Sustainability

De­spite the pan­dem­ic and a sum­mer marred by bad weath­er, the Swiss in­sur­ance in­dus­try once again suc­ceed­ed in mak­ing the var­i­ous as­pects of sus­tain­abil­i­ty an even firmer com­po­nent of its busi­ness.

In­sur­ers are ma­jor in­sti­tu­tion­al in­vestors with a long-term in­vest­ment hori­zon and a pref­er­ence for safe­ty.

The Swiss In­sur­ance As­so­ci­a­tion SIA is join­ing the Unit­ed Na­tions-con­vened Net-Ze­ro As­set Own­er Al­liance as a sup­port­er.

SIA chair­man Rolf Dörig takes a look at the cur­rent chal­lenges fac­ing the Swiss in­sur­ance in­dus­try.

An in­creas­ing num­ber of in­sur­ers are in­te­grat­ing ESG cri­te­ria in their in­vest­ment process. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty cri­te­ria are in­volved in 83 per cent of in­vest­ments.

Cli­mate change is ac­cel­er­at­ing and now af­fects all ar­eas of our lives. Gun­thard Nieder­bäumer ex­plains what in­sur­ers can and should do to slow down this trend.

Our lives in 2020 are dom­i­nat­ed by the coro­na cri­sis. Nonethe­less, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and re­form of the pen­sion sys­tem re­main cen­tral chal­lenges that we must con­tin­ue to ad­dress.

Fi­nan­cial sec­tor wel­comes the Fed­er­al Coun­cil’s re­port and guide­lines on sus­tain­abil­i­ty in the fi­nan­cial sec­tor.

The Swiss in­sur­ance in­dus­try has had a suc­cess­ful year – pre­mi­um vol­umes in both non-life and life in­sur­ance rose again in 2019.