Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2022 annual general meeting of Insurance Australia Group Limited. It's good to welcome those of you who are here in person and also those of you who are joining us online via the webcast or listening on the phone. My name is David Armstrong, and I'm the chairman of today's AGM, as Tom Pockett, our board chairman, is not able to be here due to unforeseen personal circumstances. We've chosen to hold today's AGM as a hybrid meeting as we feel this gives you, our shareholders, the most flexibility and opportunity to engage with your board in this important forum. The group general counsel and company secretary has informed me that there is a quorum present, so I declare our 2022 AGM open.
A notice of meeting has been published on the ASX and sent to shareholders, and I will take the notice as read. In June 2022, IAG released its Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan. In keeping with the commitments that we made in our Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan, we are delighted to welcome back Aunty Donna Ingram to officially welcome us to her land, Gadigal Country.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. It's my great pleasure to be here with permission from my elders to offer you welcome to country for the IAG AGM 2022. It gives me pride to represent my community in this important cultural protocol. It shows respect for and recognition to the unique position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian culture and history. We are gathered on the traditional land of the Gadigal, who are one of 29 clans of the Eora Nation, which is bordered by the Hawkesbury, the Georges, and the Nepean Rivers. I'm an Aboriginal woman who proudly identifies with the Wiradjuri Nation from Central West New South Wales. I was born on Gadigal land, and I've had the privilege to live, work, and raise my four children on this land for most of my life.
My family has grown, and I'm now a proud grandmother to Aliyah, Elijah, Kalila, Lakota, Jake Jr, Anaki, with one on the way. My wish for my grandchildren is to grow up happy and healthy in a safe and inclusive society where they believe that their dreams can come true. I acknowledge the Gadigal, the spirits and ancestors who will always remain with the land, Mother Earth, and I thank them for their ongoing custodianship. I pay my respects to our elders, both past and present, and we must never forget the sacrifices made by our leaders to create a better future for Aboriginal people. I do this as a reminder and as a tribute to elders and those who have gone before us to fight for land rights, justice, and equity for our communities.
I extend my respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from all clans and nations who are present this morning. I also recognize our non-Aboriginal sisters and brothers who walk beside us to support inclusive communities. I now offer you a warm and sincere welcome to the land of the Gadigal of the Eora Nation. I wish you a safe stay on the land and safe travel from the land. On behalf of my community and the Gadigal, I wish you an interesting and informative day hearing about IAG's achievements and successes over the past year and how IAG's purpose to make your world a safer place will enable it to become a more sustainable business over the long term and deliver stronger and more consistent returns for its shareholders. In closing, we remember that this is, was, and always will be Aboriginal land. Thanks, everyone.
Have a fantastic day.
Thank you, Aunty Donna. I would now like to introduce the IAG Board of Directors to you. On the stage with me from my far right are George Sartorel, Sheila McGregor, Scott Pickering, Helen Nugent, Jon Nicholson, the Chair of our risk committee, and Nick Hawkins, our Group CEO and Managing Director. To my left, starting closest to me, is Peter Horton, our Group General Counsel, George Savvides, the Chair of our people and remuneration committee, Michelle Tredenick, and Simon Allen. Now, you'll hear from each of Scott, Helen, and George later in the meeting, as they are standing for election or re-election today. Tom Pockett, our Board Chairman, is also standing for re-election, and I'll talk to this later in the meeting. Today, we say farewell to Sheila McGregor, who retires as a Director at the close of the AGM.
Sheila has made a valued contribution to IAG, and I'll talk further to this in the chairman's address. Also in attendance are Mr. Brendan Twining, who is the lead audit partner from KPMG, personnel from our share registry, Computershare, our external legal advisors, Herbert Smith Freehills, along with representatives of IAG's leadership team. We also have with us at the lectern on the very far left of stage our group company secretary, Jane Bowd, who will run us through the process matters for today's hybrid meeting and who will also read aloud the questions submitted by shareholders online during the course of the meeting. I now declare the poll open on all resolutions and pass to Jane to briefly address matters of process for the meeting. Jane, over to you.
Thank you, David. Before I talk through how we'll manage the voting and questions during the meeting, I'd like to highlight some safety and housekeeping matters for those in the room. In case of an emergency, you'll hear a beep, beep alert alarm. Please await instructions and be ready to evacuate the building. If we do need to evacuate, you'll hear a woop, woop evacuate alarm. Please leave through the exits at the back of the room or on either side of the stage. We will have fire wardens guiding us should this occur. Could I please ask you to now switch your mobile phones to silent if you have not already done so, and I remind you that recording and photography are not permitted during this meeting. The amenities, should you need them, are located outside this room to the left of the foyer.
For those of you in the room, you should have registered with Computershare when you arrived, which will enable you to vote and to ask questions. If you've not registered, please just step outside to the registration desk now. In terms of voting today, all items of business are being voted on by poll. Once the poll has been closed and the votes compiled, a report on the final results will be announced to the ASX and made available on IAG's website. That said, the Chairman has received the results of the direct and proxy voting instructions for each of the items of business, and he has accepted the recommended results. These results will be displayed up on the screen as we deal with each item of resolution.
For those shareholders who have joined us online, when you first log into the online platform, the live stream appears in the center of the screen. In the top right corner, you'll see four icons. You can toggle between these at any time during the meeting. When you select the Vote, Q&A, or Documents icon, the relevant content will appear on the right side of your screen and the live stream and presentation slides will move to the left. If at any stage you have difficulties with the online platform, including voting or asking questions, please contact Computershare at +61 3 9415 4024. Now in terms of voting, all shareholders in the room and online can now cast their votes on the resolutions included in the notice of meeting, and can do so until the polls are closed.
For those in the room, you need to vote on your mobile device or the iPad that Computershare loaned to you on arrival. All you need to do is to scan the QR code on your attendance card. This will take you to an online voting page. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There is no need to hit a submit or enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You know this has happened as you'll see a green tick on your screen above each resolution you have voted on. You can change your vote up until the time the Chairman declares the poll closed. If you have any issues voting on your device in the room during the meeting, please just raise your hand and one of our Computershare attendees will come to you.
For those online, when you select the Vote icon at the top, your screen will look like what is on the screen in front of you now, i.e., you will see each of the resolutions that you can cast a vote on. To cast your vote, again, simply select For, Against, or Abstain. Again, there is no need to hit a submit or enter button as the vote is automatically recorded and you'll see a green tick beside each resolution you have voted on. You can change your vote up until the time the Chairman declares the polls to be closed. Shareholders who have joined by phone are not able to vote in the meeting. However, all shareholders did have the opportunity to direct vote in advance of the AGM.
While the Chairman will provide a warning before the polls close, I do encourage you to cast your votes as soon as possible. All shareholders present in the room, online or by phone, will have the opportunity to ask questions in respect of the items of business for this meeting. Questions will be addressed in the following sequence throughout the whole meeting. Firstly, questions from the floor, followed by questions online, and then questions over the phone. Where we have received similar or overlapping questions online on the same topic, the broadest question will be put forward for response at the meeting. In terms of the questions we have received in advance today, thank you to those shareholders who submitted them.
Our management team have already responded to some of you, and we have otherwise sought to address the more commonly asked questions in the Chairman's and the CEO's speeches. If there are any that have not been addressed in these ways, we will during the course of the meeting today address them if they're not otherwise covered by the questions we receive from the floor, online, or the phone. For those shareholders in the room, if you would like to ask a question, there are four microphones. Three are down the front of each of the aisles, and we do have one roving microphone at the back of the room. Please make your way to the designated seating area behind each of the microphones and have your attendance card handy so the Computershare representative can verify you as a shareholder.
I would like to ask shareholders to limit your questions to matters related to the items of business being considered by the meeting at the time. For those attending online, you'll need to select the Q&A icon at the top right. The screen that you can now see in front of you will then display. You need to select the topic your question relates to and then type your question into the box at the bottom of the screen and select Send. You are able to submit questions on any item of business at any time during the meeting. However, these will be answered when we get to that item of business during the meeting.
