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Strengthening market position thanks to successful execution of Impact24

Heidi Delobelle, CEO AG Insurance, Belgium

In what has been a challenging year for the world, AG continued to make excellent progress across the board increasing its market leadership position; progressing on the ambitious goal of being a top quartile insurer for customer experience through the eyes of the end customer; while delivering on sustainability as an insurer, investor, employer and as a responsible company. 

Strengthening market position thanks to successful execution of Impact24

But as we look back on 2022 one project stands out in particular as the greatest achievement of all: our “re-platforming” project. This project prepares AG for the future as a champion and pioneer in the digital space, improving at the same time our efficiency. For our customers, it will allow us to offer a more personalised approach based on real-time data, which is one that modern customers demand. 

Transformational technology initiative successfully delivered

AG’s re-platforming exercise is the largest IT project ever undertaken within AG and certainly the most complex. It also reflects on our strategic ambition through Impact24 to increase our digital capabilities. After months of intensive preparatory work by the technology team, some 80 million lines of code were flawlessly migrated from the mainframe to a new cloud-based Windows solution in just one long weekend – with zero errors and zero interruption for the customer. This new open infrastructure creates a strong data backbone that enables AG to be future proof. It allows AG to integrate and launch modern technologies more easily and more quickly and in a flexible way. The new infrastructure brings the operational applications and the data analytics world closer together. And this pioneering transformational exercise did not go unnoticed externally. We are proud that Phillipe Van Belle was named Belgian CIO of the year in 2022 by DataNews, which recognised his leadership but also the achievements of the entire technology team. 

New partners and new horizons

Good progress has also been made in the first year of Impact24 through new or expanded partnerships allowing us to further expand our mobility ecosystem. AG, together with BNP Paribas Fortis, signed an agreement to purchase the shares of Touring SA/NV assuming a 75% stake. As the leading provider of roadside assistance, Touring provides insurance, medical cover and legal support for Belgian customers, throughout Belgium and abroad. This collaboration represents an important opportunity for Ageas in its home market. 

This transaction underscores AG’s ambition to become a driving force in the future of mobility, allowing it to solidify its position in the mobility market by offering customers innovative and comprehensive solutions to meet their mobility needs, and to accelerate the switch to more eco-friendly and sustainable mobility solutions. In other areas, AG is currently piloting a telemedicine offer which began as an offer for its own employees and is now being extended to clients of employee benefits. 

Sustainability is another area in which AG has made considerable progress in 2022, starting with further development of our sustainability office and the organisation of AG’s first Sustainability Day attended by around 800 colleagues. With respect to products, AG has achieved sustainability labels around 40 life insurance products in 2022, a substantial increase over the previous year and against stricter criteria. And a new health screening tool to check mental and physical health has been launched for clients of AG Health Partner (AG HP). Some services of AG Health Partner will be integrated in the disability insurance cover in 2023. 

Sustainability in action

In the area of sustainable investments and with a large portfolio focused on “benefiting society”, Ageas became a signatory to the UN’s Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA), to help support and accelerate our carbon reduction ambitions and those of the companies we invest in, setting an intermediate target of a 50% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 including equities, bonds, real estate, and infrastructure portfolios. AG has at the same time expanded its portfolio in the senior care sector through an investment in Anima and as a co-investor in Fluxys, a company making the transition towards the transportation of hydrogen and the removal of CO2. With these actions, AG wants to do its part to assume its social responsibility in the transition to a sustainable society. While as a business AG has been CO2 neutral since 2019, the search for structural solutions continues, with the intention to reduce our energy consumption by a further 60% through the creation of a dynamic work environment. 

Insurance is a people business

When we look at highlights and achievements over the course of the year, we always consider the role we have played in the lives of our own people as a starting point. For the 11th consecutive year AG has been named Top Employer, which reflects well on our ambition to be a Great place to Grow and the range of wellbeing and training opportunities that have been offered to employees with their personal development in mind. The opening of the AG Campus has encouraged people to connect and become more creative in an environment that stimulates innovation. And we are piloting an “AG College” programme in which people without a higher education degree follow a unique 6-month inhouse training and coaching programme as Insurance Officers, with the end goal of becoming successful AG employees. Over 300 people applied for AG College. 

But perhaps the final word must always be focused on our distribution partners and customers. For the 9th time, we won the Decavi Broker Trophy, the most prestigious of all insurance trophies. In reaching for a top quartile position in customer experience by 2024, in the coming year we will accelerate and increase our engagement with the end customer – they will drive our actions. And new digital customer journeys will by default include capturing customer feedback. In listening to the customer, we have also reinstated some of the measures we introduced during the pandemic, to help support customers through the current economic crisis. 

We are on track to deliver on our strategic plan ‘AG2024’. Moving forward, flexibility will be needed to continue to adapt to the volatile and quickly evolving market environment.


Heidi Delobelle

Impact24 is a plan that helps us to grow. It allows us to increase our market share and solidify our leadership position thanks to strengthened partnerships, innovative products, improved customer experience, and a capacity to incentivise our stakeholders to transition to a more sustainable world

Heidi Delobelle, CEO AG Insurance Belgium
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