Investment portfolio decarbonization | ESG insurance products | Optimize customer service

• Completed the inventory of Company investees that adopt the SBTi and increased the number of these investees by 10%.
• Increased the proportion of ESG-related investment-linked products; as of December 2022, the proportion of AUM reached 9.84%.
• Developed health promotion products and launched five spillover-effect products and two products for disadvantaged groups and older adults.
• Regularly conducted customer satisfaction surveys and maintained a high level of satisfaction, with an average rating of 96%.

As part of our efforts to promote sustainable finance, we voluntarily adhere to the U.N. Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and have established a sound system of responsible investment. By doing so, we hope to support invested and financing parties on ESG-related issues while reducing our own investment risks in the process. Taiwan Life is responsible for leading the cross-subsidiary responsible investment project team under CTBC Holding's ESG taskforce. Following the sustainable finance policy of the parent company, Taiwan Life formulates responsible investment guidelines and sets goals accordingly. In the quarterly ESG taskforce meeting, Taiwan Life discusses related issues and presents the progress and results, which are consolidated by CTBC Holding's Corporate Sustainability Department and reported to the Sustainability Committee of CTBC Holding. Guided by its comprehensive responsible investment strategy and workflow, Taiwan Life is working to realize its commitment to the interests of clients, shareholders, and society; fulfill its responsibilities as an institutional investor; and promote responsible investment and financing.

Responsible investment process

Taiwan Life has formulated corresponding responsible investment procedures for different investment types and determines whether to proceed with investments or reduce investments based on the evaluation results. For various green, social, and sustainability bonds, application of funds reports are strictly reviewed to ensure that funds are used to support environmental and sustainable development. The scope of responsible investment covers stocks, bonds, funds, lending, building under construction (BUC) cases, transaction counterparties, and investment service brokers. In 2021, a total of 158 investees and transaction counterparties were invested in based on responsible investment assessment results. In 2022, a total of 2,266 investees and transaction counterparties were invested in/loaned to based on responsible investment assessment results.

Sustainable Bond investments

In terms of sustainable investments, Taiwan Life adheres to the asset allocation principles of its overall investment portfolio, focusing on domestic and foreign bonds and project financing. As of 2022, the cumulative approved investments and loans to be used for sustainable development totaled NT$55.876 billion. The Company continues to proactively seek investees that meet sustainable development criteria in order to support the government’s Green Finance Action Plan 3.0 and promote green energy investment.

Green finance

Taiwan Life actively supports the government's green energy policy and aspires to be recognized as the insurance company with the strongest support of Taiwan. We take immense pride in being the first Taiwanese life insurance operator and the first in Asia to engage in a syndicated loan for offshore wind power projects. Our commitment to realizing the SDGs drives us to prioritize wind power investment, promoting environmental sustainability, and mitigating climate change through clean and renewable energy initiatives.
The Changfang & Xidao Offshore Wind Farms utilized a dual-track approach of both investment and loans. This strategy strengthens our role as a life insurance operator in supporting crucial infrastructure construction. Moreover, the project has not only created numerous job opportunities but also fostered regional development and established strong relationships with the local community. Collaborating with the government, international wind power developers, and the local finance sector, we have successfully realized a vision for renewable energy development in Taiwan.

Green buildings

We emphasize the promotion of insurance policies for seniors, those with pre-existing conditions, and people in sub-health, and cooperates with other industries to develop a variety of tailor-made products.

Traditional products

TaiwanLife is committed to meeting the needs for our customers throughout the entire country , striving to develop insurance products and pursue innovation, and promoting more high-quality services. In 2022, 46 new traditional insurance products were developed (73.9% of the product offerings were available for the seniors), among a total number of 612 insurance products. The main product development activities were as follows:
● Strengthening the sale force of retirement planning products: In terms of traditional insurance products, the Company emphasizes primarily on variable-interest life insurance products and secondarily to traditional life insurance or annuity insurance products, and promotes those products for meeting customer needs for secured capital allocation and financial planning. In addition, retirement products take advantage of compound interest and accumulation of time to ensure steady cash flow during elderly period.
● Family protection and asset inheritance planning: Taiwan Life provides high death benefit policies for the bereaved and asset of inheritance planning.
● Providing the largest variety of A&H specialty products (including impaired-risk policies) in the industry, and expanding the potential customer base: Integrated the concepts of preventive medicine and health into our A&H products. To cater to diverse customer groups, we have developed several spillover-effect health management insurance products and various types of insurance products specifically for individuals with pre-existing conditions. This strategy has allowed our sales representatives to serve a wide range of customers . In 2022, Taiwan Life took a significant step by launching two groundbreaking spillover-effect health management insurance products. The first one provides comprehensive coverage for mild dementia and the second offers lifetime protection for long-term care needs. These spillover-effect health management insurance products integrate various health management practices such as walking, health examinations, vaccinations, and cancer screenings. Policyholders can enjoy premium discounts as incentives while at the same time there is a robust medical protection network to support them as they become older.

