Allianz Case Study 2025

The same governance bodies in Allianz sign off our sustainability statement at the same level of reasonable assurance as our financial report – there is no difference in approach. Jonathan Loewens, Group Accounting at Allianz Group Allianz advocates for reliable global data sets enabling action on environmental matters JANUARY 2025 This case study is the third in a series produced by the World Economic Forum that aims to shed light on how preparers are approaching the challenge of reporting against the new Standards of the IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The case studies, based on interviews with high-level executives, will make the case for the benefits to companies of applying the Standards and integrating the disclosures into mainstream reporting. 1.1 Introduction Allianz is the world’s biggest insurance company and the largest financial services company in Europe. Headquartered in Germany, the company employs 155,000 people and serves 125 million private and corporate customers in almost 70 countries. In 2023, the company turned over €161 billion and had €2.4 trillion of assets under management. The company has reported on sustainability-related topics for more than 20 years. To date, it has disclosed its sustainability data in both its mainstream annual report and in a dedicated sustainability report using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Standards for the insurance and asset management industry. However, from 2024 onwards, Allianz is required to report in line with the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) . This will prompt the company to drop its separate sustainability report and include a sustainability statement as required by the CSRD in its annual report. This statement will be around 150 pages long, almost doubling the length of the annual report. In parallel, the company will publish a short document summarizing the key messages of its sustainability statement. In 2023, the IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) finalized its first two standards, which aim to help companies provide decision-useful sustainability-related financial information to investors. For this article, we interviewed Allianz’s Jonathan Loewens, Group Accounting at Allianz Group, to understand how the company is approaching the task of mandatory sustainability reporting and to learn lessons for companies looking to report in line with both the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the ISSB Standards. This article considers the following key questions: –What are the challenges in obtaining reliable data on sustainability-related matters? –How do you go about identifying and obtaining information from the value chain? –How do you ensure that your sustainability-related data is reliable, complete, timely and decision-useful? Following a summary of key takeaways, the article opens with a brief look at Allianz’s sustainability-related goals and targets, addresses some of the challenges and solutions related to the key questions above, and closes with reflections on what the company has learned from the reporting process and what advice it offers newcomers to sustainability reporting and disclosures.