Earnings outLots of uncertainty ahead, but the company indicated that it expects dividends to be maintained, but can offer no assurance that will remain the case.
>>>In the United Kingdom, the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) wrote to all insurance companies in March and April 2020 to remind them to manage their financial resources prudently to ensure they are able to meet their commitments to policyholders and maintain safety and soundness and to satisfy themselves that any dividends are prudent, consistent with their risk appetite and informed by a range of scenarios including very severe ones. In Ireland, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) has urged insurers to postpone dividends until they can forecast their costs and future revenues with a greater degree of certainty, noting this is consistent with recent guidance of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA). Therefore, the CBI’s position is that insurers and reinsurers authorized by it should not pay dividends at this time. As a holding company, the Company’s ability to pay dividends and, in part, its ability to deploy capital is dependent upon the Company receiving dividends from its operating subsidiaries. The Company’s operating subsidiaries are subject to regulation in a number of jurisdictions, each of which maintains its own regime for determining the amount of capital that must be held in connection with the different businesses carried on by the operating subsidiaries. The requirements imposed by the regulators in any jurisdiction may change from time to time, and thereby impact the ability of the operating subsidiaries to pay dividends to the Company. The declaration and payment of dividends by the Company in future periods remains in the discretion of its directors and will depend among other things on the Company’s financial position, which will in turn depend on the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the severity and duration of the financial impacts. Although there can be no assurance, to the extent that the pandemic abates and the actions taken by governments lead to a sustained global financial recovery within a reasonable time, the Company expects that its ability to pay dividends at current levels will not be adversely impacted.
https://www.greatwestlifeco.com/content/dam/gwlco/documents/reports/2020/q1/lifeco-q1-2020-quarterly-report-to-shareholders-en.pdf