Annual reports

We believe that our colleagues’ time is best spent helping our customers and we are exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can help us achieve this across our business. In our call centres in the Netherlands, we introduced automated call logging in 2023 to provide our agents with an automatic summary of their customer conversations, replacing a manual process. With over two million calls logged each year at 3.5 minutes per call after call handling time, using AI to create these summaries enables our employees to make more time to support our customers and focus on the conversation. AI can also help identify customer claims that need further attention or a personal touch. NN brand OHRA handles a large portion of their claims through an automated process, allowing for a quick and efficient process. However, some situations require closer attention and leniency than the standard process allows. Their machine learning model the Human Scale (Menselijke maat) uses text pattern recognition and predefined business rules to identify claims that require attention from an employee. By using this model, OHRA is able to provide personalised care to their customers when needed, while still maintaining an efficient process for the majority of claims.  

We are responding to the rise in mental health problems in the Netherlands and Europe. With statistics showing depression and burnout on the rise among the self-employed, NN Belgium integrated preventive mental well-being services for this group as an add-on to its disability insurance, including counselling, life coaching and mindfulness. The service is unique in the Belgian market and was recognised by the 2023 DECAVI insurance award in the innovation category. Nationale-Nederlanden was among the first insurers in Poland to add a rider to its group life insurance providing psychological and psychiatric support in the event of mental health disorders. The product is offered in the form of group insurance as coverage for employees or as an extended version that also covers their families. In the Netherlands, Non-life published research in September 2023 that found that absenteeism due to mental health problems increased in the first half of 2023, with a quarter of employees experiencing too much stress. In addition to its occupational health & safety services, Netherlands Non-life offers a prevention package that helps employers and employees avoid absenteeism. Following a successful pilot, NN Non-life alongside another seven organisations has initiated a programme on employee mental vitality, as a collaboration with Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organisation and Lab of Life. Employees become certified trainers in supporting fellow colleagues to feel less stress and focus on what is important for them. Across our markets we also partner with NGOs to support community programmes in this area. 

NN Life Japan has been investing in technology and data skills by upskilling employees in technical domains and growing our engineering base. In 2022, NN Life Japan introduced Data Academy, an internal programme that provides three learning pathways for developing data analysts, scientists and engineers. The programme includes employee training modules and certifications, with communities to share best practices. By the end of 2023, 83% of employees had been trained on data awareness and 28% had attended at least one of the data academy modules, or related Power BI and Python training. In addition, in 2023, NN Life Japan rolled out a ChatGPT training, with 53% of employees attending, and is working on the first ChatGPT use cases for automated call logging and a knowledge base chatbot. As part of our focus on hiring and retaining tech talent, NN Life Japan is the only company with European headquarters to have established a Technology Operations Centre in the tech hub of Fukuoka city, aimed at ensuring business continuity in the event of a disaster impacting our Tokyo offices. Set up in cooperation with Team Fukuoka, an industry-government-academic organisation that promotes the international financial city concept, the centre has personnel and equipment to ensure business continuity in a disaster. 

Underscoring our efforts to continually look for value-creating opportunities, in 2023, Netherlands Life completed two transactions to transfer the full longevity risk associated with approximately EUR 13 billion of pension liabilities in the Netherlands. The deals have reduced NN’s exposure to longevity risk and thereby further strengthens NN’s capital position. The transactions cover the longevity risk of approximately 300,000 policies and have been entered into with an insurance subsidiary of Prudential Financial, Inc. and Swiss Re. The risk transfer became effective as of 31 December 2023, and the reinsurance agreements will continue until the portfolio has run off. The reinsurance deals have no impact on the services and guarantees that NN provides to its policyholders.

In May 2023, NN Group introduced its comprehensive oil & gas policy to achieve net-zero emissions in our investment portfolio by 2050. It focuses investment on companies committed to lowering their emissions and transitioning to a low-carbon economy. The policy covers corporate and infrastructure investments across the entire oil & gas supply chain (including upstream, midstream and downstream activities), representing 1-2% of proprietary assets. NN Group restricts new investment in companies with more than 30% of revenues from oil & gas activities and not aligned with the Paris Alignment categorisation framework. The policy also prohibits infrastructure investments in oil & gas exploration or production projects, and infrastructure focused on oil & gas or using gas to produce hydrogen. For existing investments, NN will work with companies to align their activities with climate ambitions and consider divestment if there is insufficient progress. NN will adjust discretionary mandates and encourage fund managers to align with the policy but cannot change investment conditions for committed funds. Read the full NN Group Oil & Gas policy on the NN Group website.