Making a positive impact

Corporate responsibility

As a sustainable investor, we set high standards for the companies in which we invest – and our clients expect us to uphold the same standards in our own business. This means running our business in a responsible and sustainable way, and seeking to have a positive influence by managing the impact we have on society, our communities and the environment. By taking concerted action in the following areas, we can shape this impact – and enhance our ability to generate the long-term returns on which our clients depend.

Our culture

Our people are our most valuable asset and the key to what makes our company succeed. Their skills and values shape the experience that clients receive – and help us earn the trust that underpins our business.

We work every day to reinforce our inclusive, meritocratic culture, championing the expertise and behaviours that our clients need – now and in the future.

See what makes our culture unique.

OUR CULTURE

Corporate citizenship

As a global organisation we recognise the positive impact we can have on the world – and not just as an investor. We deploy our resources and employees’ skills to contribute to the social and economic development of our communities. By concentrating our activities around a small number of priority areas, including the following, we can have a more significant impact.

Protecting the environment

One of our recent partnerships that support our efforts in protecting the environment is the partnership with Tara Expeditions Foundation, a leader in ocean study.

Carbon-offsetting partner

Our partnership with the PRI in Person conference contributed to retiring 2,272 tonnes of carbon emissions in the form of carbon credits. Those credits came from the Rimba Raya Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project in Borneo, which is helping to prevent the deforestation of nearly 65,000 hectares of peat swamp forest to avoid more than 130 million tonnes of carbon emissions.

Tara

The Tara Ocean Foundation uses its research schooner Tara to conduct an open, innovative Ocean science that will enable us to predict, anticipate and better manage tomorrow’s climate risks. The high-level scientific expertise is used to raise awareness and educate young people, mobilize policy makers at the highest level, and enable emerging and developing countries to access the latest knowledge about the Ocean. The Tara Ocean Foundation is a Special Observer at the UN and actively participates in the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda. We want to make the ocean a shared responsibility.

Visit the TARA website (external)

Empowering the next generation

We aren’t just an active asset manager – we also seek to use our resources and employees‘ skills to have a positive impact on the social and economic development of our communities. This is why we also use our investment knowledge to promote financial literacy among younger generations.

Financial literacy programme

As an active asset manager we aim to play our part in achieving UN SDG 8: promoting financial literacy, education and employability. In Germany, we have had a partnership to support IW Junior’s “Fit für die Wirtschaft”.

Children's Experience Day

The Children’s Experience Day aims to give schoolchildren a better understanding of the financial sector. They are invited to spend one day in the AllianzGI office. Throughout the day, the teenagers meet with employees from various functions within AllianzGI to learn more about how we act as a business – from an investment as well as from a consumer perspective.

Mentoring programmes

We have offered a variety of mentoring programmes with our employees mentoring students of different ages. The goal is to support young people by helping them understand financial themes, prepare for work and further their self-development.

Client satisfaction

We make client satisfaction a top priority, because we want our clients to be confident to stay with us over the long term. Our mission is to create and share value together with our clients, and some of our products require a multi-year commitment on their part.

We never take clients' loyalty for granted. We know it must be earned through thousands of individual interactions and conversations in the course of our mutual relationship. And we think there’s always room for improvement.

That’s why we scrutinise our performance through independent client satisfaction surveys. These are important not just for highlighting our strengths, but also for identifying where we need to focus more attention so we can follow up with a firm-wide effort to make improvements.

The latest results from 2023 demonstrate our focus on client service and show that we are continuing our track record of high levels of client satisfaction:

Greenwich Quality Leader in Overall Continental European and German Institutional Investment Management Quality

Greenwich Quality Leader in Overall European Intermediary Distribution Quality and Overall Asian Intermediary Distribution as well as Overall Asian Institutional Investment Management Quality

Source: Greenwich Associates.
A ranking, a rating or an award provides no indicator of future performance and is not constant over time. Investing involves risk. The value of an investment and the income from it may fall as well as rise and investors might not get back the full amount invested.

