Matthias Seewald
Chief Investment Officer and Member of the Executive Committee, Allianz France

Representing UNEP FI member: Allianz SE (France)

Connect with Matthias Seewald on LinkedIn

MOTIVATION STATEMENT

As part of CIO responsibility, the aim of responsible investments into a well invested portfolio is a key task. All the more as risk/return relationship of traditional versus responsible investments has already started to change and will continue to do so. This will have an impact on the overall financial system and needs to be accompanied by changes in the regulatory framework, which is why in this era of energy transition; we need global leadership and a cooperative governance framework.

As the partnership between United Nations Environment and the global financial sector with a mission to promote sustainable finance, UNEP FI gathers more than 200 financial institutions, including banks, insurers, and investors. For me, this is a very good platform to exchange and work together to understand how could finance help to address today’s environmental, social and governance challenges.

At Allianz France, we consider ESG criteria in three forms applicable to our entire investment portfolio, each form is incorporated in the previous one. There is a gradual shift from short-term profit towards long-term value creation along the three forms. The first form is responsible investment by having a clear defined exclusion policy. The second form is ESG compliant investment by systematically integrating ESG considerations across asset classes and along investment lifecycle which leads to at least no harm. The third form is impact investing where measurable environmental and/or social benefits go hand in hand with market rate returns. My main take away from our three-form approach for the Global Steering Committee is that we could advocate a similar paradigm shift within financial actors.

BACKGROUND

Since April 2013, I’m taking on the responsibility of being member of the Executive Committee at Allianz France in charge of the Investments and member of the Investment Management Board at Allianz Group.

I have been working in the financial sector for more than 27 years, having a holistic view thanks to my different previous functions including accounting, financial reporting & controlling as well as investment management. Along the way, especially in recent years, it is becoming clear that we need to act quickly in face of planetary sustainability thresholds.

At Allianz France Investment, I initiate and steer sustainable finance relevant projects, including among other, report in line with the French Energy Transition Law, strategies on ESG and climate change, green bond assessment as well as climate value at risk study (considering the carbon pricing scenarios). At Allianz Group level, my department participates in the ESG scoring, the sciences-based target task force and engagement working group. I also made appearances as speaker and/or panel member at a number of conferences around sustainable finance topic.