QBE expands impact investments portfolio

QBE says its Premiums4Good initiative, aimed at making a positive environmental and social impact, has expanded its investments over the past year as the group sets its sights on a $US2 billion ($3 billion) target by 2025.

The insurer had $US1.58 billion ($2.35 billion) invested in 103 securities at the end of November, including social impact bonds, green social and sustainability bonds and impact investment funds. The total is up from 85 assets as of June last year.

QBE launched Premiums4Good in 2016, allowing a portion of customer premiums to be channelled into investments that have additional social or environmental benefits.

Head of Impact and Responsible Investments James Pearson says the group in the past year has focused both on making new investments and also maturing its approach, including exploring global impact measurement and management standards and opportunities to 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,” he said.

“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 $US2 billion ($3 billion) in impact investments.”

New investments have included a Health Thematic Bond with the Asian Development Bank, which accesses the invested funds for projects that include supporting clean water and sanitation, good health, gender equality and education.

Group CEO Andrew Horton says in the annual Premiums4Good Investment Impact Report released today that the program will continue to finance many environmental and social impact areas, helping enable a more resilient future.

“Our aim is to also help address new and evolving challenges by driving capital to investments focused on making a difference in areas of emerging risks,” he says.

“Aligned with this intention, this year we started exploring negative emissions investments that will help support the transition to a net zero economy, which is an exciting prospect for this program.”