QBE’s impact investment initiative boosts portfolio growth
Authored by QBE
QBE’s global impact investment initiative, Premiums4Good, is celebrating another year of growth with the total number of assets helping make a positive environmental and social impact now at 103 as it maintains its ambition to reach USD 2 billion in impact investments by 2025.
Today’s launch of its 2022 Premiums4Good Impact Report highlights some of the investments and key accomplishments over the past year as it continues to finance environmental and social impact initiatives working to support a more resilient future.
QBE Head of Impact and Responsible Investments, James Pearson, said a key focus over the past 12 months has not only been making new investments but also continuing to mature QBE’s approach to impact investing, including exploring global impact measurement and management standards, and opportunities to further embed innovation.
“This year we expanded our customer opt-in approach to every division we operate in with the opt-in capability increased to 100 per cent of premiums. We are grateful for the support of our customers who are enabling us to continue to grow this initiative and keep us on track to meet our 2025 ambition of USD 2 billion in impact investments,” said Mr Pearson.
QBE currently has USD 1.58 billion invested across the 103 investments, which include social impact bonds, green social and sustainability (GSS) bonds, and impact investment funds.
“Premiums4Good is a global initiative that we’re hugely proud of at QBE with a focus on driving capital towards investments that deliver positive social and environmental change, alongside attractive risk-adjusted returns. We’re excited to see sustained growth as we continue to develop our approach to impact investing and further understand where opportunities exist,” continued Mr Pearson.
One of the new investments QBE secured this year, through Premiums4Good, is a Health Thematic Bond with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a multilateral development bank owned by 68 member countries with 49 from Asia and the Pacific, aiming to eradicate extreme poverty in the region.
Through Thematic Bond offerings, the ADB funds projects that address quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, and good health, including its Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX) program, where they supported the Government of Bangladesh in their vaccination efforts during the escalation of the pandemic by delivering 113 million vaccination doses to more than 40 million people.
Launched in 2016, QBE believes Premiums4Good offers a compelling proposition of business and social value by seeking to deliver attractive, risk-adjusted returns while also pursuing positive social and environmental impact.
The QBE Premiums4Good Investment Impact Report 2022 is available to download at: https://www.qbe.com/premiums4good
About QBE
QBE European Operations is part of QBE Insurance Group, one of the world’s leading international insurers and reinsurers and Standard & Poor’s A+ rated. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, QBE’s gross written premium for the year ended 31 December 2018 was US$13.7 billion.
As a business insurance specialist, QBE European Operations offers a range of insurance products from the standard suite of property, casualty and motor to the specialist financial lines, marine and energy. All are tailored to the individual needs of our small, medium and large client base.
We understand the crucial role that effective risk management plays in all organisations and work hard to understand our clients’ businesses so that we offer insurance solutions that meet their needs – from complex programmes to simpler e-trading solutions – and support them in minimising their risk exposures. Our expert risk management and rehabilitation practitioners focus on helping clients improve their risk management so that they may benefit from a reduction in claims frequency and costs.