The inclusion of insurance companies in Italy is increasing ESG criteria according to research carried out by Forum for Sustainable Finance and fromANIApresented yesterday in Rome as part of the SRI Weeks. The survey, now in its fourth edition, sees a participation of 78% of the Italian insurance market in terms of premiums collected. The research was carried out with the support of Etica SGR, Reale Group, SCS Consulting, Swisscanto.
The integration of sustainability by insurance companies is achieved through the inclusion of ESG factors in the priority lines of strategic plans and remuneration policiesthrough the use of specific indicators (practices adopted, in both cases, by 99% of the sample).
Stakeholder engagement on sustainability issues is widespread, with the identification of various relevant categories: employees, distribution network and suppliers, investors and customers.
The entire sample oversees ESG issues through the establishment of specific governance, mainly in the form of committees and/or functions dedicated to sustainability. Almost all of the respondents (98%) have introduced training programs aimed at all staff. Finally, particular attention is given to diversity issues: 94% of the sample integrates the objective of gender equality into human resources management policies, applying it to all staff.
With respect to the role of institutional investors of insurance companies, the research shows that almost all of the respondents (99.7%) includes ESG criteria in its investment policies and applies them to an important portion of the investment portfolio (between 75 and 100%).
There continue to be multiple approaches adopted by insurance companies to include ESG criteria in investment policies and decisions. The most used ones are: exclusions (100% of the sample), international conventions (91%), engagement (89%), thematic investments (81%) and the best in class approach (80%). This is followed by impact investing (66%) and voting (64%). Divestment policies are also very widespread among insurance companies (75%).
Great attention is paid to issues relating to climate change: 71% of the sample explicitly includes the objective of climate neutrality in their investment policies. Furthermore, the share (99%) that claims to measure the carbon footprint of the investment portfolio is constantly growing, with the aim of identifying the financial risks associated with the climate crisis (81%, increasing compared to 2024) and actions to reduce emissions (80%).
With respect to the risk hedging activity of insurance companies, 82% of the sample (a significant increase compared to previous editions) includes ESG criteria in their subscription policiesthrough the offer of non-life or life insurance products other than investment products that take into consideration environmental, social and/or good governance factors. The residual portion of respondents, who have not yet included sustainability aspects in their underwriting policies, are conducting assessments in this regard.
The companies that integrate ESG criteria into their subscription policies include, in their offer, mainly products with environmental characteristics, or environmental value (99.97%) and with social characteristics, or social value (98%). The methods through which the integration of ESG criteria in underwriting takes place are: the offer of insurance products dedicated to ESG issues (95%), for the coverage of climate and seismic risks, to encourage insurance inclusion and for the development of renewable energy; limitations in the offer of insurance products for activities exposed to high ESG risks (91%); the offer of products with reward requirements (86%).
Specifically, in line with the choices of the sample regarding exclusions and disinvestment, the limitations of supply are mainly concentrated in the sectors of fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil) and weapons (in 100% of cases). The offer of products with reward requirements, however, focuses in particular on encouraging sustainable behavior in retail customers (78%) and, followed by corporate customers (23%). Furthermore, 34% of respondents offer products with reward requirements linked to the achievement of specific sustainability objectives for corporate customers while, in 35% of cases, low ESG risk activities benefit from reward requirements.
