targets or slack, sorry?
So as Amanda said, we're not providing an updated COR view during the course of this presentation.
We're guiding you towards a sub-94% COR. Again, I think that's that question we'd be happy to revisit in the full year numbers.
Blair, I think there probably will be more information in the full year on that. So I mean, obviously, today was more of just an update on the business itself. And we'll talk more about targets and how that all fits together. And yeah, you don't have that long to wait. So only 5 or 6 weeks.
Yeah. Sorry. I'm just looking at targets that you have given today on slide 26. Your COR is going from 95 to below 94. You've got a 9% top-line target and an 8% bottom-line target. I think I'm missing something, but happy to come back to it in a few weeks.
Yeah. Okay. We'll also invite potentially come back with some more information.
And the team will come back with you to explain that. I'm looking at Rupert. He'll give you a call.
Thanks, Amelia. Okay. And then the final question today is from Alan Devlin, please.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question and the presentation. Just a couple of questions for me. First of all, you've talked about being aggressively re-underwriting your willing to re-underwrite your book and access certain lines of business. Is there anything material that you're currently thinking about for 2022 that we should bear in mind? And then secondly, I'm not sure you answered Andrew Green's question on the potential for inorganic growth in this business. Is this an area you could see you invest potentially to drive inorganic growth as well as the organic growth? And then finally, just what is the obviously, you write more GCS business. It's a more kind of volatile business.
What is the appetite at the group level, particularly as you're now a smaller business overall, to kind of increase those more volatile lines? And I know you do write a lot of reinsurance as well to protect yourself, but what's the kind of group appetite to grow that business and increase the potential volatility of that business? Thanks.
Okay. Thanks, Alan. So Nick, if you pick up the first question, I'll then pick up the second question, and I'll pick up the last question.
Yeah. So the re-underwriting approach to our portfolio, what's kind of coming in 2022? So break it down into two aspects. We've got the tiering, which effectively is driving incremental improvement in our existing renewable portfolio. And then we've got, are there any specific exits?
I don't want to get drawn into too much detail, but I would say that there are certain areas in the wider market where there is still ongoing underperformance linked despite significant rates. We are looking at our PI, professional indemnity portfolio. There will be an element of rebalancing within that portfolio, relatively modest in the context of the size of that portfolio. I wouldn't say there were no other specific areas where you're going to see wholesale exits or changes. This is more around tweaking than it is any fundamental change.
Then your second question, Alan, about inorganic growth. I mean, all the plans we've shared today are based on organic growth. Does that mean that we wouldn't look at sort of bolt-on opportunities where we could acquire skills, capabilities, size scale, or share?
We would absolutely consider those in the proper way as and when they present themselves.
And then the final point around the group appetite. So I mean, I think first of all to say, Alan, that just to reiterate that what we're talking about here is selective areas of growth in areas where we know we have expertise and where we believe that there is an opportunity. The growth isn't all new business-driven. There's a combination of rate and new business, as Nick has outlined. And very, very importantly, it's the disciplined approach. And what I've been impressed with since I've been here is whenever I ask Nick, "What is your street price versus your required technical price?" He can always answer that question immediately by line of business and by individual risk even.
So we always know when we're pricing against what the technical price is and what the street price is. And we're always above 100% to make sure that we've got good scope in that. So I think that there's a real discipline. The trading teams, as Adam stressed, are separated from the underwriting teams. So we have that sort of, if you like, friction between the two. And so from a group perspective, we're comfortable with the areas that Nick and Adam have decided to move into. We're obviously protected by reinsurance. It is a disciplined approach. It is not an all-let's pile into everything type approach, which I think we've seen others do and fail at. And we definitely don't want to be part of that. And this isn't new. I think the move into GCS is not something that we are choosing to do in 2022.
It's something that we've been doing, I think, carefully over the last four or five years. I think we've seen a really disciplined approach to that. So I don't really see anything to get massively excited about. I mean, I know on these calls, there's always a lot of focus on that GCS space, but I don't think we should overlook the fact that we are a significant SME and mid-market player in the UK. And that's really where the bulk of our exposures are. And we've come through soft markets pretty well. And now the hard market is giving us some sort of rate benefit as we move forward. So the group is very happy with that. So on that, I think that is our last question. Thank you so much for all of that. There's certainly been a lot of questions there.
Hopefully, we've been able to answer the vast majority of them. If there are some areas of clarification, then clearly you can pick that up with the team, with Tegan, and with Rupert today. Thank you, Adam and Nick. I very much appreciate all the work that goes into putting that together. And we look very much forward to speaking to you on the full year results, which are on the 2nd of March. In the meantime, everybody else, keep safe and have a good day. Thank you.