QBE investment initiative boasts portfolio growth

QBE’s global impact investment initiative, Premiums4Good, has experienced further growth this year – with the total number of assets making a positive social and environmental impact now at 103.

Premiums4Good is a global initiative that drives capital towards investments that deliver positive social and environmental change alongside attractive risk-adjusted returns. It aims to reach US$2 billion in impact investments by 2025.

James Pearson, head of impact and responsible investments at QBE, said the initiative has been mainly focusing on making new investments and continuing to mature the insurer’s approach to impact investing these past 12 months, 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% 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 US$2 billion in impact investments,” he said.

As of writing, QBE has US$1.58 billion invested across the 103 investments, including social impact bonds, green social and sustainability (GSS) bonds, and impact investment funds. One of the investments the insurer 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 – to eradicate extreme poverty in the region.