For those shareholders over the phone, if you would like to ask a question, please join the question queue by pressing star one on your phone at the time the relevant item of business is being addressed. When you join the question queue, you'll be placed on mute, but you'll still be able to hear the audio of the meeting. When it is your turn to ask a question, you'll be announced by the moderator. Once your question has been responded to, you'll leave the question queue and go back to the meeting. If you need to leave the question queue, for example, if another shareholder has already asked your question while you are queuing, please just press star two. To rejoin the queue, follow the process again by pressing star one.
If you're attending in person and you have a customer-related question, please see our IAG staff at the kiosks in the foyer. If you're a shareholder attending online, you're encouraged to utilize the Contact Us option on the IAG website to ask any customer-related questions. If you've joined by phone and you have a customer-related question, the moderator will take down your details and the questions will be responded to by IAG in due course. With that, I now hand back to our chairman.
Thank you, Jane. Before we move to the formal business of this year's meeting, on behalf of Tom, I'd like to share with you the chairman's reflections on the past year. One of the defining features of the past year is the extraordinary number of extreme weather events we have experienced, with a succession of hailstorms, thunderstorms, floods, East Coast lows, and even a tornado and an earthquake. These have had a devastating effect on our customers and their communities, and our teams have worked closely with those affected to help them recover from their loss. I take this opportunity to recognize the outstanding work of our people who bring our purpose to life in these circumstances, whether they are first on the ground after an event, or those who m anage claims and guide our customers to help them get back on their feet.
Despite facing a number of challenges, I am pleased to report that your company performed well in the 2022 financial year. Gross Written Premium grew by almost 6% to just over AUD 13 billion. Net profit after tax was AUD 347 million compared to a AUD 427 million loss in the previous year. We have maintained a strong balance sheet. Now we achieved this outcome despite having to strengthen prior period reserves and respond to a high number of natural peril events, volatile investment markets, and a higher inflationary environment. On 30 June 2022, our capital position was strong.
Our CET1 ratio was 0.97 times the prescribed capital amount, and this is comfortably within our benchmark of 0.9-1.1 times the prescribed capital amount, and well above APRA's requirement of 0.6 times. The strength of this capital position, along with the resolution of the second COVID-19 business interruption test case, allows us to return up to AUD 350 million of capital. We announced on Monday that we will do this by way of an on-market share buyback. Our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nick Hawkins, was appointed in November 2020, and he and his senior leadership team have set a strategy to create a stronger and more resilient IAG. The strategy is supported by four strategic pillars, to grow with our customers, to build better businesses, to create value through digital, and manage our risks.
The board and senior management team were engaged actively in determining this strategy, and we are fully aligned and committed to delivering it. I'll invite Nick to talk through the results and progress against the strategy in more detail shortly. The company paid a final dividend of AUD 0.05 per share, franked to 70%. This brought the full year dividend to AUD 0.11 per share, which equates to a payout ratio of 78% of reported net profit after tax. The outcome is in line with IAG's stated policy to distribute 60%-80% of cash earnings in any full financial year. I'm pleased to report that IAG has a company-wide focus on environmental, social, and governance issues that relate to our operations.
The ESG issues we focus on underpin our approach to supporting our customers, our suppliers, our employees, and the communities in which we operate, helping us to create sustainable value. Climate remains a critical area of focus for us because of the direct link between changes in climate and the impact on our customers and on our business. We manage our response to climate change risks and opportunities through our FY 2022-2024 climate and disaster resilience action plan. Now this includes our ambition to reach net zero across all emissions, Scopes 1, 2, and 3, by 2050 across our direct and indirect operations in keeping with the Paris Agreement goal to limit climate change to 1.5%. For Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, we have made good progress with a 54% reduction against our 2018 baseline.
Scope 3 emissions are much more complex and we're working through how we can develop a plan to achieve our ambition. In addition to pursuing these targets, we continue to use our expertise and data to support governments to plan for and build more resilient communities and reduce the impact of natural disasters. Our social focus includes supporting vulnerable customers, and we've made a considerable investment in training our frontline staff to do this. Diversity, equity, and inclusion is an integral part of our culture and supported by targets to increase the number of senior management roles for women to 50% by 2023, to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment and suppliers, and to grow resilience, build cultural connection, and play a role in addressing inequalities and growing prosperity and wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Māori.
Internally, we have programs and resources to maintain the safety and well-being of our people. More broadly, we published our second modern slavery statement in December 2021, setting out actions we've taken to identify, address, and remediate modern slavery risks in our operations, supply chains, and investments. Our statement is available on our website, and it will be updated in December of this year. Our governance focus includes our work to pursue responsible underwriting and responsible investment. Our plan is to cease insuring companies that predominantly participate in fossil fuel extraction, including oil and gas and power generation from coal. As of 30 June 2022, our exposure to these businesses was less than AUD 1 million of premium or below 0.01% of our total Gross Written Premium.
Responsible investing, o ur policy is to prohibit investments in companies involved in thermal coal mining, and we are reviewing our investments policy in relation to companies involved in the extraction of other fossil fuels. I'll now turn to two topics that are included in the formal business of the meeting today: remuneration and board renewal. At the 2021 annual general meeting, shareholders delivered us a first strike against our remuneration report, expressing dissatisfaction with our remuneration framework and outcomes, and the principles that guided our decision making. Now, as a board, we reflected deeply on this feedback, and we have made changes to more closely align executive remuneration outcomes with shareholder outcomes. We've made a number of changes in 2022 to ensure greater alignment between shareholder outcomes and executive remuneration outcomes. We changed our treatment of one-off items when determining incentives.
Adjustments to earnings for one-off items will now only be made in limited circumstances. We strengthened earnings calculation principles. Now, these were introduced to support decisions about whether to adjust the earnings measures used in determining long and short-term rewards. We changed our short-term incentive funding measure. Net profit after tax, before amortization, replaced cash earnings as the FY 2022 short-term incentive funding measure. There will be further changes for 2023 and beyond to simplify our approach to performance measures. Short-term incentive measures have been reduced from 8- 6 and more closely aligned with IAG's strategy pillars, including two financial measures underlying insurance profit and net profit after tax. The weighting of short-term incentive financial measures has been strengthened from 50% to 60%.
For our long-term incentive, we have adopted a similar reported return on equity measure, a simpler reported return on equity measure, which replaces our previous more complex measure. Our 2022 remuneration report, including enhanced and more transparent disclosures with retrospective disclosure of the targets for short-term financial measures and greater disclosure of the approach for determining the short-term incentive pool. The CEO's short-term incentive outcome was 20% of maximum. Other executives received short-term incentive outcomes in the range of 17%-22%. The four-year performance thresholds for long-term incentive awards were not reached, resulting in nil vesting for both awards. There were no increases to executive pay awarded for FY 2023 as part of the August 2022 review and no increase to board fees.
Our remuneration framework is currently under further review as we assess the appropriate changes for FY 2024. The review will consider also how ESG metrics will be incorporated into executive incentive arrangements for FY 2024. For more detail on these changes and the remuneration outcomes, please refer to the remuneration report within our annual report. As our chairman noted to shareholders in this year's annual review and sustainability report, your company is well-served by a skilled and experienced board. In the last 12 months, our board added extensive insurance and financial services knowledge and skills through the appointment of George Sartorel, Scott Pickering, and myself. This is the first annual general meeting since his appointment. Scott is standing for election today, and you'll have the opportunity to hear from him shortly when we reach that item of business that relates to his election.
Three other directors, Tom Pockett, Helen Nugent, and George Savvides, have retired by rotation in keeping with our constitution. You'll hear more from those directors when we reach the items of business that relate to their re-election. On the subject of board renewal, we recently advised that Sheila McGregor leaves the board at the conclusion of this meeting after four years as a director. Sheila is transitioning to an expanded partner role at law firm Gilbert + Tobin, leading the firm's tech and IP team. I take this opportunity to thank her for her significant contribution to IAG, and we wish her the very best in her new role.
Given our stated gender diversity target to have no fewer than 30% of directors of each gender on the board, we are actively focused on recruiting female directors, and we look forward to providing information about appointments at the appropriate time. The underlying performance of our company remains strong, and management continues to be focused on achieving significant improvements against clear strategic targets. This year's result is a credit to the commitment and guidance provided by Nick Hawkins and his group leadership team, and to the efforts of every person working at IAG. Thank you to my fellow directors for their commitment, guidance, and insights, and on their behalf, I thank all of you for your continued support. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. I'll invite Nick to address the meeting. Nick.
