Our PSI commitment

Aegon is committed to doing business responsibly. We have internal policies, procedures and frameworks that set out how decisions should be made in areas such as procurement, investment, tax, product development, remuneration and information security. We also have a Code of Conduct, which applies to all Aegon employees worldwide. This Code of Conduct contains basic principles governing our workplace, social responsibility and business conduct.

The aim of these policies and procedures is to protect stakeholders by ensuring we are aware in our decision-making of all relevant financial and nonfinancial factors. We monitor implementation and take remedial action where necessary to ensure full compliance. We have a dedicated Non-Financial Risk Committee, which meets monthly. The Committee's members are drawn from Aegon’s Legal, Compliance and Risk departments, among others.

To oversee our investment approach, we have a Responsible Investment Strategy Committee. We also have a formal Responsible Investment Policy; we provide mandatory ESG training for portfolio managers, and have built responsible investment into both our risk management framework and into our investment mandates. We prefer to engage, though we do exclude some investments, where there are international agreements in place, or a clear social or environmental case to do so. Our Exclusion List was last updated in February 2019. The list comprises 14 companies involved in controversial weapons, 48 in thermal coal mining, 11 in oil sands and a further 63 in tobacco. We also exclude investment in 15 countries. 

We engage regularly with all stakeholders, including customers and business partners.

Customers

Among our products and services, we offer specific financial products for vulnerable groups and socially-responsible investment funds (SRI). In several countries, we sell products for customers on low incomes — for example: our ‘My Family’ micro-insurance product in Brazil and low-cost life insurance in Romania. We also provide support to those facing chronic illness. In China, our critical illness coverage offers protection against both diabetes and cancer; we also have products that help customers suffering from cervical and breast cancer. In addition to our products, we also support a number of financial education programs. In the Netherlands, for example, we pay for budget coaches to help customers in financial difficulty. In the US, we work closely with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. We also offer lessons, online seminars and clinics for members of the public. For our customers in the UK, the Netherlands and Hungary, we have SRI funds. At the end of 2018, these funds had EUR 3.4 billion under management, almost 80% more than they had five years before.

We encourage greater energy efficiency through our real estate investments — for example, we are renovating properties in our Amvest fund in the Netherlands. We want to achieve an average B label for energy efficiency; currently, more than half of these properties are rated E or F (A is the highest). To Dutch customers, we offer green mortgages.

Business partners

Our business partners help us develop, market and distribute our products and services. When working with outside providers, our goal is to create long-term relations that benefit Aegon and allow our partners to develop and grow their businesses. We regularly assess the companies we work with against minimum social and environmental standards. These standards are set out in our Sustainable Procurement and Outsourcing Risk policies. 

As a financial services company, we buy goods and services, including IT support, office equipment and management consultancy. We also buy utilities (electricity, water etc.). That said, we do not have a particularly complex supply chain and we do not need to source raw materials or deliver physical goods to customers. Our Sustainable Procurement Policy, which sets out environmental, social and governance standards for our suppliers. As part of our approach, we require some of our suppliers to sign a Supplier Sustainability Declaration; at the end of 2018, these declarations covered 25% of our total procurement spend.

Though the nature of our relationship has changed, intermediaries remain a valuable sales channel. We provide training to our distributors, so they understand our policies and are able to provide the right advice to our customers.

Aegon has a dedicated Global Government & Public Affairs department, whose aim is to support regulators and lawmakers.

Our aim is to become a thought leader on retirement and healthy aging. We invest in research through the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement (ACLR) and its sister organizations in the US and Brazil. We have also built a network of partnerships to push for change and reform in the way we manage retirement, healthcare and aging. As part of this network, we work with the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA), the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the VU University Alzheimer Centre and the MIT AgeLab.

In many countries, we know people can no longer rely on state or company pensions and benefits. We are therefore putting more efforts into financial education. In the Netherlands, for example, we have the ‘Goed met Geld’ – or ‘Mastering Money’ – program. By the end of 2018, more than 100,000 people had completed the program’s basic financial awareness test. We also have supplemental health and long-term care businesses in the US. In the UK and the Netherlands, we invest in care homes for the elderly. In 2018, we supported a new Dementia Discovery Fund and stopped investments in tobacco; smoking is a leading cause of many of the chronic illnesses pushing up healthcare costs.

We have a responsibility to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where we can, both as an investor and a provider of financial services. We focus on SDGs most relevant to our business and have selected specific goals and targets‍ linked to our strategy. In addition to these goals and targets, we also work directly with other organizations to support the SDGs. As well as the UN Principles for both Sustainable Insurance and Responsible Investment (PSI, PRI), we are members of the CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) and the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), which works for greater transparency in reporting financial flows within the global energy and minerals sector. Aegon has also signed the Paris Pledge for Action, which was launched at the Paris climate change conference in 2015.

We publish details our progress each; our latest progress report is included in our 2018 Integrated Annual Report (page 434).

We have internal policies, procedures and frameworks covering a number of relevant areas, including: responsible investment, health & safety, community investment, human rights, remuneration, sustainable procurement, product development and approval, and fraud and other financial wrong-doing. We also have a Code of Conduct which applies to all Aegon employees worldwide. Most of these policies and frameworks are available at www.aegon.com. Policies are supported by training and development programs. Where relevant, policies are incorporated directly into Aegon's operational risk management framework (including tax, responsible investment and health & safety etc.) Policies are also updated regularly.

We engage regularly with customers, business partners and other stakeholders through polls and surveys, conferences, workshops, and face-to-face meetings. We use intelligence from our stakeholders to improve our products and services, and to ensure our business remains as accountable and relevant as possible. In some cases, we have departments dedicated to engagement (Investor Relations, Global Government & Public Affairs, Procurement etc.). Engagement is also an integral part of our approach to responsible investment. We also engage through our membership of international organizations and initiatives (including the Global Coalition on Aging, Geneva Association, Principles on Responsible Investment etc.).

Aegon has a dedicated Global Government & Public Affairs department, whose aim is to support regulators and lawmakers. We carry out or fund research into key ESG issues (including the impact of aging and the serious illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer's), and we work with other stakeholders through multilateral organizations and agreements.

Each year, we publish progress against the PSI principles. Our progress report is included as part of our Review, and is available online