Caring for people’s future

Insurers, with the resources they are responsible for, not only offer protection to individuals, but can also finance sustainable projects that provide society with something more than just profitability. Today, 76% of insurance companies take ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria into account in their investments, projects and development. At MAPFRE we have been working for nearly 90 years with a strong commitment to people and the planet, and today 100% of our suppliers are approved with ESG criteria and 90% of our investment portfolio is qualified with the same criteria.

This commitment is aligned with the desire to contribute to achieving the goals set out in Agenda 2030 by making shared challenges our own. Taking care of people now to achieve a sustainable future.

Thanks to insurance, we have peace of mind and a sense of security that enables us to face new challenges, as we saw in this article. Insurance is a part of almost every action we take and every stage of our lives: it protects our savings, takes care of our health and offers a way to help with the formalities and costs of death. Insurance contributes to reducing inequality and generating a society in which the gaps grow narrower and narrower.

Savings

With more than 19 million participants in savings-related insurance instruments, this area is one of the main focuses of future care. This is even more true when considering that this category’s most popular instrument, as highlighted in the UNESPA report, is the pension plan, followed by group insurance and capital savings. In total, insured assets amount to nearly 252 billion euros.  

Health

Practically one out of every four residents of Spain (24.41%) has a health-related insurance policy, with Madrid (38.11%) and Catalonia (32.82%) being the autonomous communities with the largest population with one of these products. By contrast, Cantabria and Navarre are at the bottom with 12.87% and 10.79%, respectively.

These insurance policies protect all age groups, although the age group that has the most health insurance is that of people between 41 and 50 years of age, where 20% of the population is a user of this product.  

Burial and life insurance

By 2021, more than 40% of the Spanish population will have taken out a burial insurance policy, with the percentage gradually increasing by age group, reaching 60% of the population aged 70 and over.  

Automobile

Another of the best known and most common products is auto insurance, present from the simplest cases of breakdowns and repairs to more serious situations, such as accidents.

Unfortunately, the statistics of traffic accidents leave us with more than 188,000 victims between the injured, dead and all those affected by the death of a victim: spouses, children, relatives… All of them are taken care of in one way or another by insurance.

Asset protection

Home, community, commercial and industrial insurance policies give us peace of mind and also the risk capacity to progress while feeling protected. During 2021, the insurance industry paid out over €1.6 billion for home mishaps and more than €3.2 billion in business-related compensation.

Employment and equality

Insurance companies are firmly committed to stable and quality employment, with more than 96% permanent contracts. It is also the ninth industry in the country with the highest salaries. It also highlights the promotion of training among employees, flexible working hours and work-from-home options, as well as the promotion of internal talent and attention to equal opportunities.

In this last aspect, since 1987 the evolution has gone from 31% of the workforce being made up of women to 60% in 2021, with 30% of the industry’s management positions occupied by women. In the case of MAPFRE, women accounted for 55% of jobs and 57% of new hires during 2021, a year in which more than 49% of vacancies in senior positions were also filled by women.

Beyond the industry itself, insurance is also present as a benefit provided by companies to their employees in multiple forms, such as life, health and supplementary social protection insurance.

Financial culture and training

During 2021, the training programs promoted by the industry continued to be implemented, both in Dual Vocational Training courses in Insurance and in financial education, where more than 2,500 students between 15 and 17 years old were trained on basic economics, risks and the most common financial products.

Insurance companies, by themselves and through their alliances with the public sector, represent a valuable resource for protecting the environment, both in cases where natural disasters cause damage, and in those where people have caused the damage.

But it is not only damage that is compensated. The industry is committed to the transition to new forms of energy and new forms of mobility that are more respectful of the environment, and it is a key ally of agriculture and livestock farming when facing the climate, disease and accidents.

At MAPFRE, we are very aware of the environment as one of the cornerstones of our Sustainability policy, as you can learn about in this section of our website.

As we said at the beginning of this article, the insurance industry is committed to transparency and to society. That is why we promote good governance, ethical and socially responsible policies, and internal and external dialog as a way of making a joint effort between the private and public sectors and citizens to take care of ourselves and join the transformation that the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and Agenda 2030 set out.

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