Thanks, David, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, it's great to be here with you in person for the first time in a couple of years, and have the opportunity to talk about what our company has achieved over the last 12 months. To begin, I'd just like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and I pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging. I thought I'd frame my discussion today around the way we create value for you, our shareholders, and for our other key stakeholders. We're a very purpose-driven organization. That means we wanna make your world a safer place for the 30 million people who live in Australia and New Zealand, where our business operates.
In particular, of course, for the 8.5 million customers who trust us to insure them. Importantly, behind this purpose sits our strategy to create a stronger and a more resilient IAG. We've defined our strategy around priorities where we'll focus our efforts, and as David mentioned, these are around growing with our customers, building out better businesses, creating value through digital, and of course, importantly, managing our risks. We've been very clear to you, as our owners, what delivering on these priorities will look like over the next number of years. You know, our plans are to add 1 million new customers to our business by FY 2026. Our plans are to move 80% of digital transactions in the same time period.
We will have significantly turned around our Intermediated Insurance Australia business to achieve at least AUD 250 million insurance profit by FY 2024. We'll be creating AUD 400 million of value through claims and supply chain initiatives that we're progressed on already. Importantly, integral to delivery of our purpose, strategy, and our priorities is our approach to sustainability and the material issues that we continue to identify and to respond to. You'll see on the screen that we've identified five groups of stakeholders that we create value for, and I'll talk to each of these separately now. Let's start with all of us, the shareholders of IAG. Our FY 2022 results reflect the quality of the underlying business and the outcomes we achieved as we build out a stronger and a more resilient company.
In a tough environment, we deliver strong performance, a momentum that has carried into the current year. Our premiums grew by just under 6% to AUD 13.3 billion, and our net profit after tax was AUD 347 million. That's despite us having to respond to a high number of extreme weather events, volatile investment markets, higher inflationary environment, and a need to strengthen some of our prior year reserves. Our result did include a AUD 200 million pre-tax release from business interruption provision, and I'll revisit that topic again when I talk to the current period guidance. Off the back of the result, the board did declare a final dividend, as David mentioned, of AUD 0.05 per share, taking our full year dividend last year to AUD 0.11.
Our reported result, insurance profit of AUD 586 million, represented a margin of 7.4%, but that was after natural perils cost last year of AUD 1.1 billion. That was AUD 354 million more than our original allowances for the year and reflects a very difficult year for the communities that we support across Australia and New Zealand. The underlying margin, which is a better measure of 14.6%, really does reflect the strength of the performance of the business last year. Our customer story this year has been dominated by the high number of extreme weather events that we experienced. In that context, I wanna acknowledge the hardship of our customers that they've endured and the efforts, of course, of our people to help them.
Across Australia and New Zealand, our claim lodgements from extreme weather events last year more than doubled the previous year. That huge increase in claims had a significant impact on our customers, on our people, and of course, on our financial results, as I just reflected. Now, it's a credit to the resilience and skills of all of the people, of our people, that we continue to help our customers, which I know is a great source of pride for all of us. In this environment, we have been increasing our premiums, but we're also heartened by the high retention rates, which are the strongest we've ever seen in our company. Away from the challenges of the weather, we took a number of steps to enhance products, strengthen partnerships, and improve our customers' experience.
We launched NRMA Insurance into WA and South Australia, extending the reach of one of Australia's most trusted brands. We also launched the digital ROLLiN' product to provide younger customers with a subscription-like service for motor vehicle insurance. We continue to improve consistency and quality of smash repairs through our motor vehicle repair hub business. These allow us to return repaired cars to customers faster and to provide economies of scale in our motor parts procurement. In Australia, we're using artificial intelligence to predict whether a motor vehicle is a total loss after an accident, and customers now have access to an online claims tracker for their motor vehicle claims. In New Zealand, we've automated several processes to speed up our claims experience for our AMI and our State customers.
Our people culture is reflected in the IAG way, which sets out who we are, what we stand for, and how we expect people to behave. This also supports us to attract and retain people, which of course is a critical focus given today's competitive labor market. We regularly measure our culture through quarterly pulse surveys and an annual cultural survey that has two key indicators around employment engagement and leadership agility. We know that diversity, equity, and inclusion is critical part of our business and has a positive impact on risk management, innovation, and culture. We are focused on specific areas including gender equity, pay parity, LGBTQ+ inclusion, workplace accessibility, flexibility, and of course, hybrid working. We have a target to have 50% of senior management roles occupied by women by 2023.
To reach this target, we're focused on leadership development and accelerating our approach to talent acquisition and succession planning. We have a commitment to increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment. To help us improve our performance on this measure, we have plans to build our talent and development pathways. We have plans to continue to invest in cultural awareness training right across our business and listen to the voice of First Nations employees. To deliver on our strategy and respond to the changing environment, we need to build our insurance and leadership capability. This year, we've continued to invest in these areas. We also continue to prioritize safety and well-being of all of our people. When it comes to communities, this year, we continue to work to build disaster resilience across Australia and New Zealand.
We know that mitigation, land use planning, and building code reform are key to keeping communities safe in natural disasters. We're contributing to better outcomes for our communities by offering our expertise and working with governments, industry, and customers to improve planning to build out more resilient homes. Our community engagement strategy includes both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Māori. Our aim is to grow resilience, build cultural connection, play a role in addressing inequalities, and grow prosperity and wellbeing right across Australia and New Zealand. Moving now to the environment. As David noted, we've got a particular focus on climate because of the impact of climate changes and because of the impact changes in climate have on our customers and on our business.
Of course, we have a deep understanding of the impact of natural disasters and how they affect people in Australia and New Zealand. Our business has been managing the uncertainty of climate for more than 100 years, and we've long played a critical role in supporting our customers and the communities they live in. Now, global warming is driving an increase in the severity and frequency of natural disasters at a level we haven't seen before. I wanna talk briefly about how we are dealing with this challenge. In pursuit of our purpose, we continue to invest in improving our understanding of the change in climate and its potential impact. Our investment includes our own specialist in-house natural perils team, which is meteorologists as well as flood and cyclone experts and atmospheric scientists.
As the owners of your business, you can be reassured that we're using our understanding of weather and its impact on the risk that we underwrite to price our products in a way that means we will continue to be here and strong for our 8.5 million customers. We're also aware that some communities are especially vulnerable to the impact of the more frequent natural disasters and to increased prices. That's why we're using our expertise to advocate for programs of work that will mitigate the financial and social impact of natural disasters on our communities. We do this by contributing to the science and by helping communities prepare, and importantly adapt. We also use reinsurance to help us manage the volatility created by natural disasters.
Think of this as insurance for insurers, a way of us reducing the amount of risk that we take on. Within our own business, we have taken steps to manage our own carbon footprint, and we've made a commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We're also developing solutions to help our customers adapt to a changing climate and a transition to a net zero future. From a business perspective, we're on track to meet our target to cease insuring entities predominantly in the business of extracting fossil fuels, including oil and gas and power generation from coal, by the end of the current financial period. We continue to achieve our intermediate targets to reduce the normalized carbon footprint and carbon intensity of our equity portfolios. I'll just close with some comments on our guidance for the current financial period.
Having a more focused operating model, a leadership team with deep expertise, clear strategy for growth, gives us confidence in the future. Our guidance for the current financial year reflects this confidence. We're forecasting mid- to high-single-digit growth in premiums, and our reported insurance margin guidance is in the range of 14%-16%. This is a step towards our aspirational goal to deliver a 15%-17% insurance margin and a 12%-13% return on equity over the medium term. We're seeing a continuation of trends evident from last financial year. Like all businesses and our customers, we continue to experience the inflation, which is just a key feature of the Australian and New Zealand economies. We're seeing further natural disasters, most recently those that have occurred across New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania over the last week.
