VIG tightens sustainability rules in asset management and underwriting

Written by Adam Cadle

16/05/2024

Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) has tightened its sustainability rules in asset management and underwriting, whilst also establishing its own Group Sustainability Office.

In its declaration, ‘Responsible Insurance in Corporate Business’, adopted in March 2024 and now published, VIG no longer offers risk cover for unconventional oil and gas exploration. This includes shale gas and shale oil, tight gas and oil, and all types of new deep sea mining projects.

Secondly, the declaration, ‘Responsible Investment’, lists the criteria for thermal coal and unconventional oil and gas, which were revised and extended in 2023 and details the exclusions in relation to banned weapons. In addition, VIG does not invest in companies that have violated the UN Global Compact or human rights. Moreover, VIG pursues an engagement approach to investment, which compromises active discussion and dialogue with companies in order to encourage them to improve their ESG performance in the areas relevant to VIG. VIG has been collaborating with its external partner ISS ESG in this way since Autumn 2023.

“By tightening our investment and underwriting guidelines, we are supplementing our ambitions in the pursuit of our net-zero target, which we essentially map via our sustainability programme and the portfolio management contained therein,” Hartwig Löger, CEO of VIG, said.

The Group Sustainability Office will act as a proactive coordinator for all group sustainability issues, and is primarily responsible for VIG’s sustainability programme, which was created in a collaborative process with the group companies.

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