Unipol and Voluntary Work

Unipol and voluntary work Unipol Assicurazioni traditionally dedicates its Social Report to a good cause, a charity that can have a powerful ethical impact, enabling Unipol to return to its roots in the democratic Italian movements of cooperation and the world of the employed and self-employed workforce. These movements have always been at the forefront of the universal struggle to emancipate the weak and provide social solidarity. The UN has dedicated 2001 to voluntary work. This is a wonderful oppor- tunity to promote voluntary work, to launch new ideas and projects and to reflect on motivation as well as the social and political meaning of voluntary work today. Voluntary work is a vital resource for society, a vision of the world to unite all men and women with goodwill, to give a voice to those that cannot be heard, to defend and protect the personal dignity of man. We asked Don Ferdinando Colombo from VIS (Volontariato Internazio- nale per lo Sviluppo - Voluntary Work for Overseas Development) to write the foreword to a small booklet detailing the history of Italian legislation with regard to voluntary work. This booklet will be distributed together with Unipol’s Social Report. Unipol applauds and embraces the work of VIS because it is an organisation that spreads an important concept, one that is perhaps new to many, “that people involved in voluntary work and politics based on justice, do not intend to help the less fortunate in terms of ‘charity’, because of a feeling of moral duty, but rather because of the basic rights (civil, political, economic, social and cultural) accorded to all men because they are men. We must no longer focus on the needs of the poor, whom we help because we are good people, but rather on the right of access to those opportunities and freedoms indicated by Amartya Sen as vital to human development.”1 (1) Antonio Raimondi - VIS Chairman Contents Foreword III 1 } FIRST SECTION – THE IDENTITY Values and mission page 4 Our stakeholders page 5 The history of Unipol page 7 Shareholding structure page 9 The role of the Unipol Group in an international context page 10 Strategies page 11 Innovative products page 12 Life assurance page 12 Pension funds page 13 Subsidiaries page 14 Linear Assicurazioni page 14 Unisalute page 15 Quadrifoglio Vita page 16 Noricum Vita page 16 Unipol Banca page 17 Unipol SGR page 18 Newly acquired companies page 19 SECOND SECTION – PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION 2 } OF ADDED VALUE Economic activity page 20 Added value page 23 I 3 } THIRD SECTION - SOCIAL RELATIONS Consumers and customers Special agreements page 24 Claims page 25 Fraud page 27 Customer feedback page 27 ‘Unipol Risponde’ page 28 Right to information page 28 Online information page 29 Relationships with consumer associations page 29 Agents and personnel Sales network page 30 Personnel page 32 Training page 33 Safety in the workplace page 34 Pension fund and healthcare fund page 34 The community The Cesar Foundation page 35 Unipol Regional Councils page 36 Unipol and the world of further education page 37 Environmental protection page 37 Unipol and corporate social responsibility page 38 II Foreword This year Unipol presents its eighth Social Report, the only insurance company to do so and the only Stock Exchange listed company that can boast such continuity and coherence in adhering to the principles of social auditing: completeness, comparability, inclusiveness, development, policies and procedures, distribution, external auditing, constant improvement. This report is drawn up according to GBS guidelines (Social Report Study Group), for greater methodological coherence and improved readability. The most recent and important innovation is the introduction of the verification of this Social Report by the auditing company, in order to guarantee to the reader reliable and accurate data. III First Section Values and Mission 01 } To contribute to the reliability and transparency of the Italian insurance industry. 02 } To help make insurance a tool for the benefit of society and the security of the individual and businesses. 03 } To accept risks and settle claims honestly and coherently. 04 } To aim for customer satisfaction in price, performance and quality of service. 05 } To consider individual and group contributions as essential to the overall development of business, in that human creativity and intelligence are indispensable factors in improving service quality. 06 } To help partners (trade-unions, organisations of self-employed workers) achieve their aims and carry out their policies. 07 } To provide exclusive products and services to partners so that their members can obtain better cover at better prices and conditions. 08 } To produce a positive economic yield and increase company solidity, to increase the economic value of the company and remunerate shareholders. 09 } To contribute to job-creation and help developing countries by making specifically targeted investments. 