To date, we've received approximately 2,000 claims from those states. Our thoughts are with our customers and with our people who are managing these claims. In response to these pressures and in anticipation of higher reinsurance costs, we have been increasing our premiums across our home, motor, and our commercial insurance classes. You'll see greater earn through of that in the second half as more policies are being renewed. Encouragingly, our retention rate from our customers remain very strong in our business. Our FY 2023 result will also benefit from the pre-tax AUD 360 million reduction in COVID-19 business interruption provision following the resolution of some of the legal issues that have been around that. Connected to this, on Monday, we announced an on-market share buyback, which will commence in early November.
Buying back shares, of course, is a common capital management tool used by many other companies in the market, but also helps to make your shares more valuable. To finish, I remain confident in our ability of our business, and importantly our people, to deliver on the targets that we've set. Some of the issues we've been forced to confront have been challenging for us. We've had to reevaluate how we run and how we manage our company. We're confident those issues are behind us. We've fundamentally improved how we manage risk, and I've set up my leadership team to ensure there is clear accountability going forward. We're executing on our strategy, and our business has momentum. I'll now hand back to David for the formal part of the meeting.
Thank you, Nick. We'll now turn to the formal items of business for this meeting. Now there are five items of business before the company's AGM this morning, and these are set out in the notice of meeting, including seven resolutions. Resolutions 1 to 6 are all supported by your board. Resolution 7, which is the board spill resolution following the first strike against our remuneration report last year, will only be put to the meeting for a vote if at least 25% of votes cast against resolution 5, the adoption of the 2022 remuneration report. The first item of business is to consider and receive the financial report of the directors and the external auditor for the financial year ended 30 June 2022. There is no vote on this item.
These statements are published in the 2022 annual report, which was lodged with the ASX on 12 August 2022. The purpose of this item is to provide an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions and make comments about these reports. Shareholders will also have the opportunity to ask questions of our auditor, KPMG, relevant to the conduct of the audit and the auditor's report. All questions to the auditor should, in the first instance, be addressed to me as chairman of the meeting, and if appropriate, I'll ask Brendan Twining to address the meeting. Please bear in mind that we have a separate item of business on the remuneration report as part of resolution 5, and we'll be taking questions on remuneration matters when we come to that item. I'll now invite comments and questions on the financial statements and reports and the management of IAG.
Could you please make your way to either of the microphones if you're in the room, and for those online, please submit your questions in the online platform if you have not already done so. For those on the phone, please press star one to go into the question queue. I'll start with questions in the room. Microphone two.
Chairman, I would like to introduce Ian Graves from the Australian Shareholders' Association.
Good morning, Mr. Graves.
Good morning, Chairman. Yes, my question is about the risk management of the company, and in view of the recent occurrences with data breaches that have occurred, can you assure the meeting how much investment is made in defense of cyber capability? And the second part is, can you advise how much personal data of clients is retained and for how long?
Thank you, Mr. Graves. Cyber security and data protection are certainly contemporary issues, and they become more contemporary by the day, it would seem. IAG takes cyber and data risk very seriously, and we've invested heavily over the last number of years. This involves ongoing monitoring and reviews, as well as the routine governance practices that you would expect over an area like that. We have multiple layers of defense in place to help mitigate the risk, which are applied across various processes and technologies within the organization. Our capacity aligns to the requirements of an APRA standard, a prudential standard that relates to regulated entities, CPS 234. I think it's important to understand the sort of framework that APRA have set out.
The key areas involve appropriate data and security policies and frameworks. The implementation of multiple layers of security controls, including vulnerability management, encryption of data, access management, and physical controls over that data. It also requires a highly skilled cyber defense capability and team, and regular testing of the security controls to ensure that they are operating effectively. In addition, there are also independent assurance required against our compliance with the standard and the policies that are set out. Now, like many large organizations, we do rely on complex and scaled technologies, and we're gonna constantly review and evolve the processes in the context of a very, very dynamic cyber environment in which we face. You had a second part to your question in relation to data, I believe.
We collect relevant information from our customers to understand the risk that they want us to insure and to be in a position to tailor the premium to that relevant risk, and to manage the customer's claims in relation to, any of the experience that they have under our policy commitments. Now, we have a strong group data governance framework, including retention standards that details the data we collect. These standards and retention schedules cover the retention periods required by law, and they do vary depending on, what piece of data may be involved. We're required to be able to operate and provide customers with their best experience, and we'll continue to review these schedules. I think, the Optus breach in particular has caused a lot of organizations to rethink their data policies and procedures, and we will be undertaking a review in that regard.
Thank you, Chairman.
Microphone two.
Chairman, I would like to introduce Natasha Lee, shareholder.
All right.
Thank you, Chairman. Thank you to the board. It's good to be back in face-to-face meetings.
Indeed.
The first comment I make is a bit of a gripe about the previous meetings which were purely online for obvious reasons. The issue was that I presume a number of shareholders submitted questions in advance. Now, as I did, but I found that my questions were skipped over, and there was no response provided, which I don't think was good enough given the time and effort I put into preparing the questions. I'm not sure whether that's the board or the council.
Well, I'm sorry if that was your experience, Ms. Lee. I do know that a great level of effort has gone into looking at the consistency of questions that are asked online and aggregating those, and there's a real tracking process to ensure that what questions have been raised can be, if they are capable of being grouped, addressed in either the chairman's address or the CEO's address or specifically addressed during questions.
Yeah.
I hope we're doing a good job.
Well, none of that happened, so.
Thank you.
The previous chair kind of aggregated it into sort of three areas.
Right.
--which didn't include mine. As something aside, that some of the companies which I'm involved in did submit individual responses. So I appreciate that, you know, you may have received hundreds of questions, and you can't respond to them all, but
Well, in fact. Sorry. Thank you, Ms. Lee. We are actually responding directly to a number of questions outside of the process of the meeting itself.
Okay. At this meeting, you mean? Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Prior to the meeting, actually.
Yeah. That's okay. I wish Tom all the best and hope to see him again. My question concerns your investment strategy. I was wondering, how is that formulated and reviewed? I note that some 90% of your investment assets were actually in fixed interest deposits and the like. Now, I know that you could say that to a certain extent with 20/20 hindsight in retrospect, but I think that any savvy investor during the time of near zero interest rates would have taken a slightly more aggressive approach. Whilst I don't and I wouldn't expect IAG to take an extremely progressive...
When you look at some of the more conservative superannuation options, you know, they had 15%-20% of their investments in things like equities, whereas you had, like, 10%. I think that the company missed out on significant opportunities to capitalize off the gains which we've had in the last couple of years. Obviously, interest rates are going up at the moment, so it's not as applicable. If you can explain
Sure.
How you formulate your investment strategy.
Okay. The percentages you're referring to talk to the aggregate level of investments, and we manage the investments in two distinct pools. There's one pool that is there to cover the claims reserves.
Mm-hmm.
These are the reserves that have been set up against future claims experience that we anticipate through our actuarial models. We really require a great level of certainty attaching to the investments being there to match those liabilities when and if they emerge. That portfolio will be heavily biased towards fixed income. Because it reflects the certainty we require. The second portfolio of investments relates to the investments of the shareholders' funds, and we do take a more active approach to that, albeit that it is a balanced portfolio. We don't want to bet the house in reality. I think if you reflect on the equities exposure in the total, it will look very small. It will be a larger percentage if you think about it in the context of the shareholders' funds.
Okay. I'll probably need to review that section. I noticed that your employee benefit provision has gone down, what is it? AUD 322 million from AUD 384 million. Can you explain the reason for that? Is it staff turnover or has your workforce been shrinking then?
Could you just clarify which?
Employee benefit provision
Nick, you might like to answer that.
Yeah. Hi, Natasha.
Hi.
Just on your first point, we'll make sure that we respond to any questions that we don't directly respond to today. I apologize for your experience last year.
Just the previous years, yeah.
I mean, I imagine what we had during COVID, and many companies had the same problem, that and we all actually had the same challenge. Many of our people didn't take any leave. You know, for various reasons, there was actually nowhere to go for a start. We actually had quite a challenge, and we've really been encouraging our people to take leave. You know, we had probably had a year or year and a half where that wasn't happening to a degree. Some of those provisions increased, and we've been trying to encourage our people for their wellbeing to actually take appropriate time off. I think that probably won't just be an IAG thing.
I think you'll see that across many companies, and many companies have been trying to encourage their people to take leave because some of the lockdown periods people didn't. Really it's a wellbeing comment around our people.
