In the insurance industry, the topic of sustainability (ESG – environmental, social, governance) is becoming increasingly important and is currently the subject of controversial debate. There are many reasons for this:
- Customers are increasingly including sustainability aspects in their purchasing decisions. Among other things, they look at the sustainability of investments in life insurance products or the social commitment of an insurance company. A clear sustainability profile will gradually develop into a real competitive advantage in sales.
- Regulatory requirements regarding sustainability are increasing. BaFin has defined requirements for dealing with sustainability risks in insurance companies. In addition, the Disclosure and Taxonomy Regulations impose extensive, also quantitative, reporting obligations on the industry which mainly concern capital investment.
- Policymakers are attaching increasing importance to the topic of sustainability and appeal to companies to take a critical look at the issue. Companies that lack a certain stringency and vigilance on the subject are publicly attacked and must fear reputational damage.
The consistent consideration of the concept of sustainability in an insurer’s business model is therefore a highly complex matter and touches almost all relevant areas of the company.
It is the decision-makers’ responsibility to identify the ESG fields of action that appear to be most urgent and critical for their own company. Those who have not yet started their concept development and planning, should not lose any more time.
- Conducting an ESG inventory on the basis of the zeb.sustainability framework
- Determining the individual level of ambition and setting strategic guidelines for the insurer
- Identifying prioritized ESG fields of action
Contact: Dr. Philipp Faber, Senior Manager
- Integration of ESG risks into existing risk management processes
- Ensuring regulatory compliance with regard to sustainability requirements
- Impact of the EU Disclosure and Taxonomy Regulation as well as ESG aspects of the IDD and EU Benchmark Regulation on insurers’ business models
- Implementation of the aforementioned regulations in narrative and quantitative reporting
Contact: Guido Enck, Manager
- ESG integration in the investment process
- Profit-oriented, target-compliant enhancement of portfolio quality and ESG
- Exclusion strategies and their impact on returns
- Systematic, standards-based ESG assessment of issuers
- Selection processes for the appropriate ESG research agencies
- Impact investing
- Further details on ESG integration in capital investments can be found here
Contact: Dr. Philipp Faber, Senior Manager
- Further development of more sustainable products and services
- New product development on the basis of concrete customer ideas for life, health and property & casualty insurance
Contact: Mirko Theine, Senior Manager
- Establishment of a resource-saving, digital sales system
- Incentivizing the sales organization to sell more sustainable insurance products
- Innovative insurance products to reduce further climate change and to adapt to climate change
Contact: Gregor Morin, Manager
- Defining the cornerstones of a more sustainable human resources policy, taking into account the following aspects:
- Work-Llfe-balance
- Smart working concepts
- Gender policy etc.
Contact: Christian von Schirach, Senior Manager