Founded in 1848, Prudential has grown from modest beginnings in the UK to become an international retail financial services group with a particular focus on saving for retirement and security in retirement.
We have successfully developed strong businesses in the UK, the US and across Asia, as changing demographics accelerate the demand for life insurance and other long-term savings and protection products.
Our ambition is to promote the financial well-being of our customers and their families, by providing products and services suited to their needs. We also play a responsible role in the broader community by constructive exercise of our influence as a large-scale investor and by drawing on our expertise to promote a wider understanding of how best to meet individual saving needs.
Our Reputation
We operate across the world under a number of different trade names but it is important that we maintain a single set of Prudential values, and act to high standards of integrity and financial competence across all of our businesses. Our corporate values play an integral part in the success of our businesses worldwide.
We value the Prudential name and reputation and maintain a dialogue with our stakeholders. This helps us to shape our business and corporate responsibility strategies and to develop the non-financial key performance indicators that are an intrinsic part of the way we operate. These are identified within this Report, under our seven key pillars; customers, community, employees, environment, financial capability, shareholders/investors and supply chain. This year’s CR Report has been structured to reflect our progress in each of these areas.
Financial Capability
The Group’s core financial education programme remains focused on the need to play our part in enabling consumers to make the right decisions for their individual financial needs.
Financial capability remains at the heart of our Group-wide corporate responsibility programme, as it has been since 2001. We work with governments, regulators, non-government organisations and industry colleagues in many countries to help shape public policy on this important issue. In 2007, we responded to two UK Government consultations, one on financial capability and the other on generic financial advice.
In the UK, our Chairman, Sir David Clementi, sits on the UK regulator’s Financial Capability Steering Group, which is driving the UK’s National Strategy.
Our financial capability programme in the UK includes an important focus on young people. We therefore welcome the significant progress this year in the announcement that, from September 2008, financial capability will feature more strongly in the school curriculum in England, with a new programme of study called Economic Well-being and Financial Capability. This is an important step towards the goal of fully embedding financial capability in schools, so that children develop as well-informed and questioning consumers and learn to manage their finances effectively.
In the US, Jackson National Life Insurance Company (Jackson) committed, in December 2007, to support JA Worldwide® (Junior Achievement) as the title sponsor of the ‘Junior Achievement Presents the NEFE High School Financial Planning Programme’. Junior Achievement and NEFE (National Endowment for Financial Education) have been working together to expand the outreach of the NEFE programme, a practical and non-commercial course that introduces students to the importance of making wise financial choices.
In Asia, our financial capability programme ‘Investing in Your Future,’ continues to flourish. Over 14,400 women in China, Vietnam and India, have benefited from this financial planning training, since the programme was launched in 2004. Building on this, in China, Prudential has collaborated with the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) and the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) to develop an insurance education programme targeting schools across China. In 2007, the pilot programme was launched in high schools in Beijing, Dalian and 12 other major cities.
Our people in the community
We strive to create a working environment in Prudential that attracts, retains and motivates our people and ensures that we are committed to delivering top performance for our customers and shareholders. We understand that, to support our aim of being a leading international financial services company, we need to have employees with the right skills, in the right numbers, in the right places, at the right time – quite a complex matrix to manage.
Our people continue to play their part by participating in community projects to improve their environment. Our Groupwide Chairman’s Award programme now has over 2,000 participants, volunteering on more than 50 projects in our markets around the world.
At the end of 2007, our employees again voted for the volunteering projects that they felt had made the greatest impact on their local community. Plan International Thailand emerged as the winner, for its Reforestation and Forest Conservation project, supporting communities in 16 villages across the Chiang Rai region. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our Thai colleagues, and indeed all of those colleagues who participate in the programme – and to encourage others to join in.
Environment
Public concern about the need for an adequate response to the challenges of climate change continues to gain momentum and I am pleased to report that we are making progress in addressing this issue.
In September 2007, Prudential, and 37 companies from the financial services sector endorsed the ClimateWise principles. Developed and led by leading global insurers, reinsurers, brokers and asset managers, the principles promote positive action on climate change. Although we will be initially reporting on our performance against the principles from a UK perspective, we are working, where possible, towards a Group-wide reporting framework.
For the first time, this year’s CR Report carries environmental data on our US operations. We are working to build on this in next year’s report by reporting on our Asian businesses.
In Acting Responsibly, our sixth annual CR Report, I believe we demonstrate that Prudential takes its corporate responsibilities seriously, and that we view our CR programmes as integral to how we do business. We have highlighted just some of the programmes that are already being implemented and indicate priority areas where we want to make further progress.
I hope this document provides clarity around our approach, but please contact us where you have questions.
Mark Tucker
Group Chief Executive, Prudential plc