Frameworks and initiatives

The insurance and reinsurance industry play a vital role in bolstering the financial resilience of the economy and population. The primary purpose of the industry is to protect businesses, people, and their properties.

Hannover Re is one of the world’s leading reinsurers. As such, we offer a wide variety of different reinsurance solutions that span from traditional P&C and L&H covers, structured reinsurance and insurance-linked securities, to supporting micro-insurance or government-run pools.

Reinsurance is a business-to-business financial service, and our business partners are mainly insurance companies, intermediaries, and insurtechs. Therefore, we generally do not have direct contact with end consumers. Nevertheless, it is through our reinsurance solutions and risk transfer that our clients are able to provide insurance solutions - including for population groups that previously had insufficient or difficult access to insurance cover.

To assure our position as preferred business partner, we engage in a continuous dialogue with our clients. Our value proposition goes beyond the transfer of risks and includes ongoing dialogues and active listening to our clients, knowledge transfer, and providing tailormade solutions.

1. We recognise the great importance of client relationships and product offerings. Client centricity is woven throughout our strategy in which we aim to be a preferred and reliable business partner, and to enable our clients to grow and succeed.

2. We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of client satisfaction. We take great care to understand our clients' needs and value their feedback. A responsible product offering based on the promise of risk transfer and risk mitigation is a top priority for us.

3. We provide reinsurance products that create long-term value. In particular, we aim to tailor our products to mitigate the effects of natural disasters or climate change, and to support sustainable technologies through reinsurance or investments. We are constantly working to increase our positive social impact in this way.

4. We deal fairly, honestly, respectfully, and transparently with our clients. In our communication, we endeavour to use a clear and unambiguous language unless medical or other specialist technical terminology is needed. We are committed to communication practices that are truthful, clear, not misleading, accurate, and balanced.

5. We provide all of our employees with the opportunity to develop their skills in order to enable them to apply appropriate solution-finding practices to meet market-specific and client-specific needs.

6. We embed sustainability related risks and opportunities into the company’s decision-making processes. In our New Product Process, we assess risks and opportunities associated with new investments, reinsurance products (including retrocession), and services.

Hannover Re participates actively and constructively in public discussions on (re)insurance issues that affect us. Our policy is to make our activities and our engagement transparent, in accordance with applicable laws, Hannover Re's commitments to corporate responsibility in our sustainability strategy and our Code of Conduct.

We speak with one voice and ensure that our company communicates clear and consistent messages on the issues we deal with in all regions and at all levels of the organisation. To ensure this, we coordinate our lobbying activities at a global level to ensure that the messages and objectives are consistent.

In accordance with our Code of Conduct, Hannover Re complies with applicable legislation and acts lawfully and fairly in the marketplace. We do not offer gifts, invitations, payments or other benefits of any kind to authorities, civil servants or other public officials and representatives of public organisations.

Our coordinated collaboration with regulators and policy makers at the Hannover Re level is the responsibility of the Chief Risk Officer (CRO), who delegates certain tasks for coordination and execution to the Regulatory Affairs and Risk Reporting team and to the CROs of the branches and legal entities.

In order to ensure the greatest possible transparency, the parent company of the Hannover Re Group, Hannover Re, is registered in the European Transparency Register of the European Parliament and the European Commission under the number 111538041439-74. This shows the costs of lobbying activities and memberships. Hannover Re is registered in the German Lobby Register under the number R006768.

We are currently focussing on the following areas:

Supervisory law
Hannover Re participates in discussions on new and updated regulatory requirements to ensure that they represent an economic and risk-based assessment of risks. We pay particular attention to:

Control and reporting
Hannover Re manages its risks at the level of various risk categories and reports sustainability information in accordance with its obligations and commitments. We are committed to ensuring that the reporting standards are informative and relevant, and that they are reasonable in terms of time and cost for the reporting companies. We strive for simple, effective governance structures in accordance with the applicable regulatory requirements.

Trade barriers
As an internationally active reinsurer, we are committed to open access to the international reinsurance markets in all regions. In our view, unhindered access to reinsurance is an essential prerequisite for the development of strong, well-capitalised insurance markets, which are the key to closing the insurance protection gap and thus ensuring stable economic growth. This principle is just as relevant for our "home" markets in Germany and the EU as it is worldwide.

Sustainability
We take our commitments to our customers and the communities in which we operate seriously. We make sure that new regulations are conducive to these targets and at the same time are in line with the reinsurance business model, are appropriate to the size and complexity of our business and strike an appropriate balance between the interests of the various stakeholders.

Digitalisation and operational resilience
As an innovative company, we strive to ensure that our technology maximises customer satisfaction while maintaining a high level of operational efficiency and reliability. We monitor regulation closely in order to identify risks for our innovation projects and targets.

We are a member of numerous regional, national and global associations, interest groups and organisations. Our employees take part in working groups on various topics and contribute their expertise to relevant discussions, including on sustainability issues. Below you will find a selected list of organisations that are relevant to our regulatory activities, although it should be noted that a large part of our involvement in the associations serves purposes other than lobbying and some of the associations do not primarily engage in lobbying.

Since 2021, Hannover Re has been a signatory to the Charta der Vielfalt, an initiative whose aim is to promote the recognition, appreciation and inclusion of diversity in the world of work in Germany.

Since 2011, we have published annual information on social, environmental and governance issues within the group in accordance with the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the industry supplement for the financial services sector.

In May 2020, Hannover Re recognised the core labour standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for its employees worldwide.

Hannover Re joined the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) initiative, which is committed to sustainable investments, in 2020. The aim of the PRI is to understand the implications of sustainability for investors and to support signatories in integrating these issues into their investment decision-making processes.

Hannover Re has been a signatory to the UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) since April 2021. The aim of the PSI is to provide (re)insurers with guidelines on how they can take sustainability criteria into account in their core business.

Since 2021, we have been publishing key financial sustainability information in accordance with the Insurance Sustainability Accounting Standard.

Since 2021, we have been documenting the status of our activities in relation to opportunities and risks associated with climate change based on the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Hannover Re has been a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) since April 2021.

Hannover Re has been a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) since May 2020.