The company said its solvency ratio was 440 percent in the United States at the end of 2016 under the "RBC (risk-based capital) framework".

Aegon spokesman Dick Schiethart declined to say what the source of the wrong information was or what exactly it had said.

Shares were trading 4.5 percent lower at 5.03 euros ($5.36)at 1314 GMT.

Earlier on Friday, the company posted a 27 percent rise in underlying pretax profit to 554 million euros, besting analyst expectations.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Adrian Croft)