ESG Policy

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Kyobo Life Insurance established a sustainable management system in 2011 with focus on ‘humanistic management philosophy,’ which has been maintained since the foundation. In addition, we have been leading stakeholder-oriented sustainability management by stating the philosophy of sustainability management, ‘the pursuit of mutual growth with stakeholders,’ in the preface of Articles of Incorporation.

Recent environmental changes, such as abnormal climate and digital transformation, have changed our lives. Society is in need of a new world. Companies are urged so-called ‘new Entrepreneurship,’ which considers various stakeholders surrounding a company rather than seeking profits only.

In 2022, Kyobo Life Insurance has established the ESG policy, a public declaration on how to respond to each ESG issue, in order to pursue sustainable management in a sincere manner. The ESG management department will manage and monitor ESG policies continuously by cooperating with relative department.

Kyobo Life Insurance will create a promising future for the next generation by actively practicing sustainable management based on the sustainability management philosophy of ‘pursuing mutual growth with all stakeholders.’

Kyobo Life complies with environmental laws and policies to contribute to preserving the environment;
The following guidelines have been established and implemented to ensure sustainable growth.
  • Kyobo Life voluntarily complies with environment related laws, regulations and international agreements, and fulfills its social responsibilities.
  • Kyobo Life monitors greenhouse gas emissions and use of energy to minimize impact on the environment while conducting its business, and engages in activities to improve the environment.
  • Kyobo Life endeavors to expand green finance and environmentally friendly investment to reinforce eco-friendly business management.
  • Kyobo Life provides education on environmental management to strengthen the environmental management capability of the executives and employees, and to spread the environmental management culture.
  • Kyobo Life shares its green activities and achievements with the stakeholders in a transparent manner.

Contribution and Sponsorship

All contributions and sponsorships by Kyobo Life are conducted through business activities in an independent manner, and are executed ethically and according to a due process. Kyobo Life bans political use of funds by and indirect funding for specific political parties or groups other than pure donation or sponsorship. This policy applies equally to all the stakeholders including employees, suppliers, affiliates and groups across all countries and regions.

Contributions or sponsorships may not be granted in relation to auction, bidding, contract renewal or future businesses, and shall not be granted as a means to obtain favorable business terms from relevant institutions or affiliates.

Contributions or sponsorships shall be used for public services transparently, in compliance with relevant laws, and appropriation for inappropriate business or personal interest is prohibited.

Any contribution or sponsorship shall be executed after reporting to and obtaining approval from the authority, and compliance with the Work Ethic Standard shall be verified upon execution.

Anti-harassment and Bullying

Kyobo Life conducts business based on Humanism Management Philosophy.
We respect workers’ dignity. We strictly forbid discrimination in the workplace and deal with sexual harassment and bullying with zero tolerance policy.

1. Anti-harassment Policy

Kyobo Life forbids sexual harassment, i.e. business owners, higher rank seniors or workers using his/her superior position to make sexual advances or request sexual favors related to work causing the other person to feel sexually humiliated or disgusted, or such conducts of giving someone disadvantage in his/her working conditions or employment due to his/her rejection of sexual advances or other requests.

Immediate action will be taken against sexual harassment upon receipt of a complaint according to zero tolerance policy, and the identity of the victim or the reporter is strictly protected to prevent them from any disadvantages of reporting such conduct. Furthermore, in case the reported conduct is confirmed to have actually happened, due measures such as disciplinary action, corrective measure or legal measure will be taken.

Anti-harassment Prevention Training

Training is provided more than once a year to all employees to eradicate and prevent sexual harassment.

