An insurance initiative that contributes to sustainability

Authored QBE Chief Underwriting Officer Nick Hankin

Supporting innovative partnerships to deliver measurable and meaningful improvements

2023 continues to see more organisations realigning insurance investments to investments that help create social and environmental good.

I feel strongly that insurance is a social good. Without support and transfer of risk no progress can be made, whether that’s in climate change, energy, and technology – or social mobility, education, and business.

Insurers and other financial service providers are increasingly looking for ways to restructure their assets and operations to better serve sustainable and social goals.

At QBE, we’re seven years into our own impact investment initiative, Premiums4Good, through which we invest a portion of customers’ premiums into impact investments with the intention to create positive social and/or environmental outcomes along with attractive financial returns.  We do this at no extra cost to our customers.

Case Study: Investments in action

The range of projects QBE can invest in through Premiums4Good is significant – and they all are designed to help create an environmental or social impact.

One of the investments we’ve made is in the Bridges Social Outcomes Fund II, supporting innovative partnerships to deliver measurable and meaningful life improvements for individuals in the UK.

The fund – which channels private capital, including that from Premiums4Good, towards impactful social sector organisations – has invested in ten underlying projects as of November 2022. These projects delivered 24 social outcome contracts.

“Through that fund we have worked with rough sleepers in Manchester; […] individuals with chronic illness; [and] children to turn around educational outcomes across the country.

“By working with them in a holistic way we’re able to transform their lives and [receive] the payment from the outcomes contract,” explained Michele Giddens, Co-CEO and Founding Partner, Bridges Fund Management (InsureTV Impact Investing Masterclass, June 2022).

“This investment from Premiums4Good has helped us to change the lives of tens of thousands of young people and vulnerable adults’ in the UK. We know it’s working because in Greater Manchester, for example, the programme has housed 90% more people that we had targeted, for half the cost of what was being achieved by other services,” continued Michele Giddens.

Looking forward

I see a huge momentum across the industry, as many more organisations focus on impact investments. I hope that Premium4Good’s reporting and impact in this area encourages other organisations to embrace impact investing on a broader scale. Directing a portion of funds to impact investments is one-way insurers can help positively impact the community. 

There is a lot of ambition behind this.  QBE’s ambition is to grow our impact investments through Premiums4Good to USD 2 billion by 2025 and we are on track to reach this, with USD 1.6 billion invested as of December 2022. 

To view QBE’s Premiums4Good brochure CLICK HERE