Right. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Seems microphone two is very popular today. Microphone two.
Chairman, I would like to introduce Michael Strashko.
Welcome, Mr. Strashko.
Apologies for the foreign name, but I ain't foreign. I'd like the chairman or anyone else to explain why the slowness of an on-market share buyback was instituted instead of a dividend for the AUD 300-odd million that you had retrieved from reserves because some of the business interruption insurance was not being paid.
Thank you very much for the question. As Nick outlined, there are a range of potential capital management options available to us.
Yes, there was, but why?
Why? Because we don't have enough franking credits. We would not have been in a position to provide the franking for a special dividend, and by the
You do, but it's only 70% franked anyway.
Correct. Further dividends would've exacerbated that challenge.
It's a poor answer, may I say.
I'm sorry you feel that way. A number of our investors look to the value of franking credits and wish us to distribute the franking credits as quickly as possible. The fact is we're in a position at the moment where the franking credits balance is not as strong as we would wish it to be.
Once again, that comes back to the original situation that business interruption probably should have been paid rather than contested in the courts.
Well, that's a separate topic. I think the evolution of the business interruption case, we took a very conservative position when the provision was put in place. Over time, we're getting more information, and two reductions to that provision have already taken place. We will see as time plays out, there may be opportunities to further reevaluate that provision.
I'm sure the customers would be unimpressed with that answer.
Thank you. No further question. Oh, sorry. No, by all means.
Chairman, I would like to introduce Kirrily Parker, shareholder.
Ms. Parker.
Hi. This is a question just about some terminology. Now, I guess our environment, we're becoming more gender-neutral. I'm wondering why IAG is using the word chairman instead of chair?
I was rereading the notes last night of last year's AGM, and I think Elizabeth Bryan expressed a strong view that, when asked whether she would wish to be termed a chairwoman, decided no, the expression is chairman, and that is the way it's staying. When Elizabeth says it's staying, it's staying. Yes. There are, look, a range of views on this particular topic, but I found it interesting that Elizabeth had a very strong view on the long-standing practice of chairman.
Okay. Doesn't sound very modern anymore.
We'll take that on board. I'll now move to questions online.
Chairman, we do have some questions online. The first question is from Dr. Susan Ennis. She says, "IAG is to be highly commended for excluding insurance in all fossil fuel extraction and production and coal-fired power by 2023. However, according to my understanding, your current investment policy does not say anything about excluding and investing in and underwriting of gas-fired power or gas pipelines, which are also contributing to our coming and present climate emergency and its related insurance claims." There are two questions from Susan. She says, "Firstly, how much are you currently investing in or underwriting gas-fired power or gas pipelines? Secondly, when will your investment and underwriting policies fully exclude these and so be aligned with the legally binding Paris Agreement, which excludes all the above gas investments and underwriting?
Okay, thank you for the question. There are probably two elements there, one related to underwriting activity and the other to investments. Just as I mentioned in the opening address, and I think Nick might have covered it as well, on underwriting, we're on track to stop insuring companies that participate in fossil fuel extraction, including thermal coal, oil and gas, and power generation from thermal coal by 30 June 2023. That's this financial year. As I mentioned in my address, the total premium income that we're talking about in that category is AUD 1 million or 0.01% of total Gross Written Premium.
On the point of investments, our policy is to prohibit investments in companies involved in thermal coal mining, and as I mentioned earlier, we are reviewing this policy in relation to companies involved in the extraction of other fossil fuels. We will have more to report on that in due course, but I can say, as it stands today, we have one investment in one gas producing company, and one investment in a convertible note for a company that extracts oil. In the context of our investment portfolio, we are not talking about large amounts. When and if we change our policy, we are talking currently about two investments.
Thank you, Chairman. This is the final question we have online live, Chairman. It is from Mr. Pablo Bright. He says, "Globally and in Australia, we are seeing a frightening increase in extreme weather, resulting in hits to our profits due to increasing natural perils payouts. This is due in part because decades of lobbying and spreading of lies by coal, oil, and gas company has delayed action to cut emissions. Innocent members of the public are now paying the price, as are IAG shareholders. Has IAG considered suing coal, oil, and gas companies to recover some of its increasing natural catastrophe claims? If not, would this be something the board would consider in the future?
Thank you for the question. The simple answer is no, we have not. I think IAG is in an extraordinary position. You know, frankly, quite a unique capability that we have with our in-house natural perils team, and it's a team of dedicated client scientists to support management of climate impacts and on customers and business. I think the way we are thinking about it is our role can best be played by our participation with government, with councils, any relevant party, to share our data in a way that can bring these issues to the fore in a positive way for the community to come to an agreed outcome.
Chairman, just confirming, no more online questions.
Thank you. Do we have any telephone questions?
Mr. Chairman, we do have a question from Mr. Lasha Prasad, who is a private investor. Please go ahead.
Thanks for having me, Chairman. I wanted to know on the EV vehicles and the renewable energy being used around. I think the greater use will come in future years as also opens up for the use of EV vehicles. What is your strategy on trying to enhance more, you know, support for the EV vehicles?
I'm just gonna confer with the CEO. I'm sorry. I was having a little bit of trouble hearing every word there.
Oh, sorry.
Was the question?
What's our position in relation to EV vehicles and sort of how we see that over the next couple of years? Is that sort of the summary?
That's right. That's right.
Nick, would you like to take it?
Yeah. I mean, we insure all EV vehicles in Australia, and we're very supportive of government plans to sort of work through how we might incentivize and work with the transition essentially of the fleet of Australia into an EV fleet. We're investing ourselves in our understanding of any sort of different risk factors that are in an EV vehicle versus sort of a traditional. You know, we're making sure that we're transitioning our business as our country is gonna be transitioning over the next number of years and working with all those important stakeholder groups to ensure that we're there supporting as customers and governments and others are transitioning. We are very aligned to where this topic is heading.
Thanks for that.
Finally, Jane, did we receive any questions in advance which have not yet been addressed?
Chairman, we have a question from Mr. Steven Frank Boyd and Ms. Jennifer Jean Close. They ask, "What is IAG doing to improve responses for those dislocated in large numbers by climate change-related disasters, for example, bushfires and the North Coast, New South Wales floods?
Thank you, Jane. We have a very experienced claims management team that are on the ground. Our ex-executive leadership team have visited these locations and are looking at the very dreadful circumstances that are confronting a number of our customers and the communities, particularly in the Northern Rivers. No doubt in days to come, we will see more of the challenges come through in the Murray Basin area as well. I'm not sure I can give a great many specifics other than that we are working through our claims management teams to do the very best we can to assist our customers in this regard.
Thank you, Chairman. We have a further question in advance. This is a combined question, Ms. Lee. It's from three shareholders. It was Mr. Marco Acquaviva, Mrs. Jill Margaret Kotsiolasis, and Mr. John Hatton. They asked questions regarding IAG's share price, so we have consolidated that to you, Chairman, which is: What are we doing about the IAG share price to improve it?
Thank you for that question. I mean, at the end of the day, I think the core answer to that is the focused strategy that we have and the progress that we're making on the fronts that Nick outlined. Growing our customer numbers organically, improving the performance of our intermediated business, and looking at costs through our claims management processes. All three of these will contribute to an improved financial performance and ultimately, the financial performance is reflected in the share price. I think we're on track, and the board is seeing the green shoots of that strategy coming to fruition.
Thank you, Chairman. This is the final question in advance, not yet addressed. It is from Mrs Suzy Yvonne Crick. She says, "Will IAG advocate publicly and actively for policies to rapidly reduce carbon emissions and phase out fossil fuel use and educate IAG's customers about climate change on premiums and participation in risk mitigation measures?
I think I'll answer that in a way that I the question was very specific about public advocacy. Our advocacy will be around resilience and mitigation measures, and using our data to assist policy, a government policy in areas that will assist our clients into the future, and make sure that we have a more resilient Australia. The value of insurance is important to all of our customers, and we're seeing that through the improved number of customers that are coming to IAG. Oops.
Chairman, this is the alert.
The fire alarm system is operated. Stand by for further instructions. Warning, the fire alarm system is operated. Stand by for further instructions.
Are you ready? You will come with me.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience.
Okay.