Reporting and Counseling
  • Complaint reporting: the victim or a witness can report sexual harassment anonymously at the Ombudsman Office using the hotline or the Internal Report Center that is operated by the compliance officer. Complaints can be made via email, telephone or a meeting.
  • Official handling procedure: the investigation team consisting of HR department, lawyer and labor attorney investigates the facts and determines the countermeasure. Upon receipt of a complaint or acknowledgement of an incident, the company investigates the case without delay, and makes sure that the victim is heard and does not feel insulted during the investigation.
Disciplinary and Corrective Measure
  • When the actor is confirmed to have violated the company policy through investigation, appropriate disciplinary actions will be taken based on relevant laws, regulations and company rules according to zero tolerance policy.
  • Appropriate measures such as relocation within the workplace to avoid secondary damage, paid vacation or counseling are taken for the victim to proactively support his/her recovery of rights and psychological health. No actions are taken against the victim’s will throughout the complaint handling process.
  • In case anyone receives a disciplinary action due to workplace harassment, measures taken against the actor and to resolve the incident are disclosed in the annual Sustainability Report. However, specific details of the incident may not be disclosed if confidentiality is required to protect the victim’s identity and human rights.

2. Anti-bullying Policy

As stipulated in the anti-bullying clause of the company’s internal policy (Employment Regulation), Kyobo Life forbids workplace bullying, i.e. users or workers using his/her position or relationship within the workplace to cause physical or psychological pain to other workers or deteriorate the working environment.

Whether the reported conduct can be construed as workplace bullying is determined through comprehensive consideration of the details of the incident including the relationship between the parties, location and circumstance of the conduct, explicit or presumptive reaction of the victim in response to the conduct, and the description and the severity of the conduct. Immediate action will be taken against workplace bullying upon receipt of a complaint according to zero tolerance policy, and the identity of the victim or the reporter is strictly protected to prevent them from any disadvantages of reporting such conduct.

Furthermore, in case the reported conduct is confirmed to have actually happened, due measures such as disciplinary action, corrective measure or legal measure will be taken.

Anti-bullying Prevention Training
  • Training is provided more than once a year to all employees to prevent workplace bullying.
Reporting and Counseling
  • Complaint reporting: the victim or a witness can report workplace bullying anonymously at the Ombudsman Office using the hotline or the Internal Report Center that is operated by the compliance officer. Complaints can be made via email, telephone or a meeting.
  • Counseling & investigation: based on the received complaint, counseling and investigation are proceeded to verify the details of the incident, whether the conduct was repetitive and continuous, and the severity of the damage to the victim, and to collect direct or circumstantial evidence.
  • Fact check & disciplinary action: after verifying the facts based on the investigation, appropriate disciplinary action is determined if such is necessary as per the company regulation.
  • Notice of outcome: the reporter or the victim is informed of any disciplinary actions taken or whether anyone has been relocated to a different department.
Disciplinary and Corrective Measure
  • Once the charge is confirmed and it requires disciplinary action according to the company regulation, appropriate disciplinary action shall be taken.
  • Relevant trainings will be reinforced and the incident shall be followed up with continuously in order to prevent recurrence and retaliation.
  • In case anyone receives a disciplinary action due to workplace bullying, measures taken against the actor and to resolve the incident are disclosed in the annual Sustainability Report. However, specific details of the incident may not be disclosed for the purpose of protecting victim’s privacy and confidentiality.

Diversity

Kyobo Life supports the “culture of diversity and inclusion” which recognizes and accepts the difference of individuals within the organization.

We are building an organizational culture where everyone understands and embraces other members of the organization- regardless of gender, title or nationality, whether working at the headquarters or in the field, whether scouted from another company or whether somebody has a disability.

Through these efforts, we aim to become an “organization capable of innovation” by abolishing “discrimination” in the organization and nurturing creativity of the individuals.

  • Discrimination upon new hiring based on applicant’s gender, age, kinship, regional or educational background, race, religion or social position is strictly forbidden. 
  • Unjustifiable sexual discrimination, i.e. treating male and female differently without a rational reason, is forbidden.  
  • Fixed-term or short-term contractors shall not be discriminated against regular workers.
  • Religious and cultural aspects of foreign workers shall be respected and not be a cause for discriminatory treatment.
  • There will be no discrimination upon job assignment, and opportunities for promotion, compensation and training shall be granted fairly without discrimination to all executives and employees based purely on personal capability and objective performance.
  • Elements that could cause discrimination within the workplace such as factionalism shall be continuously identified and controlled.
  • Targets regarding key diversity indexes such as the ratio of female executives shall be established and managed

Human Rights

Kyobo Life conducts business based on Humanism Management Philosophy.
To ensure that our business respects human rights (Human Rights Management), we support and comply with international standards and guidelines on human rights including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Core ILO Conventions and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct. For the first time in the insurance industry, Kyobo Life signed the 10 Principles of the UN Global Compact in 2010, manifesting our intention to practice Human Rights Management internally and externally.