10 } To work for a political and economic role of the Social Economy both at home and abroad. 4 Unipol Assicurazioni The Identity the year. Total dividends increased Our stakeholders from ITL46.2bn in 1999 to ITL74bn in 2000 (+60.2%). The most important people for a company – commonly known as Employees Stakeholders – are all those who Unipol had a total of 2,607 have an interest in the organisation. employees at 31st December 2000, The Social Report is addressed in the insurance sector alone. 48.8% especially to these people to allow of these are women. them to assess whether Unipol’s operations are consistent with their Agents demands and interests, and to what Agents are the operating structure extent these operations match the of Unipol. They are divided into pri- general aims outlined in the Values vately-owned and associated (‘Assi- and Mission. Unipol sees stakehol- coop’) organisations. ders as vital and improvements are designed with them in mind. The diagram shows Uni- pol’s stakeholders. Shareholders The very good results mean that the unitary divi- dend is the same as for 1999, despite the significant increase in shares issued following the increase in capital halfway through Social Report - 2001 Edition 5 First Section Customers of the social economy, safety and Today Unipol has approximately 4 rule of law. This foundation also million customers, both individuals provides in-depth analysis of in- and companies, for which the spe- surance themes and promotes cial agreements are a privileged environmental protection and so- channel of access. cial equality projects. Partners include trade-unions (CGIL, Suppliers of services: surveyors, CISL, UIL) and organisations repre- medical examiners and car repair senting the self-employed and small shops. and medium-sized enterprises (CNA – craft workers, ‘Confesercenti’ Surveyors total 315 in the motor –shopkeepers, CIA – farmers, and sector alone. They are self-employed ‘Lega delle Co-operative’ – Lega co- and have a close relationship with operatives). The makeup and ope- Unipol. rational methods of Unipol Assi- curazioni have thus been strongly There are 210 doctors. They are influenced by these associations. self-employed and have a close rela- Relationships with customers, part- tionship with Unipol. ners and society as a whole are monitored by the Unipol Regional Car repair shops are small firms Councils (‘CRUs’) and the Cesar operating together with Unipol as Foundation. part of the agreement between The Association of Car Repair Shops • CRUs: Unipol is the only Italian and ANIA. By the end of 2000 Unipol insurer to have set up regional had established a computer connec- planning structures to enable tion with 1100 workshops. dialogue with its customers. • Cesar Foundation: the Cesar Foundation is the tool used by Unipol to operate in society to encourage the culture and values 6 Unipol Assicurazioni The Identity In 1986 Unipol became the first The history of Unipol co-operative-based organisation to be floated on the Italian Stock The first shareholders in Unipol Exchange. were a group of Bolognese and Emi- lian co-operatives. They acquired the Over the years the list of Unipol sha- company in 1962 and made it part of reholders has grown to include some the vast Italian co-operative system of the most important European and represented by the Lega co-opera- mutual insurers, ranging from MACIF tives. Unipol’s growth was boosted and MAIF (French mutual insurers) when trade unions, first UIL, then and the P&V Group (Belgium) to CGIL and CISL, became sharehol- certain Italian shareholders (Reale ders. Several years later Unipol Mutua Assicurazioni, Banca Cardine shares were also acquired by trade and Bam Group). The latter two associations (CNA, ‘Confesercenti’ became shareholders as part of spe- and CIA). This new makeup of cial bancassurance agreements. the organisation enabled Unipol HISTORIC PARTNERS OF THE UNIPOL GROUP (figures as at 31/12/00) to become insurers of not only Co-operative Enterprises Members of Legacoop co-operatives Turnover > 57,000 bn but also Enterprises: No.>10,000 employees and Employees: No. 239,000 Members: No. > 4,800,000 the self- employed. Trade Unions of salaried workers (CGIL, CISL, UIL) Members: No. 10,900,000 Trade Organisations of self-employed workers (CNA - craft workers; Confesercenti - shopkeepers; CIA - farmers) Members: No. 1,120,000 Social Report - 2001 Edition 7 First Section In the first half of the 1980s Unipol In 2001 the Unipol Group signed Assicurazioni became one of Italy’s a co-operation agreement with the top ten insurance groups. It was floa- Monte dei Paschi di Siena Group. ted on the Stock Exchange in 1986. The acquisitions made in 2000 mean that Unipol is now the third largest insurance group in Italy with over 4 million customers. The Unipol Group signs a 2001 co-operation agreement with the Monte dei Paschi di Siena Group. Unipol Banca acquires Listing on the Stock Exchange 51 bank outlets from 1990 of ordinary shares.

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