Compliance and data privacy

We aim to earn our clients’ trust and maintain their confidence in us by holding ourselves to the highest ethical standards. We use a robust set of processes to promote ethical conduct, protect client confidentiality and manage risk, with a focus on the following key areas:

Business resilience

Compliance

Data privacy

IT security

Risk management

Business resilience

Business resilience (business continuity and disaster recovery) is an essential component of our service commitment to our clients. The business resilience team is responsible for identifying threats, creating guidelines and policies, developing tools and best practices, delivering training and raising awareness. Allianz Global Investors’ business-recovery plans ensure that key processes can resume in the event of any serious interruption to business activities. We regularly review our functional recovery plans to ensure their feasibility and effectiveness.

Compliance

Our code of ethics covers acceptable business practices, conflicts-of-interest policies and expected standards of behaviour. One of the roles of our compliance function is to oversee the effective implementation of all regulations stipulated in the code, and to ensure every employee participates in regular compliance training.

We also have comprehensive anti-money laundering (AML) policies and follow strict know your customer (KYC) guidelines. This is not only a best practice designed to protect our clients and our business; it is in accordance with a range of regulatory guidelines in place wherever we do business – from Europe to the US and Asia.

Our latest Global Speak Up Reporting and Anti-Retaliation Policy Handout (PDF file)

Data privacy

We are committed to protecting the privacy rights of employees, clients, business partners and other third parties when processing personal data. We adhere to strict data laws and the Allianz Privacy Standard (APS) that governs the international transfer of personal data between Allianz Group companies. Our firm-wide controls are designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and resilience of data.

IT security

We continually monitor the cyber-threat landscape, and we use state-of-the-art techniques and tools to prevent data breaches. These include dynamic malware inspection and continuous monitoring of systems. We use a robust set of protocols to detect and respond to any cyberthreat or information-security incident.

Risk management

Our global risk management function manages the key risk areas for our firm, relating to both our investment activities and business operations. This includes monitoring and managing the various factors that contribute to the financial performance of portfolios according to their stated objectives. And we seek to safeguard our ability to deliver our services within the stipulated timespan, to the required quality, and in accordance with regulatory commitments.

Environmental management

We believe in leading by example, and strive to achieve the same environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards that we demand of the companies in which we invest. This includes seeking to limit the impact of our business operations on the environment. The overview below is a snapshot of our engagements in our offices around the globe.

Optimising waste management
Saving energy
Encouraging engagement

Recycling coffee ground

Our London office has implemented a recycling process to turn coffee ground into fertilizer instead of sending it to landfill.

Certificate for energy saving

The construction of our Frankfurt office has been designed in a way that it reduces our carbon footprint. This is underlined by several certificates that we have received (e.g. TÜV Nord certificate for Climate Change Standard TN-CC 020 and a Mainova certificate for Calculation and Verification of Carbon Footprint and Carbon Neutrality).

Awards for active management

Our Hong Kong office was awarded the “Hong Kong Green Organisation Certification (HKGOC) – Wastewise Certificate” and “Energywise Certificate” in 2019 in recognition of our active participation in adopting various environmental practices and promoting a green workplace. HKGOC aims to set a benchmark for companies based on their green commitment and encourage eco-friendly practices in the workplace.

Junk mail

We receive a lot of junk mail from advertising companies (approximately 13,000 letters/brochures per year). We asked all advertising providers not to send us physical mail, but to use our business email address instead. This saves paper and printing resources and lowers CO₂. We were able to reduce the volume of mail we receive from more than 13,000 letters to less than 9,500 letters the following year.

World Cleanup Day

Our colleagues from offices around the world have participated in World Cleanup Day, removing harmful plastic and debris from our beaches to protect our ocean and raise awareness of plastic pollution.

(e-)bikes and motor vehicles

Our Frankfurt employees can use several free bikes to attend meetings or business lunches in the city with customers or other business partners. We’ve also built the electric charging infrastructure for motor vehicles and e-bikes.

Investing sustainably for the future

The heart of our corporate responsibility approach

With sustainable investing no longer seen as a trend, but as an essential part of investing, the asset management industry is at a tipping point – and our firm is taking a leadership role. The integration of ESG (environment, social and governance) criteria and the development of sustainable investing solutions is at the heart of Allianz Global Investors' corporate responsibility approach.

Find out more

Sponsorships and Partnerships

Great things happen when we work together, especially with a common goal

More about our sponsorships and partnerships

Inclusion and diversity

Our workplace culture holds the key to our success

Discover our commitment to inclusion and diversity