Kyobo Life strives to preserve workers’ dignity and rights, and strictly forbids discrimination at work. We provide opportunities fairly without discrimination through systematic process management of risks pertaining to human rights, and ensure that direct or indirect violation of human rights does not occur during work. Also, we exert continuous efforts to protect and promote human rights through regular training on respecting human rights and establishing relevant regulations within the company.

The members of Kyobo Life (including executives, employees and contract workers) comply with this human rights policy, and encourage all stakeholders they work with to honor the human rights policy.

1. Human Rights Principles

Non-discrimination

No employee shall be discriminated in terms of hiring, employment, promotion, training, salary and welfare based on his/her gender, race, ethnic group, nationality, religion, disability, age, family composition, place of origin, social position or political opinion. Any confirmed incident of discrimination shall be handled according to zero tolerance policy.

Prohibition of Forced Labor and Child Labor

No employee shall be subject to such conduct as assault, blackmail or confinement, or be forced to working against his/her free will through psychological or physical restraint including human trafficking and slavery. Furthermore, child labor is fundamentally prohibited, and measures are taken for underage workers so that they are not deprived of education due to work.

Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining

Kyobo Life honors the Labor Relations Acts of the countries to which this human rights policy applies, and provides sufficient opportunity for communication to all members of the staff.

2. Human Rights Management System

Expansion of Human Rights Management

We disclose information on human rights policies and implementation plan, evaluation procedure and outcome of human rights related risks.

Human Rights related Risk Management and Handling Process
  • Complaint reporting: complaints can be reported at the Ombudsman Office using the hotline, and anonymity is guaranteed for the persons who file complaint or receive counseling.
  • Handling process: the investigation team consisting of HR department, lawyer and labor attorney investigates the facts and determines the countermeasure. 
Human Rights Impact Assessment and Monitoring Process
  • Human Rights Impact Assessment is conducted to identify any risk of or impact on human rights through participation of such stakeholders as suppliers and shareholders, and to seek prevention and mitigation of such risk and impact.
  1. 01.Categorization of human rights areas
  2. 02. Human rights due diligence
  3. 03. Identification of improvement means and mitigation
  4. 04. Outcome reporting

Occupational Safety and Health

In order to provide a safe and healthy workplace for the employees, Kyobo Life complies with laws and regulations related to safety and health, and strives to create a safe and healthy work environment

1. Policy

  • The company exerts utmost efforts to create a safe and healthy workplace
  • The company complies with laws and regulations related to safety and health
  • The company seeks to enhance the level of safety and health through voluntary participation and cooperation of the staff
  • The company continues to eliminate dangerous risk factors by developing and implementing plans pertaining to safety and health
  • The company supports suppliers with activities promoting safety and health to prevent occupational accidents

2. Management System

Safety & Health Management Organization
Supervisor for Safety & Health Management
  • Development of safety & health policy
  • Prevention of risk elements and obstacles to staff’s health
Chief of Safety & Health Management
  • Overall management of safety & health management
  • Planning of safety & health activities
Person in charge of Safety Management
  • Identification and elimination of dangerous risk factors
  • Safety control such as walk-around inspection of company building
Person in charge of Health Management
  • Prevention of health obstacles/ staff health checkup and mitigation
  • Log-keeping and reporting of industrial accidents
Dedicated Safety & Health Management Organiaztion
(Safety & Health Management Center)
  • Control tower for serious accidents prevention
  • Development of safety & health system
Manager
  • Reporting of industrial accidents
  • Implementation of emergency measures and recurrence prevention measures
Occupational Safety and Health Committee
  • Organization: to be composed of employee representatives and employer representatives as per the enforcement decree of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
  • Matters subject to deliberation and decision-making: development of industrial disaster prevention plan, employee safety & health training, investigation and improvement of work environment, investigation of cause of serious industrial disasters and development of recurrence prevention measures, record-keeping and maintenance of industrial disaster statistics, safety & health ensuring measures for dangerous facilities, etc

