Insurance companies like Baloise assume risks and thus play a decisive role in strengthening social development. Without insurance cover, jobs are at risk and business growth is at stake. Companies that can insure their risks well thus gain the necessary leeway to focus on their core business. This creates added value for all stakeholders.  

At Baloise, we look at all aspects of sustainability comprehensively. It is at the heart of our value-added approach. This also includes the way we select the risks we insure. The criteria for this are set out in the directive on responsible underwriting. We reported on this for the first time in the 2022 financial year (see table with the results of our Underwriting ESG review).  

Underwriting serves as a lever to drive the decarbonisation of the economy and thus the transformation of business models. The first internationally oriented insurers have begun to no longer insure entire sectors – such as the coal industry. However, this approach of excluding individual sectors from insurance cover is only one of the ways to advance the transformation of the economy through underwriting policy.  

Often, however, it is more effective to support companies in adapting their business models to meet the increasingly stringent regulatory and legal requirements for sustainability. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often do not have the necessary resources and know-how. As an insurance company, we try to support our customers in such cases and, by engaging them in dialogue, to find solutions that enable a positive and promising development. After all, it does the planet precious little good if companies buy insurance cover elsewhere without adapting their unsustainable business processes.  

* As Chief Financial Officer of the Baloise Group, Carsten Stolz also represents sustainability issues on the Corporate Executive Committee.