Insurance Times Awards 2026: Deloitte on delivering ‘one of the largest integrations’ in UK insurance

1. Why did you put yourselves forward for the category?

Aviva’s £3.7bn acquisition of Direct Line was a landmark transaction, bringing together leading brands and capabilities to better serve more than 20 million UK customers.

As Aviva chief executive Amanda Blanc said at completion, it brought together “some of the country’s best-known and admired insurance brands and brilliant people”.

Deloitte supported Aviva from pre-deal assessment through regulatory approvals, day one and integration, combining M&A, insurance and transformation expertise.

We entered because Project River demonstrates partnership at its best. One integrated team delivering a disciplined, value-led integration and creating lasting value for customers, colleagues, shareholders and the wider UK insurance market.

2. What do you think makes your entry stand out and why should you win the award?

More than 120 Deloitte professionals worked alongside Aviva across 17 workstreams and c.80 projects, helping transfer around 8,000 colleagues while maintaining customer service and progressing one of the largest integrations in the UK insurance market.

By June 2026, Aviva had achieved approximately £100m of run-rate cost synergies and increased its ambition to £225m.

Blanc said Aviva had “quickly improved Direct Line’s profitability, grown price comparison website sales and maintained excellent levels of customer service”.

Deloitte’s expertise in scale M&A and integration, programme leadership and value creation, combined with knowledge transfer, helped create the delivery confidence behind these results leaving Aviva with lasting capability for the future.

3. What would winning this award mean to you and your firm?

Winning this award would be an incredible honour for Deloitte, Aviva and the teams who have worked tirelessly to turn a £3.7bn acquisition into a disciplined, value-led integration.

Our partnership demonstrates what can be achieved when organisations work as one team. Deloitte specialists worked alongside Aviva colleagues, embedding into teams, adapting to Aviva’s ways of working and helping solve challenges as they emerged, rather than simply advising from the sidelines.

That approach fostered genuine collaboration, shared accountability and a relentless focus on outcomes.

Recognition would celebrate the achievements to date, the lasting value created for customers, colleagues and shareholders and the collective success of delivering this transformational transaction.