Due to government support and monetary easing by central banks, many businesses have been supported to some extent. Also, there has been support to customers, business partners and societal organisations from companies and other stakeholders.
NN responded swiftly to the Covid-19 outbreak with the aim to help ensure the well-being of our colleagues, customers, business partners, and society at large. We were able to do so given our strong starting position. The pandemic has tested our resilience towards business disruption. While some of our businesses were confronted with operational issues in the first two weeks, most of our businesses continued as usual using remote working and digital channels. This required a focus on clear and speedy communications, and considerable adjustments to the IT infrastructure. Employees were given the opportunity to receive facilities such as laptops, monitors, office chairs, etc., to make it possible to work from home adequately.
Furthermore, new regulations have been introduced concerning sustainability that NN supports. The EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance, including the EU Taxonomy, is aimed at creating a greener and more sustainable economy; related regulations, such as the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and the Non-Financial Reporting Directive strive for greater transparency on sustainability risks and opportunities.
Strong balance sheet • Asset & Liability Management and investments • Longevity risk
Products and services We develop and provide attractive products and services.
Leon: What stands out for me is the engagement and spirit of our colleagues to get the job done. Even though the circumstances were challenging, we reached important milestones. We have finished the integration of the Delta Lloyd activities. This all on top of the unchanged focus on transformation and innovation. One of the great examples is the introduction of the ‘Persoonlijk Pensioen Plan’ in July.
Our strategy – Netherlands continued recent Dutch Pension Agreement (expected to come into effect early 2022), and therefore we need to continue to focus on more collaboration and quicker decision-making.
Knowing and learning what our customers want We engage with our customers to ensure our products and services are relevant to them, and invest considerable resources in Customer and User Experience capabilities to get better insights into what they exactly want before we build it. For example, Booster, NN’s own innovation expertise centre, helps colleagues develop successful products and services by applying the NN Innovation Method in order to challenge on customer engagement, and by continuously validating and experimenting with potential customers and partners.
Daily life • Car insurance • Home insurance (building) Thinking about the future • Term life insurance • Retail investment
For business clients, an engagement platform will serve as an ecosystem of relevant content and services: • HCS – in the Netherlands HCS is a one-stop provider for employers and employees that brings together services over the full employability chain. New wellbeing services and a platform are being developed to support employees of SMEs in their mental and physical well-being and to support employers in increasing employee engagement and productivity.
In the Netherlands, a multi-disciplinary team is designing the ‘future way of working’ approach, based on four pillars: location, leadership and communication, IT and tech, and HR policies. We are transforming our offices to facilitate spaces where we can connect, create and collaborate across departments. We will support our employees in this transformation, and will evaluate how they respond to the transition through surveys and focus groups, and in open dialogues with the Central Works Council and trade unions.
For our NN trainee group and the fasttrack leadership development programme, we realised balanced participation with a minimum of 40% of either gender. NN participates in ratings, such as the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, which NN has been included in since 2019, and Equileap. NN ranked 14th out of 100 companies in the Equileap report 2020 Gender Equality in the Netherlands.
For an overview of the Central Works Council and European Works Council members see page 43 of the Financial Report.
As a financial service provider, our direct environmental footprint consists mainly of emissions from office activities and business travel. In 2019, we formulated our #YourSustainableWorkspace ambition to contribute to a sustainable and healthy environment within our office activities. In 2020, we launched the circular coalition with all our facility management service suppliers. With this cooperation in our service supplier chain we are aiming for 100% sustainable and circular office services in 2025. In addition, we initiated a renovation of 45,000 square metres in our offices in Rotterdam and The Hague. We aim for a fully circular, zero waste renovation and to be WELL Platinum Certified within the next years.
From Debt to Opportunities NN Future Matters In 2020, we were able to continue, or even deepen, our support to existing partners. We continued to invest in the overarching community investment programme NN Future Matters, which aims to help improve people’s financial well-being, with a particular focus on 10 to 25-year-olds and disadvantaged groups. The programme aligns with both our purpose as a company and our in-house expertise. More importantly, it has a demonstrable positive impact on communities.
Integrate ESG factors in investment process for 80% of our total AuM by 2023
Digital Compliance Dashboard In November 2020, a digital Compliance Dashboard was launched for all business units via the local compliance departments, as a first step towards a more datadriven compliance function within NN. The dashboard brings together multiple data sources in an overview that helps facilitate effective and efficient compliance monitoring in areas such as: Insiders; incidents; gifts and events and possible conflicts; outside positions and outside interests and possible conflicts; the Code of Conduct acknowledgment; and awareness and execution of e-learnings per business unit and corporate staff departments. The dashboard will initially be used by Compliance Officers, and after further development it will be extended to colleagues driving business activities.
47 NN Group N.V. 2020 Annual Review various rights, including protection from retaliation for any employee who reports a concern in good faith. NN Group also provides information, causes information to be provided, or otherwise assists in an investigation. The main outline of the Whistleblower Policy is explained in our NN Code of Conduct. The Whistleblower course (see e-learning above) is used during the NN hiring and onboarding programmes.
The materiality and time horizons over which climate change-related risks impact our business activities depend on specific types of business, asset portfolios, geography and a range of other differentiating factors as illustrated in the three cases below: • Our property & casualty (P&C) business is predominantly a one-year renewal business, and consideration of these risks in the underwriting and pricing processes is therefore on a relatively short time horizon (one to three years)
Aiming for a net-zero emissions proprietary investment portfolio – In June 2020, NN announced a new objective to transition our proprietary investment portfolio to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Our approach has two dimensions: decarbonisation of the investment portfolio, and increasing investment in climate solutions. Playing our part in helping the real economy to decarbonise serves as a guiding principle. To ensure appropriate actions, asset-class specific approaches will be defined in a step-by-step manner. For more details also refer to the section on Responsible Investment (pages 36-38).
To enhance the focus of ESG and climate aspects within our non-life business, we will start to assess the climate sustainability factor of our current and new products according to the latest (regulatory) insights. To determine this factor, NN will implement external screening criteria and potential own developed criteria. In addition, we will embed metrics and set targets to manage the impact of climate change on the underwriting portfolio and to align with various climate-related disclosure requirements and recommendations.
The Management Board is entrusted with the day-to-day management of NN Group and the overall strategic direction of NN Group.
Delfin Rueda Chief Financial Officer and vice-chair of the Executive Board and Management Board
Consolidated balance sheet (in EUR million) As at 31 December notes 2020 2019
Share of result from associates and joint ventures 7 219 619
Total investment strategies integrating ESG factors (end of period) 223.4 188.8
– as part of total Assets under Management NN Investment Partners 74% 68%
– of which investigated by Corporate Security & Investigations 1 3 4
– recycled waste as % of total waste 40% 58% 63%
Design Radley Yeldar | ry.com photo page 30: Yassmin Abdel-Magied photographer: Daniel Boud
(8) changes affecting persistency levels, (9) changes affecting interest rate levels, (10) changes affecting currency exchange rates, (11) changes in investor, customer and policyholder behaviour, (12) changes in general competitive factors,