Savings and retirement provider Phoenix Group saw assets under administration (AUA) fall 16% to £259bn last year from £310bn in 2021, after it made a pre-tax loss of £1.8bn.

It said AUA was lower “primarily due to c £46bn reduction in asset values.”

Like many platforms and investment providers, Phoenix's AUA was hit by a fall in markets during 2022.

Meanwhile it blamed the annual loss on “significant adverse investment variances due to the accounting volatility from our hedging approach and an accounting mismatch from our own pension schemes.”

However, the company said its adjusted operating profit climbed slightly to £1,245m, up from £1,230m in 2021.

As a result it raised its final dividend by 5% to 26p a share.

Andy Briggs Phoenix Group chief executive, said: “Phoenix has a simple strategy that is focused on the UK long-term savings and retirement market.

“We have continued to make excellent progress across all areas of that strategy in 2022, despite the challenging economic backdrop.”

He said the business had generated cash of £1.5bn and maintained its “resilient” balance sheet maintained.

“We have also grown our business both organically, with record new business growth of £1.2bn, and inorganically, with the cash funded acquisition of Sun Life of Canada UK.”

It bought Sun Life in August 2022.

Its Standard Life business saw £1,233m of incremental new business long-term cash generation up from £1,184m in n2021.

That comprised £934m from its Retirement Solutions business down slightly from 2021’s £950m, and £299m from its capital-light fee-based businesses, up from £234m the previous year.

Andy Curran, Standard Life CEO, said: “With the continued momentum in our Workplace pensions business delivering £2.4bn of net inflows and 76 new schemes won last year.

“The performance reflects the ongoing investment in both the business and proposition, we are now winning some of the largest workplace schemes coming to market.

“With £4.8bn of BPA premiums in 2022, we are helping companies looking to de-risk their defined benefit pensions and secure the benefits of thousands of members.”

He said the business’s ability to support both modern auto-enrolment schemes and de-risking of older style defined benefit pension as well as the wider retail savings market “means we are aligned to a number of huge growth markets.”