Investment-linked products

In the planning of investment-linked products and new investment-linked targets, Taiwan Life incorporates corporate governance assessments into the target selection mechanism and provides ESG-related targets for the public to choose from, increasing the opportunities for the public to invest in sustainable companies and industries. By leveraging digitalization, the Company is able to promote sustainability and ESG while also providing friendly customer service and care mechanisms to achieve inclusive finance.

In response to the FSC’s Principles for Financial Service Industries to Treat Customers Fairly, Taiwan Life revised its TCF Policy in 2022 and continued to comprehensively refine its fair customer service practices through three main policy axes: “ Embed TCF in our DNA,” “ Become the first choice in customer referrals,” and “Promote social sustainability.” The Company established the Superior Customer Experience Project Management Office (SCE PMO) to collaborate across departments to optimize the customer experience process and implement TCF action plans, with the Board serving as the highest supervisory body. The Board meets quarterly with senior executives to present the results of TCF efforts and execution plans. Learning from peers’ best practices, Taiwan Life continues to make improvements and optimize its feedback mechanism in order to ensure a sound TCF system.

Striving for an insurance experience with peace of mind

The insurance service begins even before a policy is underwrote―that is why Taiwan Life’s focus extends from the initial contact with customers through to claims settlement and to query services afterward. We closely examine the insurance policy lifecycle from the customer’s perspective and review every scenario in the customer journey. Through the continual improvement of our Target Operating Model, we better connect customers with appropriate products, and use digital tools to offer customers best services in a more timely manner. These efforts ensure that customers feel they are treated fairly, reasonably, transparently, and warmly throughout the insurance journey.

Listening to customers

Taiwan Life has formed a dynamic and optimized “loop mechanism.” By utilizing top-down supervision and guidance from the Board of Directors and feedback from external partners and customers, we have formulated a specific action plan, , and optimized this loop from the outside to the inside through external model learning and continued cross learning and improvement to move toward positive cyclical growth.
We regularly review the satisfaction level of customer service journeys (e.g., the insurance journey, payment journey, and claim journey). In doing so, we review the shortcomings of various processes according to customer feedback and formulate plans for improvement. As part of these efforts to continually optimize the end-to-end customer experience from sales to service, we introduced the Net Promoter Score (NPS), using it to systematically manage customers' experiences and feelings, and optimize them to better meet our customers' needs.

Listening to customers

We regularly review the satisfaction level of customer service journeys (e.g., the insurance underwritng journey, payment journey, and claim journey). In addition, the Company has set an annual NPS target and 11 customer journey target scores as performance evaluation items in order to encourage the proactive improvement of the customer experience. We have further built our own customer feedback analysis platform and NPS Dashboard, effectively reducing the manual analysis processing time by 64% and speeding up the response to customer feedback. Taiwan Life systematically manages and optimizes customer experiences and perceptions, examines the shortcomings of various processes in response to customer feedback, and collaborates with each unit to develop plans for improvement, thereby continually optimizing the end-to-end customer experience from sales to service to ensure that customer needs are met. These efforts earned us multiple honors at the National Brand Yushan Awards in 2022.

Handling customer feedback carefully

To listen to the voice of the customer, Taiwan Life provides multiple complaint channels. For example, in order to protect the rights and interests of our customers, we have established the Financial Consumer Dispute Resolution System, which improves the efficiency and quality of consumer dispute handling. We also have a dedicated unit to clarify the facts of disputes and provide solutions in a timely and appropriate manner. Furthermore, the Company has formulated Management Measures for the Early Warning Mechanism of Customer Complaint Review Cases. For resolved cases in which customers are still unsatisfied and apply for review at the Financial Ombudsman Institution, a monthly warning report is issued for regular control purposes, and the implementation progress of the improvement plans of the responsible units is tracked to ensure such issues do not occur again. We also review and report to the Board of Directors on major customer complaints (e.g., unsuccessful reviews).

