In conversation with Antoine Lissowski chief executive officer of CNP assurances
Question 1/7 : People needed to lean heavily on insurers during the pandemic crisis. How did CNP Assurances step up?
We immediately swung into action – together with our partners –to support our policyholders. We gave both business and self-employed customers breathing space by extending their premium payment periods. We automatically postponed the term creditor insurance payments for young people qualifying for postponement of their student loan repayments, with no loss of their cover. Together with our fellow insurers in France, we covered time off work for policyholders with long-term illnesses and pregnant women. Going beyond the contractual arrangements, we decided to cover time off work where policyholders had to stay home to look after children from the very first day on which the schools closed. We also reached out to those in need by taking various measures for people badly hit by the crisis, such as carers, students, elderly people living on their own and women at risk of domestic abuse.
Question 2/7 : Insurers face a growing burden of expectations. What role do you see for personal insurers in today’s world?
An insurer’s role is to shield its customers from the effects of crises. It is also to ride out the storms battering society, and we are currently looking at how to establish innovative public/private partnerships to deal more effectively with such extreme scenarios. Personal insurers such as CNP Assurances also need to stay one step ahead of changes in society. Here I’m thinking about an ageing population, loss of independent living skills and the divisions that are emerging within society, and insurers need to provide constructive, effective solutions over the long term that are affordable for as many people as possible.
Question 3/7 : What are the main priorities for the insurance sector?
Persistently low interest rates, a real drag on the savings of the middle classes are the first priority. We need to enhance the returns we offer savers in France, while keeping their savings safe, channel a higher proportion into carefully selected unit-linked products, and provide security without sticking purely to euro-denominated vehicles. The second priority for the insurance sector is addressing the emergence of a new category of planet-wide risks – the pandemic with its myriad consequences and global warming. Guarding against such universal risks is part of our role as an insurer, and we have called for an open dialogue between public and private partners to devise novel protection mechanisms. It’s up to insurers to invent ways of keeping people safe.
Question 4/7 : What have you learned from the pandemic?
It really impressed me how we reached out to those in need and found new ways of doing things. Together with all our stakeholders, we faced unprecedented challenges, but responded by raising our game in our insurance activities and forging even closer relationships with policyholders.
The pandemic prompted us to accelerate all the changes underway in our organisation: it made them more vital, more urgent and more accessible too. There’s no going back on them – they’re here to stay! We intend to take homeworking to the next level. With our partners, we plan to capitalise on the recent experience of 100% digital working and pursue the development of seamless relationships with policyholders throughout the life of their policy. We have set up workgroups to enhance our value proposition through an overhaul of our savings & pension and personal risk & protection offerings and the customer experience. Lastly, recent events have given us an even keener sense of our responsibilities as a major investor and made us more determined to shift our focus towards the real economy, the environmental transition and, in a nutshell, people.
Question 5/7 : CNP Assurances has committed to spend €300 million to help revitalise the economy. Why?
At the height of the crisis, we contributed €24 million to the solidarity fund established by the industry to help micro-companies and independent professionals weather the storm. In the future, they will have to repay state-guaranteed emergency treasury loans from a reduced revenue stream. Unlisted and family-owned businesses, the backbone of our economy, will be short of capital. At our instigation, Caisse des Dépôts reintroduced the NOVO investment funds. Under the programme, insurers will devote €1.5 billion to increasing SMEs’ capital base and support the healthcare and tourism sectors. We are one of the largest contributors to the country’s economic and social reconstruction programme, and we are proud to be involved in reshoring the healthcare industry and funding hospitals and nursing homes as part of our core mission of protecting people.
Question 6/7 : CNP Assurances has consistently met its green targets. How far do you intend to go in this direction?
Ultimately, we want to make our investment portfolio completely carbon-neutral. And when we joined the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, we committed to doing so by 2050. We have met almost all our climate commitments for 2021 and immediately raised the bar as we hit them. Our plans for a complete withdrawal from thermal coal are already in place. We intend to double our green investments – in forests, renewables, green bonds, and so on – to €20 billion by 2023. By doing so, we hope to give our planet’s climate a real chance while enabling our policyholders to make a difference with their savings.
Question 7/7 : In its new communications campaign, CNP Assurances thinks outside the box to find ways of insuring a more open world. For what? And for whom?
We are open to and engage with the changes in society. In today’s world, our lives no longer take a smooth path from point A to B. For example, some people have several different jobs, and co-habiting is no longer just for young people – it’s now an option pensioners on low incomes are considering. We see these new paradigms and seek to protect people, ignoring any taboos and without passing any judgement. We are open to and engage with the world thanks to our multi-partner, international business model. Our new ownership structure and our new plans for the future alongside La Banque Postale, as part of a major European bancassurance group dedicated to meeting regions’ and citizens’ needs, also underpin our outward-looking approach.