Message from the Group CEO 2024

Dear Shareholders,

Suncorp demonstrated the underlying strength and resilience of its business during FY24 to deliver growth and a strong set of results, despite headwinds including higher claims costs due to persistent inflation, and the prolonged bank sale process. 

The Group’s net profit after tax of $1,197 million and cash earnings of $1,372 million reflects the continued quality of our business and growth of our portfolios. Net investment returns were again a key contributor to the topline earnings and profit, up significantly from $451 million to $661 million. The result also benefitted from the total cost of natural hazard events for the year of $1,235 million, $125 million below the Group’s allowance for the year. 

Gross Written Premium (GWP), which represents the amount of premiums collected, increased by 13.9% across the General Insurance business, reflecting both growth in the number of policies as well as targeted price increases in response to higher costs from reinsurance and natural hazards and claims inflation. Growth in our core Australian home and motor portfolios, up 10% and 16% respectively, was driven by continued improvements in the customer experience and our leading brands, with three out of four customers now purchasing our insurance products digitally.

The Bank achieved modest home lending growth of $2.2 billion while the Bank’s net interest margin (NIM) was 1.82%, down 14 basis points on the prior year, a reflection of the competitive pressures in the industry. I’m pleased the Bank has been handed over in good shape to ANZ, a result of our clear strategy to improve its overall performance and risk maturity over the past four years. Throughout the process, the Bank team maintained its focus, delivering strong direct and broker net promoter scores, improved turnaround times and consistently high employee engagement scores.

Over the course of FY24, I spent a lot of time visiting customers, employees and government and industry stakeholders across Australia and New Zealand. Most encouragingly, I saw our purpose of building futures and protecting what matters in full swing as I visited areas like Far North Queensland following ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper, Townsville and surrounds following ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily, and parts of South East Queensland impacted by the Christmas and Boxing Day storms. I saw our people rally behind our customers as they had the unfortunate experience of having their lives turned upside down in the aftermath of these events and others – we managed more than 100 000 extreme weather claims across Australia and New Zealand over the year. This is yet another reminder of the valuable role insurance plays in our communities and the positive impacts on our customers when we get it right in their hour of need.

I also spent time this year revisiting several communities impacted by previous extreme weather events, including those devastated by the 2022 major flooding across much of the east coast of Australia. These are communities where a small number of customers remain displaced from their homes and businesses long after the floodwaters have subsided. This is the subject of the ongoing Parliamentary Inquiry into Insurers’ responses to the major flooding events of 2022. While in most cases these are very complex claims, we know we can, and must, do better. We have already adopted many of the learnings of the Inquiry and I’ve seen this firsthand in the events of FY24. You can read more about our response to the Parliamentary Inquiry on page 21.

Delivering better outcomes for our customers and communities was at the heart of our decision to sell Suncorp Bank to become a dedicated Trans-Tasman insurer, proudly headquartered in Queensland. With the sale having completed on 31 July 2024, our full focus and investment of time, resources and capital is now able to be devoted to growing our insurance portfolios, further digitising and innovating across our business and addressing complex issues such as climate change, building greater resilience to extreme weather and improving insurance affordability and accessibility through action and advocacy. 

These are pressing issues to address, and we acknowledge it has been a challenging period for our customers amid ongoing cost of living challenges, including rising insurance premiums. Our ability to support our customers and the wider community before, during and after weather events will also be enhanced through our investment in a disaster response centre of excellence based out of our Brisbane headquarters. This and the establishment of a regional hub in Townsville, Queensland are core parts of our commitments as agreed with the Queensland government through the sale of the Bank.

Suncorp was proud to invest more than $10 million to support the social, financial and natural hazard resilience of our communities this year. We were also proud to celebrate 30 years as naming rights sponsor of the iconic Suncorp Stadium, one of the longest venue partnerships in Australia’s history and a reinforcement of our ongoing commitment to Queensland. 

This year Suncorp developed our third Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Our Innovate RAP 2024 - 2026 outlines our ongoing commitment to build connections, respect and opportunities and a prosperous, resilient society for all Australians. 

In addition, Suncorp developed its first public-facing Human Rights Statement this year, which outlines our approach to respecting human rights and mitigating the risk of harm to people connected to our business activities and relationships.

During the year, Suncorp evolved its operating model to create end to end leadership accountability for our insurance businesses and better respond to the emerging needs of our customers and the external environment. The operating model organises Suncorp around three core insurance businesses: Consumer Insurance, Commercial and Personal Injury and New Zealand, to better support our future as a Trans-Tasman insurer.

Employee engagement remained strong throughout the year, with a score of 8.4 out of 10, which continues to be within the top quartile of our peer group. You can read more about the work we’re doing to create an inclusive and supportive environment for our people where they can do their best work and deliver positive customer outcomes every day on pages 25 – 26

We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for Suncorp as a pureplay insurer. Our strategic plan, approved by the Board this year, will underpin our future as a dedicated insurance business and see us strive towards our ambition to become the leading Trans-Tasman insurer by FY27. The plan will see us continue to build on the strong fundamentals of our business and the momentum achieved over the past four years to grow our consumer, commercial, personal injury and New Zealand portfolios and digitise our business. 

Investment will be focused on modernising our platforms and deploying Artificial Intelligence in a measured way across the organisation, aimed at building greater efficiency and effectiveness in the way we do things, improving products and services for our customers and ultimately delivering a sustainable business and greater value for our shareholders.

Our focus on continuing to improve the customer experience will remain core to our success, while we will look to be a leading voice on advocating for measures that improve resilience to natural hazards to protect people, and address insurance affordability and the important issue of climate change. 

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Fiona Thompson, our Group Executive People, Culture and Advocacy, who will be departing Suncorp later this calendar year after more than 23 years of service. Fiona has made a significant contribution to Suncorp over this time, and I wish her well. Belinda Speirs who has held various leadership roles at Suncorp since 2013, including Group General Legal Counsel and most recently as our Group Executive Completion and Transition of the Bank sale, will commence in the newly created role of Chief Executive People, Legal and Corporate Services. 

I thank all of our teams for their ongoing dedication and support of our customers, communities and business, and also extend my appreciation to all of our shareholders for your continued confidence in our company.