Financial strength

Our financial strength

We’ve been helping people plan their financial futures since 1815, and we’re proud to be one of the strongest life and pensions companies in the UK.

We hold free capital of £4.3 billion.  Free capital is a measure of the assets we have available to us, minus the minimum amount of capital we have to hold to satisfy our regulators. It’s the amount of money we have to invest in new products and services or to help us weather financial storms.

Free capital ratio is another measure of our financial strength. Currently ours is 25%. It’s calculated by dividing our free capital by our admissible assets (the assets we can declare on our balance sheet). Generally speaking, the higher the free capital ratio, the stronger a company is. 

Independent financial strength ratings

Of course, you don’t need to take our word for it. Independent ratings companies assess the financial strength of life companies through in-depth detailed analysis.

They examine the financial security of institutions based on their credit ratings and assets. Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical, part of Scottish Widows Group, have been allocated the financial strength ratings for shown below.

Company	Moody's	Standard & Poor's	AKG
Scottish Widows plc	A1 Good	A  Strong	B+ Very Strong
Clerical Medical Investment Group Ltd	A1 Good	A Strong	B+ Very Strong

Source: Moody's, Standard & Poor's and AKG. All ratings correct at 30 November 2011.

 

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