Information Security

Kyobo Life endeavors to establish a safe information security management system and to protect customer data. We were the first Korean insurance company to obtain the ISO 27001 certification, the international standard for information security, in 2007 and have been maintaining it ever since. Kyobo Life established the Information Security Policy to clearly define the security control measures and the accountability pertaining to all personal (credit) information of the customers that could be obtained during the course of customer data entrustment. The Information Security Policy applies to the headquarters and all local and overseas branches, affiliates, subsidiaries, partner companies and companies entrusted with customer data.

Information Security Risk Management
  • Information security is categorized as non-financial risk, and relevant risk factors are reviewed and regularly monitored. According to Kyobo Life’s Guideline on Treatment of Personal Data, we organized the Consultative Group for Information Security to systematically manage national security at the enterprise level, customer data protection, IT security and general security.
  • The suitability of the in-house security system operation is checked periodically, and the security solution and the record of customer data inquiry by the staff are analyzed so as to detect abnormal behavior of the staff and request his/her explanation.
  • Execution of customer data protection is checked regularly at agencies/entrusted companies (quarterly) and branches (frequently), and also through self-evaluation (quarterly) in order to enhance employees’ understanding of customer data protection, and on-going training on customer data protection is provided to all employees and financial planners.
Disciplinary Action upon Violation
  • Disciplinary action shall be imposed on the executive/employee or the organization that violates the Information Security Policy in accordance with relevant laws and company regulations (Staff Discipline Recommendation Criteria), and the level of the disciplinary action shall be determined according to the type and the severity of the violation.
Audit on Information Security
  • According to Article 20.6 of the Credit Information Utilization and Protection Act and Article 22.2.3 of the Credit Information Business Supervision Regulations, Kyobo Life audits the personal credit information management and protection status every year and reports the outcome to the Financial Security Institute (Financial Services Commission). In case an area for possible improvement is identified, the improvement is made immediately and the implementation of the improvement will be monitored.
Dedicated Personnel for Information Security

Kyobo Life has assigned a dedicated person for information security to be responsible for collecting feedback and handling complaints regarding information security.

Title of table
Dedicated Person for Information Security Responsible for Information Security (CPO)
Contact 02-721-3968

Board Diversity

Kyobo Life’s board is composed of directors with expertise in diverse areas so that the board can make important decisions in consideration of broader spectrum of stakeholders including shareholders and customers and from a comprehensive perspective.
In addition, to ensure that the board does not share a specific common background or represent a certain group, we pursue diversity in our board composition in terms of gender, age, background, nationality, race, religion, ethnic group and cultural background.
Kyobo Life seeks to achieve diversity within the board by appointing 20% or more female candidates for outside directorship, and elects our outside directors in a fair and transparent manner.

Expertise
  • Areas of expertise: finance, economy, business management, digital technology, law, accounting, consumer protection, etc
  • Expert capability: director of a financial company with abundant professional knowledge or work experience in the respective sector
Diversity
  • Gender: ensuring that the board does not consist of a specific gender
  • Age: achieving diversity of perspectives by harmonizing experience and flexibility
  • Background: avoiding concentration on specific region, sector or profession
  • Nationality, race, religion, ethnic group and cultural background: pursuing diversity within the scope permitted by laws and regulations

1. Overview

In tandem with its philosophy of sustainable business management that “pursues mutual growth with all stakeholders,” Kyobo Life promotes ESG management that takes into account the environmental (E), social (S) and governance (G) criteria. Kyobo Life was the first Korean insurance company to join the UN Global Compact, and is working hard to actively communicate with the stakeholders by publishing the Sustainability Report every year, sharing our sustainable business management activities and achievements.

ESG awareness is growing across the globe. In particular, natural disasters caused by climate change are not only impacting our daily lives but they are also affecting the way we run our businesses. Accordingly, the international society adopted the Paris Agreement in 2016, agreeing to join efforts to stop the rise of average global temperature, and governments of numerous countries including Korea committed to achieving net zero in 2050- meaning net carbon emissions will be reduced to zero by 2050- and are introducing regulations and systems to obtain this goal.

