Given that the trust of our stakeholders and an immaculate reputation are prerequisites for the success of our company, we make every effort to cultivate an active dialogue with representatives of the capital market and society as a whole as well as with our clients and staff.

An open and ongoing dialogue with all stakeholders promotes the active management of expectations. It enables us to directly assess the needs and expectations of our business partners and customers, identify risks and opportunities at an early stage and determine suitable measures. The development of individually tailored products and services boosts customer satisfaction, creates the basis for long-term client retention and enhances the trust of clients and stakeholders alike in our company.

Furthermore, the dialogue with political decision-makers, supervisory authorities and insurance industry associations serves as an important source of information for our company. Not only that, it establishes the basis for contributing our specialist expertise from business practice to the public debate and hence playing an active part in, for example, the elaboration of supervisory or regulatory standards.

We have therefore made the further systematic expansion of dialogue channels a goal of our Sustainability Strategy both for the years 2015-2017 and the upcoming cycle. By sharing information and opinions with our stakeholders we are able to integrate, as far as possible, the expectations and aspirations of the various groups into our business operations. Furthermore, this dialogue helps to identify risks and opportunities at an early stage and serves to build trust.

Our stakeholder universe was defined as part of the elaboration of the Sustainability Strategy. The selection of relevant stakeholders is based on our business operations and our geographical presence, and is regularly reconciled with representatives of the business units. The following stakeholder groups are particularly relevant to us: our clients, our employees, the capital market, the public sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).