Sterling volatility adjustment
The sterling volatility adjustment is the addition UK insurers may make to the risk-free discount rate they use for long-term liabilities. It is published monthly by the PRA, in the same workbook as the risk-free curves, and it moves with credit spreads: when spreads widen the adjustment rises, which is precisely the point of it — it stops a liability valuation swinging on spread movements an insurer holding to maturity will never realise.
Every observation
The figure for each month is read from that month’s published workbook and stored. Nothing here is interpolated, and a month the regulator did not publish is absent rather than filled in.
| Reference date | Volatility adjustment | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 31 July 2026 | 17 bps | +1 bp |
| 30 June 2026 | 16 bps | unchanged |
| 31 May 2026 | 16 bps | −2 bp |
| 30 April 2026 | 18 bps | unchanged |
| 31 March 2026 | 18 bps | −4 bp |
| 28 February 2026 | 22 bps | +1 bp |
| 31 January 2026 | 21 bps | −3 bp |
| 31 December 2025 | 24 bps | unchanged |
| 30 November 2025 | 24 bps | +1 bp |
| 31 October 2025 | 23 bps | −2 bp |
| 30 September 2025 | 25 bps | unchanged |
| 31 August 2025 | 25 bps | +1 bp |
| 31 July 2025 | 24 bps | −1 bp |
| 30 June 2025 | 25 bps | −2 bp |
| 31 May 2025 | 27 bps | −2 bp |
| 30 April 2025 | 29 bps | +2 bp |
| 31 March 2025 | 27 bps | +5 bp |
| 28 February 2025 | 22 bps | −1 bp |
| 31 January 2025 | 23 bps | −1 bp |
| 31 December 2024 | 24 bps | unchanged |
| 30 November 2024 | 24 bps | +2 bp |
| 31 October 2024 | 22 bps | −2 bp |
| 30 September 2024 | 24 bps | +2 bp |
| 31 August 2024 | 22 bps | −1 bp |
| 30 June 2024 | 23 bps | +3 bp |
| 31 May 2024 | 20 bps | — |
Where these numbers come from
Every figure is read from the Prudential Regulation Authority’s own monthly publication — the source index — and each observation is dated by the workbook’s own internal reference date, not by when it was published or when we read it. Where the two disagree the figure is discarded rather than attributed to the wrong month.
The store was last updated 17 August 2026. It is filled by the scheduled data job and never by a page load: these numbers exist only inside monthly Excel workbooks, so every point cost a download of the whole file.
See also the euro volatility adjustment and the insurer balance sheet.