In line with such changes in the business environment, Kyobo Life is exerting efforts to contribute to a sustainable future by, for example, declaring its “coal phase-out” policy in May 2021, according to which no more investment will be made in construction of new coal power plant, and issuing KRW470 billion worth of ESG-certified hybrid securities in September 2021 for the first time as a local life insurance company.

While proactively responding to the shifting business environment including climate change as a faithful manager of customers’ assets, we would like to share our sustainable investment policy that incorporates ESG in the decision-making process in order to generate stable long-term profit.

We plan to comprehensively examine the risks and the opportunities our investment methodology could entail, respond to changes in business environment preemptively by considering ESG factors in our investment decision-making process, and strive to achieve responsible investment when managing our assets. Through these efforts, we will practice sustainable business management that generates robust profit for our customers and pursues mutual growth with all of our stakeholders.

2. Sustainable Investment System

As a faithful manager of our customers’ assets, Kyobo Life has been making efforts to build a system for ESG investment to ensure stable profit for our stakeholders through responsible asset management.

Scope
  • Retail lending, stocks, bonds, alternative investment, etc
Principle
  • Principles for a sustainable company to ensure long-term mutual growth
Process
  1. 01. Identification and proposal of investment opportunity
    Discovering and proposing businesses and projects considering ESG criteria
  2. 02. Deliberation
    Systemizing ESG impact evaluation through ESG scoring
    • Selecting investment targets using Negative/Positive Screening
    • Adopting the ESG checklist in the investment decision-making process to estimate ESG impact on the investment target and support effective ESG investment
  3. 03. Execution
  4. 04. Monitoring
Screening
Negative Screening
Guideline for Socially Responsible Investment
  • Specify definition and scope of maleficent companies and restrict investment therein
  • Tobacco (tobacco produces around the world)
  • Inhumane weapons (cluster bombs, anti-personnel mines, etc)
  • Declaration of Coal Phase-out Policy in May 2021
Positive Screening
Securities
  • Increased investment in international stock ESG ETF (clean energy, smart grid, electric vehicle, secondary battery, etc) and ESG fixed-income funds, increased direct investment in ESG bonds including green bond and social bond
Alternative investment
  • Continuous increase of investment in domestic/international eco-friendly energy and infrastructure facilities

3. Scope of Sustainable Investment

Based on the Sustainable Investment System, Kyobo Life provides the following financial products for asset management.

Retail lending
  • Assets acquired by lending money to personal customers or individual businesses; e.g. unsecured loan, secured loan
Stocks
  • Stocks and certificate of investment, depository receipts, stock warrants, IPO shares, etc
Bond
  • National and public bonds, special bonds, non-guaranteed bond, equity linked securities, bond related products, etc
Alternative Investment
  • Corporate lending, special lending (infrastructure financing, acquisition financing, asset-backed finance, other project financing), project financing, PEF, high-yield, financial advisory/arrangement, etc

4. Principles of Sustainable Investment

For the purpose of generating robust profit for the stakeholders through long-term, stable asset management and securing the company’s competitiveness, Kyobo Life strives to comply with the following six principles:

  • Kyobo Life actively considers the ESG related risks and opportunities when making investment decisions to achieve mutual growth of the stakeholders over the long term.
  • Kyobo Life restricts investment in sectors that have adverse impact from the ESG perspective or in sensitive and cautionary sectors according to the investment process. Also, following the Coal Phase-out declaration, Kyobo Life does not invest in projects involved in building new coal power plants.
  • Kyobo Life endeavors to invest in areas necessary to fulfil social responsibility and protect the environment, and to increase participation in such projects.
  • Kyobo Life continues to mutually cooperate with trade partners, customers and stakeholders in implementing the sustainable investment policy.
  • Kyobo Life exerts continuous effort to enhance asset managers’ awareness of sustainable business management and to develop their management capability.
  • Kyobo Life strives to share the status and the direction of sustainable investment in a transparent manner, and to faithfully report the ESG policy and the progress of implementation.
[Reference] Kyobo Life’s Coal Phase-out Policy

In May 2021, Kyobo Life declared the Coal Phase-out Policy as a means to proactively respond to climate change and committed to execute the following to ensure a sustainable future:

  • To not take part in project financing aiming to build new coal power plants domestically and internationally;
  • To not acquire bonds issued by special purpose companies (SPC) established to build new coal power plants domestically and internationally;
  • To not acquire any other bonds issued for the purpose of building coal power plants domestically and internationally; and
  • To expand environmentally-friendly investment in such as new and renewable energy, considering the ESG criteria.