As Taiwan Life strives to address customers’ pain points, actively invest in digital service innovation, and become the life insurer with the best customer experience, it takes digital tools for intelligent empowerment, digital platforms for complete service, and intelligent operations for back-office support as its three main digital finance strategies. We promote online and offline digital engineering to achieve a consistent customer financial service experience across all channels. The EdgE digital process transformation project lab was set up in 2017 to develop a series of digital tools, including the iKASH smart assistant, Proposal System, mobile insurance app, remote insurance, mobile policyholder services, E-note system and Advisory financial planning system, so that our agents can provide customers with fast and complete services through digital tools and become insurance advisers with all-round professional and digital capabilities. In addition, with the help of digital technology, we also integrate the potential ESG-related risks and opportunities of various products for improvement and development. We look forward to reducing our environmental impact and creating a greater social influence through the application of digital finance.

Digital tools for intelligent empowerment

Taiwan Life boasts an innovative end-to-end digital insurance service model with a secure, zero-contact experience. Our agents use our digital tools to accurately understand customers' needs, explain the content of products and services through mobile tools, smoothly complete insurance service tasks, track customers' progress, and take the initiative to address abnormalities. Nearly 100% of our agents use our mobile insurance app and the mobile security usage rate is nearly 88%, which greatly reduces the filing time and completes the underwriting process faster. In addition, 98% of our agents also use the iKASH smart assistant to facilitate customer interviews, activity management, and customer management.
Our remote insurance incorporates a biometric identity authentication mechanism. With just "three swipes" of facial recognition, users can easily verify their identity, confirm declarations, and sign the necessary insurance documents. Additionally, we have introduced a pioneering Parent-Child Facial Recognition feature, enabling minors to complete insurance processes by having their faces pictured in the same frame as a parent. The entire process is contact-free, paper-free, and requires no program downloads. Moreover, encrypted electronic transmission ensures information security.
We have also built a dedicated platform for signing and receiving e-policies, enabling customers to sign and download e-policies after receiving notification of delivery via SMS or email. The Life Insurance Association’s blockchain service can also be used to check policyholders’ e-policies from various insurance companies online, which enhances the policyholders’ acceptance of e-policies.

Digital platforms for comprehensive service

Taiwan Life provides a digital financial experience that covers multiple scenarios, offering convenience, speed, and comprehensive services. Taiwan Life launched its official LINE account in 2020, and 2.10 million people had added it as of the end of 2022.
In 2022, the official website continued to offer a number of user-friendly measures and features, including audio introductions of products to ensure accessibility for all customers, including those with a disability; an online sign language interpretation service for customers with a hearing impairment; and text size adjustment for older customers and those with poor eyesight. We also optimized the site’s accessibility to obtain the highest rating, AAA, ensuring that all users have access to good insurance services.
In addition, Taiwan Life is committed to integrating insurance into everyday scenarios so that customers can purchase the appropriate insurance product when they need it. In 2022, we cooperated across industries, including with payment companies to improve online annuity insurance and with consumer companies to provide quality insurance consultant appointment services. In the post-epidemic era, when employee health is seen as an important indicator of a happy company, Taiwan Life’s TeamWalk workplace health management app provides corporate health management and digital group insurance services. TeamWalk has received eight domestic and international awards for digital innovation and has obtained three patents. In 2022, Taiwan Life organized the TeamWalk Healthy Company Awards, as part of which it held a series of events that encouraged business owners to promote exercise among employees using the TeamWalk app. In total, more than 6,000 employees have used the app, collectively logging over 2 billion steps—the equivalent of circling Taiwan 1,360 times. With the rapid development of e-commerce, the Company will continue to enhance various digital platform services in the future.

Intelligent back-office support

Since 2018, Taiwan Life has been developing RPA robots to help employees perform highly repetitive operational procedures, such as manual search and logging, to improve administrative efficiency.
As of the end of 2022, there were RPA was being used for 27 applications, performing more than 2,000 person-hours of labor per month. In 2022, work began to centralize the RPA applications and manage them in a labor-free factory mode, with the automation expected to begin operating 24/7 in 2023, with a visual dashboard monitoring and analyzing RPA operation status and efficiency.