Arielle Hassan
Gabriela Pigan
St. John's University
Charles Wankel
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Swiss Re is a reinsurance company that has been working towards building its business and engaging with communities in a sustainable fashion. The Women’s World Banking partnership is one example of a plethora of initiatives taken by Swiss Re to remedy issues of poverty and support underprivileged demographics.
Swiss Re's sustainability efforts are seen in Swiss Re's products, including their Women’s World Banking partnership. Through this partnership, Swiss Re offered microinsurance to women in Egypt and their families to be protected from the financial implications of illness or childbirth. In the case that illness or childbirth occurred, the woman or her immediate family would be issued a lump sum to protect the woman and her family from loss of income and to cover some associated expenses. As of 2021, this program reached 397,792 customers. The microinsurance programs created by Swiss Re align with their motto, “We make the world more resilient,” since everyone is affected by this effort.
Since 2009, Swiss Re has had a business framework dedicated to managing environmental, social, and corporate governance risks within their business. Since then, their commitment to sustainability has only grown. For example, Swiss Re is a member and co-founder of the UN-convened Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, which is committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emission underwriting portfolios by 2050. Within the US, Swiss Re works with FEMA as a reinsurer and the National Federal Insurance Program in order to protect the underinsured gap. Swiss Re constantly assesses its underwriting portfolios and benchmarks its products in order to ensure that they align with the UN Goals. They use the Sustainable Development Goals in their sustainability reports and do not fail to touch upon every SDG.
Due to the global and interconnected nature of our world and Swiss Re’s business, the ripple effects of working towards sustainability can be felt globally. More specifically, clients are affected by this effort, as Swiss Re can write and price policies more accurately. The broader insurance industry is affected by this effort, with Swiss Re leading this movement for other organizations to follow suit. Most ardently, the underinsured and uninsured are aided directly in this effort, as women from unprivileged backgrounds are becoming micro-insured in their financial burden.
By engaging in the Women’s World Banking Sustainability effort, Swiss Re is benefiting their business as well as broader society. Not only does it closely align with Swiss Re’s goals of resilience, but its work is an asset to mitigating their reputational risk. Furthermore, Swiss Re is closing the coverage gaps for the uninsured or underinsured. By closing this gap, Swiss Re is mitigating risks and making its book of business safer. Their sustainability work facilitates efficiency and builds prices for their portfolio more accurately.
This innovation's social and environmental benefits include diminishing inequalities for underprivileged groups, particularly women in Egypt. By providing microinsurance to shoulder the financial burden linked to illness or childbirth, physical health and financial health, they provide help to women who possess little means to balance these components due to their circumstances. They create a more compassionate and understanding relationship between corporations and those experiencing poverty. Additionally, because of poverty's adverse effect on the environment, environmental issues from natural resource depletion and water purification are minimized.
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Katherine Ross, AVP Solutions P&C Specialist
Swiss Re Financial Svc Corp. provides reinsurance and risk management solutions. Operating in more than 20 countries, the company is one of the world's largest reinsurers. (https://www.swissre.com/)