Company Profile
Santam is the leading short-term insurer in South Africa with a market share exceeding 20%. Santam offers clients a wide variety of highly specialised products and services. Its core business has been the same for 90 years – to take care of its clients’ insurance needs. This is embedded in providing short-term insurance products and services aimed at specific markets, as well as using and optimising its broker network as the main delivery channel. Recent accolades include: the Deloitte Best Company to Work For in 2009 as voted by staff, the top business-to-business short-term insurer in the Markinor Top Brand survey in 2009, and the Best Personal, Commercial and Corporate insurer by the Financial Intermediaries Association. Santam offers personal, commercial, corporate and specialist risk solutions and insures most of the largest 100 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Sustainability Agenda
Santam strives to maximise socio- economic welfare, enhance its stakeholders sustainability and build more resilient world by providing risk solutions in selected emerging markets.
Its sustainability approach is rooted in the concept of shared value to ensure that its initiatives create social and business value, are measurable and scalable. The Santam sustainability framework – which is aligned to the five strategic focus areas – feature four focus areas:
- Reaching the insured and uninsured markets: to develop and implement Santams emerging market strategy through appropriate channels in the business to support growth and diversification. This includes developing products to reach the emerging market in line with the Financial Services Charter (FSC) targets and criteria.
- Resilience through shared value partnerships: to work with local municipalities through the Partnerships for Risk and Resilience programme, focusing on disaster risk management and reduction.
- Develop sustainable business efficiencies (internal and external): to manage the quality and impact of Santams own risk pool through addressing pressures on human, social and environmental capital by continuously increasing efficiency and delivering on our brand promise, Insurance good and proper.
- Responsible investment and solvency: to influence responsible systemic risk responses through vehicles such as the Santam Resilient Investment (SRI) Fund, the South African SME fund, enterprise and supplier development and corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives.
Each focus area is activated by key initiatives, which, among others, include applying the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) approach, contributing to safety and security in communities, supplier and scarce skills development. The company measures and reports on these initiatives to its stakeholders, and ultimately to the board’s social and ethics committee, whose mandate is to monitor Santams activities in terms of legislation, regulation and codes of best practices relating to ethics, empowerment and stakeholder engagement. The committee also assists the board in ensuring that the sustainability strategy and objectives are effectively integrated into business.