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## INTERVIEW WITH THE CFO 

Chief Financial Officer, Jan Nooitgedagt, explains how the company’s business performance is a result of its sharpened focus on its core businesses - life insurance, pensions and asset management. He also reflects on AEGON’s commitment to fully repurchase all core capital securities from the Dutch State by the end of June 2011 and outlines the company’s strategy up to 2015. 

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AEGON is today a different company from what it was a few years ago. The financial crisis accelerated key aspects of our strategy. We have sharpened our focus on our core businesses of life insurance, pensions and asset management. 

How would you describe AEGON’s results for 2010? AEGON delivered a solid performance in 2010. Underlying earnings and net profit for the year were strong, at EUR 2 billion and EUR 1.8 billion respectively. Sales overall increased, demonstrated by an increase of 5% in new life sales to 2.2 billion, while gross deposits for 2010 increased significantly compared to the previous year to EUR 32.6 billion. We also achieved a reduction of 2% in operating expenses in 2010, excluding restructuring charges and currency effects. This was the result of strict expense management in our established markets while continuing to invest in our new markets. 

## One of your priorities during the last two years has been to improve AEGON’s risk-return profile. Could you outline the steps taken so far? 

Indeed, one of AEGON’s keys strategic priorities continues to be to improve its risk-return profile. We have reduced our exposure to equity and credit markets and are shifting our focus from spread to fee-based business, particularly in the United States and the Netherlands. These actions make AEGON a more balanced company with an improved risk-return profile. 

