Edinburgh-based Aegon UK — which last year apologised for big problems in the migration of Cofunds clients to Aegon — said on Thursday “significant strides” had been made in addressing the situation and that “core operational services had returned to target levels.”

The news came as the Edinburgh firm’s Dutch parent Aegon NV reported an 8.1% drop in underlying pretax profit for the second half of 2018, missing estimates. 

The underlying pretax profit came in at 1.01 billion euros for the six-month period ended December 31. 

The Edinburgh business delivered earnings of £53 million in the second half of the year — making £110 million for the year as a whole.

Total assets under administration in the Edinburgh business reached £158.5 billion, with platform assets totalling £128 billion.

Aegon UK CEO Adrian Grace said: “In the second half of 2018 the business was focused on two projects in particular.

“Firstly we extended our relationship with Atos who currently service Aegon’s 500,000 protection customers.

“In November we announced a 15 year contract for Atos to service and administer our Existing Business (non-platform) customers.

“This will further improve customer service for around 1.4 million customers with a multitude of different policy types.

“Separately we placed a huge emphasis on restoring service levels associated with the Aegon Platform following the migration of former Cofunds users to it in May.

“Between July and December significant strides were made and resource mobilised to address service issues.

“By the end of the year core operational services had returned to target levels.

“The focus now for the Aegon Platform is on ensuring we provide the enhancements that advisers have requested and migrating the Nationwide book of business.

“We are clear on the functionality that needs to be prioritised for the coming months and beyond this have a continual programme of improvements planned for the service.”