Materiality Analysis

The Integrated Report of the Unipol Group focuses on the most significant issues for the core business of the Group and its stakeholders, as required by current regulations (Legislative Decree 254/16).

The key issues that are the focus of stakeholder interests and expectations vis-à-vis the Group, on the one hand, and the focus of Top Management’s strategic priorities, on the other hand, are identified through a materiality analysis, which, according to the vision of the Unipol Group, is strictly related to and influenced by the strategic planning processes. In conjunction with the preparation of the 2019 – 2021 Strategic Plan “Mission: Evolve”, a new analysis was carried out, which will provide the basis for non-financial reporting over the three-year period of the plan. The Sustainability Reporting Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative, the IIRC Guidelines and the Guidelines on Non-Financial Reporting of the European Commission were used as methodological reference for the materiality analysis process.

The materiality analysis is divided into the following phases:

Identification of significant issues

Significant issues are mapped by considering a plurality of internal and external inputs, paying particular attention to the results of the Group’s Reputational & Emerging Risk Observatory. The Observatory analyses internal Group documents and external sources at a sector level with regard to the Italian context. The examination of external sources, carried out with the support of the University of Bologna according to the meeting point methodology, also includes the evaluation of global trends of reference over a period of 5 years.

Identification of issue priority

The priority order of issues is defined on the basis of two aspects:

  1. The assessment of the strategic importance of issues for the Group, defined considering the business model, strategy and main risks, as well as the impact of Unipol’s activities, was concluded through individual interviews with the managers of the Main Departments of the Unipol Group and UnipolSai, and validated by the Managing Director and Group CEO;
  2. The assessment of importance for stakeholders, defined considering the main sector issues, public policies and regulatory stimuli, was concluded by listening to the Group’s stakeholders to understand their interests and expectations. For this purpose, in 2019 the Group carried out a detailed listening process involving corporate and retail customers (through interviews and surveys, respectively), employees and agents (with focus groups), representatives of the Regional Unipol Councils (with questionnaires), suppliers and opinion leaders (through interviews).

Materiality Matrix

Materiality matrix