5. Sustainable Investment Process

This policy applies to the investment activities conducted by Kyobo Life and shall follow the below process:

  1. 01. Identification and proposal of investment opportunities
  2. 02. Deliberation
  3. 03. Execution
  4. 04. Monitoring
Identification and Proposal of Investment Opportunities

The Investment Team at Kyobo Life shall strive to identify and propose business and project opportunities that comply with the sustainable investment policy. The Investment Team shall make decisions on investment targets internally by considering the following:

Retail lending
  • To restrict financial support for purposes that go against environmental or social/public interest or for use in criminal acts
Stock
  • To make investments considering the impact of individual stocks on environment, society and governance
Bond
  • To make investments considering not only duration, yield and credit rating but also ESG factors when selecting the bonds
Alternative Investment
  • To invest in assets or companies related with new & renewable and high-efficiency energy, and thereby contribute to smooth financing of eco-friendly businesses and innovation of relevant technologies
  • To invest in social welfare projects related to residence, health and education and low-income bracket support projects, and thereby contribute to co-development of the society
  • To consider potential technology development and job creation when investing in SMEs
  • To primarily consider ESG related risk factors when considering investment
Deliberation

The basic principle of the department responsible for deliberation is to examine the investment target against the ESG criteria according to the detailed rules for asset evaluation. The department analyzes and considers the impact of the potential investment on environment, society and governance. The subject investment must pass the Negative Screening, and will be evaluated according to the environmental (e.g. environmental regulation, use of resources), social (e.g. work environment, fair trade) and governance (e.g. stockholders’ right, investment structure) criteria.

  • To evaluate and score local companies and project financing based on ESG criteria that reflects the characteristics of the respective target
  • To assign ESG grades based on the evaluation: A (very good), B (good), C (average), D (poor), E (very poor)
  • Possibility of investment by ESG grade: A~C- investment possible; D- selectively possible; E- investment restricted.
  • Nevertheless, investment or line assignment may be possible to grade E with approval from the Investment Asset Deliberation Committee
Execution

Investment is executed after going through the approval process, if the identified impact on ESG elements passes investment screening and the review of the actual implementation plan is complete.

Monitoring

The team in charge of execution and the team in charge of follow-up conduct on-going monitoring of ESG risks and their mitigation measures regarding the investment made.

Kyobo Life complies with the tax laws and acknowledges that fulfilling the duty to faithfully pay the taxes is an act of exercising corporate social responsibility. We faithfully pay our taxes in accordance with domestic and international tax laws, and do not take part in illegal tax evasion or conducts that are considered illegal by the tax laws. We honestly report to the tax authority of our tax related matters and annually report our corporation tax through the external tax adjuster based on the financial statements audited by our external auditors.

Tax Risk Management

The key to Kyobo Life’s tax risk management is “strict compliance with laws and regulations.” We maintain a transparent relationship with the tax authority, and submit all necessary proofs to support the facts upon request. Furthermore, as a global company, we recognize the difference of tax laws across the countries and try to prevent any tax risk in advance. We do not utilize a tax structure with no commercial entity tax evasion, and do not transfer our income to our related or subordinate companies located in tax haven countries. Kyobo Life understands the risk of double taxation caused by competition between tax authorities over the right of taxation pertaining to transfer pricing, and conducts our transactions according to the arm’s length principle to resolve such risk.

Disclosure of Tax Payments

Kyobo Life discloses corporation tax information in the Business Report that is exhibited in the Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART) of Financial Supervisory Service. The Business Report contains such information as the corporation tax expense, deferred tax asset and liability, detailed composition of corporation tax expense and effective tax rate.

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