G: Financial assets and liabilities

G1: Financial instruments – designation and fair values

The Group designates all financial assets as either fair value through profit and loss, available-for-sale, or as loans and receivables. Financial liabilities are designated as either fair value through profit and loss or amortised cost, or for investment contracts with discretionary participating features accounted for under IFRS 4 as described in note A4.

Analysed by:

Analysed by:

Notes

i As at 31 December 2007, £722 million (2006: £624 million) of convertible bonds were included in debt securities and £278 million (2006: £279 million) were included in borrowings.

ii Loans and receivables are reported net of allowance for loan losses of £13 million (2006:£14 million).

iii See note G3 for details of the derivative assets included. The balance also contains the PAC with-profits fund’s participation in various investment funds and limited liability property partnerships.

iv It is impractical to determine the fair value of investment contracts with discretionary participation features due to the lack of a reliable basis to measure such features.

v For financial liabilities designated as fair value through profit and loss there was no impact on profit from movements in credit risk during 2007 (2006: £nil).

Determination of fair value

The fair values of the financial assets and liabilities as shown on the table above have been determined on the following bases.

The fair values of the financial instruments for which fair valuation is required under IFRS and which are in an active market are determined by the use of current market bid prices for quoted investments, or by using quotations from independent third parties, such as brokers and pricing services. If the market for a financial investment of the Group is not active, the Group establishes fair value by using valuation techniques. The valuation techniques include the use of recent arm’s length transactions, reference to other instruments that are substantially the same, discounted cash flow analysis, option adjusted spread models and if applicable enterprise valuation and may include a number of assumptions relating to variables such as credit risk and interest rates. Changes in assumptions relating to these variables could positively or negatively impact the reported fair value of these instruments.

The fair value estimates are made at a specific point in time, based upon available market information and judgements about the financial instruments, including estimates of the timing and amount of expected future cash flows and the credit standing of counterparties. Such estimates do not reflect any premium or discount that could result from offering for sale at one time the Group’s entire holdings of a particular financial instrument, nor do they consider the tax impact of the realisation of unrealised gains or losses. In some cases the fair value estimates cannot be substantiated by comparison to independent markets, nor can the disclosed value be realised in immediate settlement of the financial instrument.

The loans and receivables have been shown net of provisions for impairment. The fair value of loans has been estimated from discounted cash flows expected to be received. The rate of discount used was the market rate of interest.

The estimated fair value of derivative financial instruments reflects the estimated amount the Group would receive or pay in an arm’s length transaction. This amount is determined using quotations from independent third parties or valued internally using standard market practices. In accordance with the Group’s risk management framework, all internally generated valuations are subject to independent assessment against external counterparties’ valuations.

The fair value of borrowings is based on quoted market prices, where available.

Refer to section A4 for the determination of fair value for investment contracts without fixed and guaranteed terms (notably UK unit-linked policies). For investment contracts in the US with fixed and guaranteed terms the fair value is determined based on the present value of future cash flows discounted at current interest rates.

The fair value of other financial liabilities is determined using discounted cash flows of the amounts expected to be paid.

Use of valuation techniques

The carrying value of investments on the balance sheet of the Group which are not on active markets and therefore valued using valuation techniques as described above are as follows:

The majority of the financial investments valued using valuation techniques were debt securities. Of the debt securities valued using valuation techniques of £6,374 million (2006: £6,200 million) at 31 December 2007, debt securities with a fair value of £3,511 million (2006: £3,341 million) were held by UK operations. £3,002 million (2006: £2,945 million) of this amount related to securities held by with-profits operations and £509 million (2006: £396 million) related to securities held by the shareholder-backed UK annuity subsidiary Prudential Retirement Income Limited (PRIL). Debt securities valued using valuation techniques held by the US operations were £2,863 million (2006: £2,859 million).

These debt securities include private debt securities such as private placements, project finance, asset securitisations and local authority securities. The securities are mainly long-dated and not regularly traded and are valued internally using market standard practices. The majority of the debt securities above are valued using matrix pricing, which is based on assessing credit quality of the underlying borrower to derive a suitable discount rate relative to government securities. Under matrix pricing, the debt securities are priced by taking the credit spreads on comparable quoted public debt securities and applied to the equivalent debt instruments factoring a specified liquidity premium. The majority of the parameters used in this valuation technique are readily observable in the market and, therefore, are not subject to interpretation.

For the UK operations, in accordance with the Group’s Risk Management Framework, all internally generated calculations are subject to independent assessment by the Group’s Fair Value Committees which comprise members who are independent of the fund managers involved in the day-to-day trading in these assets.

In addition to private debt securities, debt securities of US operations valued using valuation techniques also included securities held by the Piedmont trust entity, an 80 per cent Jackson held static trust formed as a result of a securitisation of asset-backed securities in 2003 that are accounted for on an available-for-sale basis. As at 31 December 2007, the fair value of these Piedmont assets valued using valuation techniques was £316 million (2006: £405 million). Significant estimates and judgements are also employed in valuing certain asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities held by the Piedmont trust entity. These valuations may impact reported shareholder profit and loss amounts through the determination of impairment and recovery amounts.

Whilst management believes that the estimates and assumptions employed in developing the fair value estimates are reasonable and present management’s best estimate of such values, a reasonable range of values exists with respect to most assumptions utilised in determining these values. As a result of the potentially significant variability in the estimates of the assumptions used in these models, the range of reasonable estimates of the fair value of these securities is significant.

Management has obtained broker bids on these Piedmont trust assets that represent the value at which the Group could sell the investments, if forced. These bids are not based on full knowledge and hence analysis of the investments, but represent the best estimate of the worst case decline in market value of these securities. The broker bids for these securities at 31 December 2007 totalled £260 million, a difference of £56 million (2006: £372 million, a difference of £33 million), from the fair value applied.

The equity securities and other investments which included property and other partnerships in investment pools, venture investments and derivative assets as shown on the table above are valued using valuation techniques which apply less readily observable market factors and more non-observable factors than the matrix pricing technique as used for the majority of the debt securities. In addition to the investments shown above, there are some minor amounts valued using valuation techniques in the Group’s Asian operations.

The total amount of the change in fair value estimation using valuation techniques, including valuation techniques based on assumptions not wholly supported by observable market prices or rates, recognised in the income statement in 2007 was a gain of £101 million (2006: gain of £47 million) for the with-profits fund investments. Changes in values of assets of the with-profits funds are reflected in policyholder liabilities and unallocated surplus. Due to the liability accounting treatment of unallocated surplus, changes in values of securities held by with-profits funds have no direct effect on the profit or loss attributable to shareholders or shareholders’ equity.

The total amount of the change in fair value estimation using valuation techniques, including those based on assumptions not wholly supported by observable market prices or rates, recognised in the income statement in 2007 and which was attributable to shareholders, was a gain of £138 million (2006: gain of £68 million) for the PRIL and US investments.

Interest income and expense

The interest income on financial assets not at fair value through profit and loss for the year ended 31 December 2007 from continuing operations was £2,016 million (2006: £2,006 million).

The interest expense on financial liabilities not at fair value through profit and loss for the year ended 31 December 2007 from continuing operations was £842 million (2006: £890 million).

G2: Market risk

Interest rate risk

The following table shows an analysis of the classes of financial assets and liabilities and their direct exposure to interest rate risk. Each applicable class of the Group’s financial assets or liabilities is analysed between those exposed to fair value interest rate risk, cash flow interest rate risk and those with no direct interest rate risk exposure:

Liquidity analysis