The work of the Supervisory Board and its Committees

The Supervisory Board advises the Management Board in its strategic planning and projects. It decides on the matters assigned to it by law, the Articles of Association and its rules of procedure. The Supervisory Board is responsible for supervising the management of the Company by the Management Board. It is comprised of ten shareholder representatives, and it convened for seven meetings in 2017. Two decisions were made by way of circular resolution.

A Committee for Board Affairs has been appointed to handle the relationship between the Company and the members of its Management Board relating to employment and salary; this committee also acts as the Nominating and Remuneration Committee. The Committee for Board Affairs dealt with legal employment formalities concerning the members of the Management Board and with questions relating to remuneration policy and succession planning at its four meetings in 2017. One decision was made by way of circular resolution.

The Working Committee of the Supervisory Board is called upon to make decisions only if the urgency of the matter means that the decision cannot wait until the next meeting of the Supervisory Board. It is the Chairman’s responsibility to assess the urgency of the matter. The resolutions passed must be reported in the next meeting of the Supervisory Board. Generally, the Working Committee can make decisions on any issue that is the responsibility of the Supervisory Board, but this does not include issues of particular importance or matters that must be decided upon by the full Supervisory Board by law. The Working Committee did not convene for any meetings in 2017.

The Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board performs the duties assigned to it by law. The Audit Committee convened for three meetings, which were also attended by the auditor of the (consolidated) financial statements. The meetings dealt with all the documents relating to the financial statements, the Corporate Governance Report and the appropriation of profit proposed by the Management Board. Furthermore, the audit of the 2017 financial statements of the companies of the consolidated group was planned, and the auditor reported on the results of preliminary audits. Discussions were held on the strategic focus of the audit work and the Committee’s working methods in view of new legal requirements. In particular, the Audit Committee received quarterly reports from Internal Auditing concerning audit areas and material findings based on the audits conducted. The tasks of an audit committee are also performed for UNIQA International AG.

The Investment Committee advises the Management Board with regard to its investment policy; it has no decision-making authority. The Investment Committee held four meetings at which the members discussed the capital investment strategy, questions concerning capital structure and the focus of risk management and asset liability management.

Over the course of four meetings, IT Committee dealt with the ongoing monitoring of the progress of the project implementing UNIQA’s Insurance Platform (new IT core system), especially in relation to compliance with the financial framework.

The chairmen of the respective committees informed the entire Supervisory Board about the meetings and their committees’ work.

For information concerning the activities of the Supervisory Board and its committees, please also refer to the details in the Report of the Supervisory Board.