I International Forum on Ethical Insurance

Álvaro Porro, Barcelona City Council’s Commissioner for Social Economy, opened the conference by highlighting the role of ethical finance and, within this, ethical insurance, as a lever for social transformation. He added, “We believe that the Barcelona City Council should have ethical finance as a financial reference. We are working to ensure that these become suppliers to the City Council while we are looking for other forms of collaboration.”

He also spoke about EthSI certification as an important tool for the sector. “The EthSI seal will allow people to more consciously choose a service that can be ethical but is also efficient,” he concluded.

Maria Antonia Bartolí, In her presentation, the president of Fets, spoke about the beginnings of ethical finance in our country and stressed that today it has been proven that “ethical banking” was not an oxymoron, just as “ethical insurance” is not. She added: “In the same way that we are beginning to consider what happens to the products we use and consume, such as clothing, food, energy, mobile phones, and we are beginning to ask ourselves where they come from and what positive or negative social impacts they have, it is beginning to be time to ask ourselves what our insurance company does with the money we have deposited, where it invests it.”

During the day, various round tables were held where current issues and future challenges of the sector were discussed.

Ethical finance

Financité brought us closer to ethical finance from a European perspective, contextualising the initiatives that exist and that promote them, as well as the work that the European Commission is doing to extend more responsible investment practices to the rest of the financial sector.

International experiences table

Finansol, one of the first entities to create an ethical finance label more than 20 years ago, explained to us how they work and the importance that state legislation favouring this type of investment had in France, and that it was then that a qualitative and quantitative leap was made by incorporating life insurance products as solidarity financial products.

The Islamic insurance company, Takaful, provided its vision of insurance as a guarantee of solidarity. Islamic insurance coincides with ethical insurance in terms of values, but it is in management where the differences are found. In the case of Takaful, if at the end of the year the fund they have contributed has generated surpluses, this is returned to the people and they can decide whether they want to reinvest it in Islamic finance, cash it out or use it to pay the premium for the following year.

CAES Italia explained how, thanks to the will of the citizens, it has become an ethical insurance consortium. It highlighted how they develop the entire chain of services within the insurance world and how, thanks to the support of the insurer Assimoco, they carry out tasks from the creation of ethical insurance products to intermediation. In this way, they can offer products that are fully adapted to the needs of the Italian social and solidarity economy.

Mutual funds and insurance companies table

The mutual societies Mutuacat and Previsora General, as well as the ACM España group (Atlantis and Agrupació) confirmed their commitment to ethical and solidarity insurance. In the case of the mutual societies, this is because as social welfare mutual societies it is their reason for being, while the Grup is committed to incorporating entities such as Atlantis that are fully in tune with ethical insurance.

In their interventions, the Group explained how, in addition to having a specific social economy department, this approach is present across the board in each and every department, from marketing to product creation. Mutuacat highlighted its mutual values and how these are manifested in the products they offer. Finally, Previsora General explained how the mutual society’s assembly is the one that decides how to distribute the surplus that may be generated and how this is returned in the form of new coverage for all members.

Brokerage table

At this roundtable, the role of brokerages as guarantors of a close and quality service for insured persons was defended. Social Partners highlighted the need for insurance companies to work side by side with brokerages with the aim of creating specific products for groups with specific needs and for these not to only develop generic products aimed at the whole of society. Arç Cooperativa highlighted a particular product distribution model, emphasizing the political and transformative will that goes beyond the simple distribution of insurance products.
Seryes stressed the challenge that brokerages face in facing the technological future and present, within the insurance sector and society, given that the great added value of brokerages is proximity to the client and technology has significant potential to promote it, but there is also a great risk if it is used to depersonalize attention.

Ester Vidal, representative of Barcelona City Council, was in charge of closing the event. For Ester, the insurance sector is a key player within the financial system, which moves large volumes of money that entail a great socio-environmental impact. For this reason, she advocated for collaboration between the ethical insurance sector and public administrations.

Organizers

The Observatorio de las Finanzas Éticas is dedicated to the observation, analysis and preparation of specific and periodic studies on the reality and impact of ethical finance in the national socio-economic sphere, developing tools that include the EthSI seal.

EthSI is a European-wide seal that since 2009 assesses the quality of management carried out by mutual societies, insurance companies and insurance brokers by evaluating their behaviour within the organisation, in relation to society as well as the products they offer.