Other reports on AEGON’s performance

Goldman Sachs

Sustainable returns in global insurance

Goldman Sachs ranked AEGON as one of the top five global life insurance companies in terms of its management of environmental, social and governance issues.

SOMO (Center for Research on Multinational Corporations)

Overview of controversial business practices in 2008

SOMO's report highlighted two main issues:

1. Investments made by one of AEGON's Socially Responsible Investment funds in the United Kingdom in Tullow Oil, an energy company with interests in, among other places, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

2. Donations made by AEGON's Political Action Committee in the United States.

AEGON responded in detail to the contents of the report. Click here for a copy of the original report and for AEGON's reply, please click here.

Separately, SOMO also raised concerns about an investment in the Chinese energy company Sinopec, held by AIFMC, AEGON's asset management joint venture in China. For a copy of  AEGON's response to SOMO, please click here.

EIRIS

AEGON profile

EIRIS, an independent research company, published an extensive review of AEGON's performance with regard to Environmental, Social and Governance issues. EIRIS' report provided the following assessments:

Environmental impact: Medium potential

Environmental policy: Good policy and commitment

Environmental management: Good

Environmental reporting: Weak

Environmental performance: No improvement

Board practice:

All core governance elements.

Separates role of Chairman and Chief Executive.

More than 33% of board are independent non-executives.

Has majority independent audit committee.

Discloses directors' remuneration.

Bribery risk exposure: Medium exposure.

Countering bribery: Intermediate overall approach.

Codes of ethics: Advanced

ESG risk management: Good company-wide ESG risk management.

Responsibility for stakeholders: Five or more stakeholder issues allocated at board level.

Women on the board: One or more, but not 20% of directors are women.

Human rights policy: Limited policy (smaller presence).

Human rights systems: Limited (smaller presence).

Human rights reporting: None

Stakeholder policy: Good overall

Stakeholder engagement: Moderate disclosure. 

Eerlijke Bankwijzer

(Fair Bank Guide)

During 2009, Eerlijke Bankwijzer - a coalition of various non-governmental organizations in the Netherlands - issued a series of reports on the performance of the Dutch banking and financial services sector, particularly with regard to economic, social and environmental questions. These reports highlighted a number of issues, including alleged investments in the manufacture of cluster bombs.

Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs

(Transparantiebenchmark)

In 2009, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs published its 'transparency benchmark' score for AEGON, based on the company's 2008 Corporate Responsibility Report. Compiled by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the Transparency benchmark measures companies in the Netherlands against a series of economic, social, governance and environmental criteria. AEGON's total score was 55 out of a possible 100, up from 46 the previous year. For each section of the benchmark, AEGON scored the following:

Profile (5 out of 10)

Vision & strategy (8 out of 10)

Management of the company (6 out of 10)

Supply chain management (4 out of 10)

Stakeholders (9 out of 10)

Economic aspects (5 out of 10)

Environmental aspects (7 out of 10)

Social aspects (6 out of 10)

Assurance & verification (1 out of 10)

Process & execution (4 out of 10)

AEGON's scores for Supply chain management, Stakeholders and Assurance & Verification all showed an improvement compared with the previous year. Profile was lower; the other sections were unchanged.