Clerical Medical is a part of the Insurance division of Lloyds Banking Group.

Clerical Medical's 2008 full year results were reported on 27th February 2009 and are included within the Insurance and Investment division of the HBOS 2008 Final results.

HBOS Insurance and Investment 2008 Final results
Underlying profit before tax in Insurance & Investment increased to £739m (2007 £644m).

HBOS Investment Business - Financial Performance
Underlying profit before tax in the Investment Business decreased to £374m (2007 £412m), reflecting difficult trading conditions which reduced new business volumes, particularly investment bonds. Underlying non-interest income decreased to £1,194m (2007 £1,233m) whilst underlying operating expenses were flat at £702m (2007 £700m), reflecting the focus on improving cost efficiency.

New business margins, (see page 95 in full results), remain strong relative to competitors, although they decreased to 3.8% (2007 3.9%) of Present Value of New Business Premiums ('PVNBP', calculated as new single premiums plus the expected present value of new annual premiums). In common with the rest of the industry, this fall was driven by lower volumes and changes in sales mix, principally due to lower sales of single premium bonds.

Intermediary
The intermediary strategy was to focus on areas that offered profitable growth opportunities. Against the difficult trading environment, sales increased to £4,321m PVNBP (2007 £4,076m), with new business margins increasing to 1.4% (2007 1.3%). Sales of offshore bonds were strong, growing by 65%, in particular due to our cash offering, which has proved popular for investors in difficult market conditions, increasing the share of the offshore market to over 15%.

As part of the focus on improving margins, pension products were re-priced to improve returns.

Please click here to read the full results.

Markets
100% of Clerical Medical's business comes from financial advisers.

Clerical Medical is active in the offshore market and Clerical Medical International (CMI) based on the Isle of Man, is the largest cross-border company in Europe.

Key offices
Bristol, Edinburgh and regional offices in Aylesbury, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Manchester. For locations, please see how to find us.

Clerical Medical Europe and Heidelberger Leben
European Financial Services (EFS) is one of the foremost cross-border insurance and investment businesses in Europe. It comprises the Clerical Medical Europe and Heidelberger Leben (HLE) brands, both manufacturing long-term life assurance, pensions and investment products

German distribution for Clerical Medical and HLE is provided by HBOS EFS Vertrieb which works with brokers across the German market. Clerical Medical Europe also sells into Austria and Italy via offices in Vienna and Milan. The European business has 7 offices.

Clerical Medical International (IoM and Hong Kong) reports separately into the business.