I'll recommence the discussion in a moment once we establish the veracity or otherwise of this particular alarm. Jane, I'm sure our people are working in the background there.
I'm just getting confirmation, Chairman that the alarm is ceasing in the rest of the building, so if we could just have a short pause.
In our rehearsals, we were wondering how Jane was going to describe the beep, beep or the whoop, whoop. Well, we've just seen that Jane's rendition of beep, beep was pretty accurate, actually.
Thank you, Chairman, and I did say to everyone, I think I promised shareholders that if we practiced this, then I was saying the whoop, whoop, and the beep, beep, it would not happen. I'm nervously looking over to my various bosses. We're just waiting, awaiting confirmation.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Chairman, we've had confirmation that we are able to proceed. It is only an alert. If there is no evacuation. It's in the car park, and we are safe and well at this stage.
Okay. Thank you. Well, we're definitely not in the car park.
If we hear beeps, we'll change.
Okay. Thank you. Stay tuned. Jane, where are we up to? Any-
So-
Remaining questions online?
Chairman, confirming that there are no remaining questions online.
Okay. Thank you for all your comments and questions in relation to the financial statements and the reports. The next item of business is the re-election of directors, including Tom Pockett, Helen Nugent, George Savvides, and Scott Pickering. Separate resolutions will be put for each director standing for re-election or election. In accordance with the company's constitution, Tom, Helen, and George are retiring at this meeting by rotation and offering themselves for re-election. Scott, who was appointed to the board after the last AGM, is offering himself for election for the first time. Now, we received several questions.
Attention, attention. Please ignore all alarms. I repeat, please ignore all alarms and continue normal duties. Thank you.
Normal duties are being recommenced. We have received several questions in advance regarding the size of the board and the number of additional positions held by directors and gender diversity. I mentioned gender diversity in my earlier comments. In terms of the size of the board, it will vary from time to time as part of the ongoing process of succession planning when we look at the skills and experience required for the board, and we will stagger the board's renewal. In terms of additional directorships, the board remains confident that each director continues to have the capacity to discharge their obligations to IAG. With those other positions comes experience which contributes to what they can bring to IAG. We've also received a question in advance regarding how directors will improve shareholder outcomes.
Now, as a collective, the board's role is to ensure that there is a proper governance framework in place to protect and promote IAG for the benefit of all stakeholders. Directors act collectively rather than individually in guiding the company. Each director contributes to the board by bringing their experience, technical knowledge, and insights to the table. The board's skills matrix, covering the range of competencies and experience of each director, which is reviewed on a regular basis. Specifically for shareholders, the board has oversight of the management team and has worked with Nick and his leadership team to set IAG's strategic direction with clear accountabilities for success. IAG is now executing on this strategy, which is designed to deliver strong shareholder returns.
Now, there is good momentum in the underlying business performance, and this confidence is reflected in the guidance for FY 2023 and the group's medium-term financial targets. Now to each of the resolutions. Resolution one is in respect to the re-election of our Board Chairman, Tom Pockett. Tom is retiring from the board under the company's constitution, and being eligible, offers himself for re-election. Although Tom is not able to be with us today, he has prepared a re-election speech and asks that our Group Company Secretary, Jane, present this to you on his behalf. Now before handing to Jane, I would like to reiterate on behalf of the whole board that we recommend you vote in favor of Tom's re-election. Jane, over to you.
Thanks, David. Shareholders, I read the following to you on Tom's behalf. "Shareholders, please accept my apologies for not being at the AGM today. However, unforeseen personal circumstances have prevented me from being able to be there. I was originally appointed to the IAG board in January 2015 and remember feeling honored and proud in having been asked to join this board. These feelings have not changed, and it is a real privilege to work with my fellow board members, Nick and his management team, to further IAG's purpose to make your world a safer place. Until last year, I was the chairman of IAG's board audit committee, and now I serve as the board chairman and the chairman of the nomination committee.
Outside of IAG, I'm the chairman of Stockland Group and a non-executive director of O'Connell Street Associates, having retired as chairman of Autosports Group and as a non-executive director of Sunnyfield last year. Should I be re-elected today, I look forward to continuing to forge ahead the role that IAG has established in giving confidence to our customers that they will be supported in times of crisis, and to delivering on our strategy to make IAG a stronger, more resilient company. I believe my experience as a senior executive in some of Australia's largest corporations and my roles on other boards has positioned me well for this important responsibility. I thank you in advance for your support, and my apologies again for not being with you at today's AGM. David, back to you.
I now invite questions on resolution one, which I will respond to on behalf of Tom. I will use the same question order, namely in the room, online, and then by phone, and then, if needed, any questions in advance. Just a reminder for those on the phone, please press star one. I will start with questions in the room. Microphone two, Ms. Lee.
Chairman, I would like to reintroduce Natasha Lee, shareholder.
Thank you, Chairman. I noted earlier that you mentioned a 30% target for female representation on the board. Just like to make the comment that 40% is considered to be world's best practice, and some are moving towards a higher number than that. What are the board's plans as far as reviewing that? I'd also like to say that the board shouldn't forget other forms of diversity, as it's important that the composition of the board reflect the community in which you serve.
Thank you. Yes. The policy as it stands today is 30%, but we will always be open to quality candidates and have no fixed view of maximums, frankly. I think the other thing. You raised an important point around broader diversity. Age comes into it as well. We will always be open to diversity of opinion, and we are seeking interesting candidates.
Okay, you're not gonna review the 30%?
Not at this stage, no. I'll now move to questions online.
Chairman, just confirming that we do not have any questions online.
Thank you, Jane. Do we have any telephone questions?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on the telephone.
Can I check whether there are any remaining questions online?
Just confirming, Chairman, there are no remaining questions.
Okay. That concludes the discussion of resolution one. The direct votes and proxies received for this resolution are now shown on the presentation slide on your screen. Based on those voting numbers, the resolution has been carried and Tom has been re-elected to the board. I'd like to remind shareholders who have not yet cast their votes to do so now. Voting on this item and all other items is open, and we'll now move to the next item of business. The next resolution is in respect to the re-election of Helen Nugent. Helen is retiring from the board under the company's constitution, and being eligible, offers herself for re-election. The board, other than Helen, who has abstained, recommends you vote in favor of Helen's re-election to the board. Before turning to questions, I will invite Helen to say a few words in relation to her re-election. Helen.
Thank you, Chairman. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is an absolute privilege to offer myself for re-election as a non-executive director of IAG. I am unequivocally committed to IAG's vision to make the world a safer place for our customers and for the community more broadly, particularly in a world of increasingly volatile weather events. At the same time, I know we need to proactively manage risk, including operational risk, while generating significantly improved returns for you, our shareholders. I am committed to building a stronger, more resilient IAG through the four pillars of our strategy. Against that background, and in support of my re-election, I make five points for your general consideration. First, I am relentlessly focused on the customer experience. Making it easier to do business with us, including digitally, is at the heart of customer expectations and our ability to grow our market share.
This is a core pillar of our strategy. Second, I share IAG's commitment to helping communities. My understanding comes from a deep involvement over many years with disability, with medical research, with the arts, and with education. Earlier this year, I was made a Companion of the Order of Australia for my contribution in these areas, and recently I became Chairman of the Order of Australia Association Foundation. These involvements have helped me deeply understand what it means to make our customers' world a safer place. Third, I have a long-standing track record as a director. This includes my having been chairman of six for-profit companies and eight not-for-profit organizations. Currently, I am Chairman of Ausgrid and Senior Independent Director at TPG Telecom. In that context, I see the impact of severe weather events and what it takes to build better businesses.
Fourth, I have a long history of involvement in insurance and the financial services sector. This includes having been chairman of Swiss Re Australia, Veda Group, and Funds SA, as well as a non-executive director of Macquarie Group and Mercantile Mutual. Prior to becoming a non-executive director, I was Director of Strategy at Westpac Banking Corporation. This banking background assists me in overseeing IAG's diverse set of risks, which is critical to generating improved returns to shareholders. Fifth and finally, I am committed to IAG's success. I have the time, the energy, and the dedication to work in your interests. I've attended all board and committee meetings of which I am a member and regularly attend other committee meetings as an observer. I thank you in advance for your support and I look forward to meeting you, as many of you as possible, after the AGM.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Helen. I'll now invite questions on resolution 2 and starting with questions in the room. No questions. I will move to questions online.
