Financial crime
Fighting for better is central to our values and culture and in 2017 our commitment to fighting financial crime helped protect LV= from potential fraudulent losses of £56 million.
In June 2017, the new UK Money Laundering regulations were introduced. LV= has been working to ensure new compliance expectations are met and it also gave us an opportunity to review our group approach to sanctions, money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
In September 2017, the Criminal Finances Act 2017 introduced the new corporate offence of failure to prevent facilitation of tax evasion. This means LV= needs to ensure appropriate systems and controls are in place to prevent our staff, or independent parties acting on behalf of LV=, knowingly facilitating tax evasion.
Bribery and fraud
Bribery and fraud is something we take seriously as these types of crimes undermine the confidence and trust that our customers place in us and it is the responsibility of every employee to ensure they do not engage in these practices. We have robust controls to detect and prevent bribery, fraud and any other financial crime including a fully confidential ‘Speak up’ line where our people can report crime and other misconduct behaviour.
Human rights and modern slavery
At LV= we are committed to fair employment practices and to upholding human rights. Our Modern Slavery Statement, confirms our approach and the steps that we have taken to assess and mitigate against the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking occurring in our business and supply chains.
Our suppliers
As a UK-based company our supply chain is straightforward, with the majority of our suppliers also in the UK. In 2017, our total spend was £1.75 billion and the largest proportion of our spend is related to UK-based suppliers who help resolve home and motor claims for our customers.
In 2017, to help strengthen LV=’s oversight and control of its supply chain we became members of Financial services Supplier Qualification System (FSQS). FSQS is a community based due diligence system which supports ongoing supplier policy compliance and demonstrates to our customers, members and our regulators that we are in control of our third-party relationships.
We’re delighted with the development of LV= Green Heart Procurement, which is our commitment to partnering with social enterprises to help them compete effectively for our business. Social enterprises reinvest their profits to address some of the most pressing issues in society.
Responsible investment
Our customers put their trust in us to ensure that their money is well managed, so it is important that we work with investment partners that share our values and belief that well-run businesses who understand the need for long-term sustainability, largely return better value to investors.
Our two key investment partners are Columbia Threadneedle Investments and BlackRock. Both are signatories to the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment and the UK Stewardship Code on Corporate Governance. Investment decisions are not made solely on financial performance, with environmental, social and ethical considerations recognised as important factors in determining returns.