In his New Year¿s Message to all staff (see attachment), Niek Hoek, CEO of Delta Lloyd Group, today looks back critically at 2008. He says that self-reflection is necessary for financial institutions in order to overcome the present crisis and restore trust.
Paraphrasing the payoff line in Delta Lloyd advertisements "Nothing is certain..." Niek Hoek looks back on 2008 and forward to 2009. He states that we must learn from 2008 and engage in some thorough self-reflection so that we understand "what happens when financial service providers deal irresponsibly with their most crucial asset: TRUST". He sums up the cause of the present crisis as ‘the neglecting of trust by financial institutions'
The only way to overcome the present financial crisis is to restore trust. He explains: "This requires a different mentality from the one we now often see. This will require a sense of awareness in the financial sector that the money we are working with is our customers' money and not our own. We should continue to think for ourselves at all times and use our common sense. By daring to question new orthodoxies. By not indiscriminately thinking only from the perspective of the shareholders but instead taking account of the interests of all stakeholders."
Niek Hoek says that Delta Lloyd Group has done its best over a period of many years to put these principles into practice and also views this as the reason for its relatively good performance in 2008. For example, Delta Lloyd Group has managed to realize an all time high gross written premium income of over €7 billion in 2008. Furthermore Delta Lloyd Group was the first financial institution in 2008 to accept its responsibilities and to agree a widely supported settlement on the costs of unit-linked insurance policies. Moreover, Delta Lloyd Group is highly solvent, and has not needed to turn to the Dutch state for support. And this year, too, the Delta Lloyd Group pension plan will also be fully index-linked.
According to Niek Hoek, 2009 too will be characterised by uncertainty. As he points out, however, managing uncertainty is the forte of an insurer such as Delta Lloyd Group, and he therefore looks forward with confidence to the year ahead.
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Download New Year's message from Niek Hoek (PDF 34KB)
More information:
David Brilleslijper
Telephone: 020 594 44 88
E-mail: cc@deltalloyd.nl