Chairman, we have received one question online. It is from Mr. Stephen Mayne. He says, "In 2019, Treasury Wine Estates voluntarily moved to annual elections for directors in line with best practice that occurs in both the U.S. and the U.K. Dual-listed companies like News Corp and Rio Tinto all do this due to the laws in the U.S. and the U.K., and BHP has voluntarily continued doing so even after its U.K. dual-listed company ended last year. As an experienced director, could Helen Nugent please comment on whether she has considered or would support following the Treasury Wine Estates model of annual elections for directors at IAG's 2023 AGM?
I'll take it on Helen's behalf, I think, or would you care to comment?
Look, I think it's something that periodically needs to be assessed. It's not a question for one individual director, it is a question for the board more broadly, and it's up to the board as to whether or not they want to consider it.
I think also the extent to which it becomes common practice.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman. Just confirming, Chairman, we've had it confirmed there are no more online questions.
Thank you, Jane. Do we have any telephone questions?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on the telephone.
Jane, can I check whether there are any further online questions?
There are no further online questions and nothing in advance, Chairman.
That concludes the discussion of resolution 2. The direct votes and proxies received for this resolution are now shown on the presentation slide on your screen. Based on those voting numbers, the resolution has been carried and Helen has been re-elected to the board. Congratulations, Helen. The next resolution is in respect of the re-election of George Savvides. George is retiring from the board under the company's constitution and being eligible, offers himself for re-election. The board, other than George, who has abstained, recommends that you vote in favor of George's re-election to the board. Before turning to questions, I'll invite George to say a few words in relation to his re-election.
Well, thank you, Chairman, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I joined the IAG board in June 2019, so this is the first time that I'm standing for re-election. I serve the board on three committees. Firstly, as the Chair of the People and Remuneration Committee, and also a member of the Risk Committee and the Nominations Committee. As the Chair of the People and Remuneration Committee, I have been working with my fellow board members and management over the past year, responding to your feedback at the 2021 AGM on executive remuneration arrangements and ensuring that IAG's executive arrangements align with IAG's business strategy, market practice, and most importantly, shareholder outcomes. You will have read about the changes we have made following last year's AGM in this year's annual report, which was also covered by the Chairman earlier today.
To share a little bit about myself, I was the CEO of Sigma Company between 1996 and 2000, and the CEO of Medibank Private between 2002 and 2016. In terms of my non-executive roles, I was appointed as Deputy Chair of public broadcaster SBS in 2017, and became their Chairman in July 2020. I recently joined the board of I-MED Radiology Network as their Chairman. I also hold non-executive director roles on boards of Buildxact, a construction management solutions company, and Ryman Healthcare, a trans-Tasman retirement living company. My background, I'm a qualified industrial engineer from UNSW, and I have an MBA from the UTS, and I'm a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
I believe I bring to the IAG board a strong understanding of insurance and the key areas of brand positioning, customer acquisition and retention, and claims management, complemented by 20 years of CEO experience. I thank you in advance for all your support for my re-election, and I look forward to contributing to the further success at IAG. Thank you.
Thank you, George. I now invite questions on resolution 3, starting with questions in the room. Number 2.
Chairman, I would like to reintroduce Ian Graves, apologies, Australian Shareholders' Association.
Mr. Graves.
Mr. Chairman, the question I have to ask is that directors, as directors over the last five years, bring to your attention again that there's been a sustained negative total shareholder return. We would like the directors, as they stand for re-election, how they are specifically going to improve shareholders' return or outcomes. At the moment, with the last candidate has just really reiterated his biography, therefore, we would wonder what other aspects is he going to bring to the board during his new term? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Graves. I'll answer that on behalf of George, if you don't mind. The reason being that I tried to bring to the fore the fact that the board acts as a collective rather than directors acting individually. Your point is very valid in the context of the performance of the organization. I think what I've tried to explain is the role the board collectively has played in working with management to develop the strategy for the organization to get the level of focus and accountability that we believe will drive the performance that will address some of the concerns that you've raised. George, is there anything you'd particularly want to add?
Chair, I just wanna reinforce your points that the board has, and I'm a contributor of that obviously, very much focused around setting a performance plan. You've heard it from the Group Chief Executive Officer earlier today. The board's been deeply involved in that, and that plan is now integrated with the remuneration framework as well, so that it's aligned with the way we wish to reward our senior executives and the group CEO. I'm confident that we are addressing the concerns that you've raised, and they are top priority of the board.
Thanks, Mr. Graves. Now move to questions online.
Thank you, Chairman. We have one question online. It is from Mr. Stephen Mayne again. Stephen says there was a 9% protest vote on the proxies against the re-election of IAG's board chairman, Tom Pockett, but this was not disclosed to the meeting until after the debate. To the question, has there been any protest vote against George's re-election? Could the board please comment on what the issue was with Tom Pockett? Did one of the major proxy advisors recommend a vote against and what was the issue raised?
Thank you for the question, Mr. Mayne. There's a few elements to that. In terms of your words, a protest vote, I think you'll be aware that a number of the proxy advisors have some rather binary rules in relation to diversity, and don't provide a great degree of optionality. It then depends on the extent to which individual investors follow that advice from the specific proxy advisor. I'm led to understand that that is what has led to the vote being down on what would normally be the case for someone of Tom's capability. You raised the other question that this came up after the discussion had taken place. This is a very vexed question.
AGMs often find themselves in situation, do you disclose the numbers in advance in a way that will influence the debate negatively, or do you hold off, allow the debate to take place, and then disclose the numbers? That's the approach this board has taken in the past. I take your point, Mr. Mayne, and hopefully I've answered your question in relation to Tom's re-election. Are there any telephone questions?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on the telephone.
Jane, no further online questions?
Confirming nothing further, Chairman.
Okay. That concludes the discussion of resolution 3. The direct votes and proxies received for this resolution are now shown on the presentation slide on your screen. Based on those voting numbers, the resolution has been carried and George has been re-elected to the board. Congratulations, George.
Thank you.
Our next item of business is resolution for the election of Scott Pickering, who was appointed to the board on 1 November 2021. Scott has been a chief executive and is a senior leader in the global insurance industry with over 30 years of experience in the sector. The board, other than Scott, who has abstained, recommends that you vote in favor of Scott's election to the board. Now, before turning to questions, I'll invite Scott to say a few words in relation to his election.
Thank you, Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, I became an IAG director in November last year. This is the first time that I'm standing for election at IAG's annual general meeting. I am a member of the board audit committee. Given this is my first interaction with you, let me provide an overview of my executive and non-executive roles outside of IAG. I live in New Zealand and have over 30 years of executive experience in the insurance sector globally. Notably, I was formerly the regional CEO for Willis Towers Watson, one of the world's largest insurance brokers for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I have also held CEO positions at RSA Insurance, the ACE Group, which is now known as Chubb Insurance, and at Cigna.
In addition, I was the CEO of the Accident Compensation Corporation, the New Zealand state-owned entity, which is responsible for administering New Zealand's no-fault accidental injury compensation scheme. In terms of my non-executive roles, I act as an advisor to Bain & Company and HealthNow Limited. I've been a non-executive director in the New Zealand state-owned bank, Kiwibank, since 2016. I was also previously a non-executive director of Chubb Insurance in Australia and New Zealand. I'm also a member of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance. My non-executive appointments do not present any conflict with my obligations to IAG. In my short time at IAG, I have been very impressed by your board and management's resolute commitment to IAG's purpose, which is to make the world a safer place.
In particular, having regard to the terrible weather events that have impacted our communities this past year, I have seen the way that IAG cohesively mobilizes to assist customers and the community at large. Having a considerable insurance industry and leadership experience, I believe that I have the necessary skills and experience to further contribute to the IAG board. On that basis, I am seeking your support to be elected to the board. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Scott. I'll now invite questions on resolution four, starting with questions in the room. No questions in the room. Questions online, Jane?
Confirming no questions online, Chair.
Do we have any telephone questions?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on the telephone.
Jane, no further. Thank you.
Nothing further. Oh, correction. Sorry, Chairman. We have just had one come in from Steven Main again. Steven's question is: the insurance industry is very complex and requires a lot of specialist knowledge, so well done for appointing career experts such as Scott Pickering and George, I believe it's a correction, George Sartorel to the board. As the former CEO of the ACC, does Scott think New South Wales should move to a no-fault government scheme similar to the TAC model in Victoria?
I'm afraid, Scott, I'm gonna hand that to you.
I think that's a very interesting question. There is a clear benefit of a no-fault scheme. I think that New Zealand is very lucky to have had a scheme in place for over 40+ years. There is a lot of complexity with that, and I feel that it would be probably inappropriate for me to comment on a state or a federal issue at this point in time.
Thanks, Scott.
I'm just confirming, Chairman, that there are no further questions online.
That concludes the discussion of resolution 4 . The direct votes and proxies received in respect of this resolution are now shown on the presentation slide on your screen. Based on the voting numbers, the resolution has been carried and Scott has been elected to the board. Congratulations, Scott. The next resolution is the adoption of the company's remuneration report for the financial year ended 30 June 2022. The 2022 remuneration report is set out on pages 29 to 53 of the company's 2022 annual report and provides disclosures relating to executive and non-executive remuneration. The vote on resolution 5 is advisory only. At last year's AGM, the 2021 remuneration report received what is called a first strike, with more than 25% of the votes cast against the adoption of that report.
In the Chairman's address earlier, I spoke in detail about how seriously the board took the first strike and what we have done to address the concerns of our shareholders. I'll now invite questions on resolution five. Microphone two.
Chairman, I would like to reintroduce Ian Graves from the Australian Shareholders' Association.
Thank you, Chairman. Our question from the Shareholders Association is that, the remuneration, as you know, we have been quite critical of it over a number of years, and we know that you have made some improvements, minor at the moment. Can the Chairman advise when it will adopt APRA's CPS 511 regulation and the requirements for regulated institutions in regard to long-term incentives?
Thank you, Mr. Graves. That's a fairly simple question for us. We will be adopting from 1 July 2023, which is the application date that CPS 511 will have for IAG.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you very much. Online, Jane.
Chairman, we've got three questions online at this stage. The first question is from Mr. Dale Fernandes. He asks, "Are outcomes of claims linked to bonus payments to management and directors as the lived experience of members is very different to what is being said here today?
I think the simple answer to that is no. We do have obviously financial measures in the remuneration for the executives, not the non-executive directors. There's perhaps an indirect relationship, but it is indirect only.
Chairman, the next question is from Mr. Stephen Mayne again. Stephen says, "There was a 57% protest vote against last year's remuneration report, and we still do not know the proxy position going into today's vote. Origin Energy has been disclosing the proxy position to the ASX with the formal addresses ahead of the AGM commencing since 2008. Will IAG commit to do this next year so shareholders are no longer debating in a vacuum?" And the second question: "And did any of the proxy advisors recommend a vote against the remuneration report in addition to the ASA, which is voting undirected proxies against the remuneration report, pushing for a second strike?
Thank you, Mr. Mayne. There are two parts to that. I'll answer the first part, and then I might ask Mr. Savvides to comment on the second part. Thank you. I understand your point around the disclosure of proxies. We will have a discussion as a board and take that into consideration. As I mentioned earlier, it is somewhat vexed. There are different points of view, but I hear your particular perspective when it comes to the remuneration report in particular. George?
Yeah, I'm not aware of any votes by proxy advisors against the REM Report.
Thank you.
Chairman, the final question at this stage online is from Mr. Stephen Mayne again. He asks, "When disclosing the outcome of voting on all resolutions today, including the remuneration report, could you please advise the ASX how many shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to what happens with a scheme of arrangement? This will provide a better gauge of retail shareholder sentiment on all resolutions, and was a disclosure initiative adopted by the likes of Metcash, Altium, and Dexus after their 2021 AGMs.
Thank you, Mr. Mayne. Look, we will take that on board and have a discussion about it. I can't guarantee that what the outcome will be, but I hear you on that point and we will raise it today.
Thank you, Chairman. There are no further questions online.
Do we have any telephone questions?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on the telephone.
Jane, once again.
Nothing further, Chairman.
Finally, Jane, did we receive any questions in advance which have not yet been addressed?
Confirming none.
Thank you for your comments and questions in relation to the adoption of the remuneration report. That does conclude the discussion of resolution five. The direct votes and proxies received for this resolution are now shown on the presentation slide on your screen. As you can see, there was an excess of over 96% voted in favor of our 2022 remuneration report. Based on these results and the number of votes represented at this meeting today, I am pleased to see that we have received overwhelming support for our 2022 remuneration report. As a result, we have not received a second strike and accordingly, as set out in the notice of meeting resolution seven, the contingent spill resolution will not be put to the meeting today.
The next item of business relates to the allocation of deferred award rights, DARS, and executive performance rights, EPRs, to the Group CEO and Managing Director, Nick Hawkins, under the short-term and long-term incentive plans. There is a detailed explanation of the DARS and EPRs in the notice of meeting. Importantly, both the DARS and EPRs are paid in equity to align Nick's remuneration with shareholder outcomes. These plans are deferred over multiple years to ensure the Group CEO is appropriately focused on long-term sustainable performance. The DARS are granted as part of the annual short-term incentive plan. They are rights over shares which vest to Nick over a two-year period. The EPRs are granted as a long-term incentive. These performance rights vest four years after they are granted and only if performance hurdles which are closely aligned with value creation for shareholders are achieved.
If the performance hurdles are not achieved, these performance rights will lapse. As we saw last year, the performance rights granted to the group CEO in FY 2019 lapsed in entirety as the performance hurdles were not met. The board, with Nick abstaining, recommends you vote in favor of this resolution, and I'll now invite questions on resolution 5, starting in the room. If there are no questions in the room, we will move to questions online.
Chairman, we have some questions online. The first question is from Mr. Dale Fernandez. He asks, "What does this include, given its RACV?" Apologies, Chairman, there might have been an error in entering the question, but that's all we have.
I'm not entirely sure what the shareholder is asking. The rights relate to the performance of the IAG Group, as a whole, including our interest in IMA, which is a joint venture with the RACV in Victoria. Perhaps we might move to the next question. If the shareholder wishes to explain further, we'd be happy to take the question.
Thank you, Chairman. This is the second, at this stage, final question for this item of business. It is from Mr. Stephen Mayne again. Stephen says, "Given the interesting discussions across a range of topics today, including on this LTI grant, could the chair undertake to make an archive copy of the webcast, plus a full transcript of proceedings available on the company's website? This is a Dorothy Dixer question because IAG actually has the best record in the market on this front, having AGM transcripts all the way back to 2003 on your website. Please confirm this will be continued and well done for this outstanding transparency. Many companies refuse to publish AGM transcripts and the likes of Nine, AGL, ASX, ANZ, CIMIC, Domino's, IDP Education, and Lendlease only started last year.
Thank you, Mr. Mayne, for your vote of confidence. Yeah, I'm sure that I can confirm that will be the case. I too found it exceedingly valuable to be able to go back to some of the webcasts and transcripts in my preparation for today.
Thank you, Chairman. That's the end of the online questions.
Do we have any telephone questions?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on the telephone.
Jane, is there a follow-up to the RACV question?
There is not, Chairman, but we'll revert to that shareholder after the meeting.
Okay. Thank you. Well, thank you for your comments and questions in relation to the allocation of share rights to the managing director and CEO. That concludes the discussion of resolution 6. The direct votes and proxies received for this resolution are now shown on the presentation slide on your screen. I would remind shareholders who have yet to cast their votes on this or all other resolutions to do so now, as the poll will close very shortly. We will now pause for a few moments while shareholders in the room and online cast their votes. This now completes all items of business for the 2022 AGM. Sorry? I'm sorry.
Could we get a Computershare representative down here, please?
Computershare representative, please, come and assist the shareholder. For those online, we are just allowing some shareholders to work with Computershare to ensure their votes are cast appropriately. Good to go. I've just received confirmation from Computershare that we've resolved any outstanding voting issues, and I'm gonna declare the poll closed. This now completes all items of business for the 2022 AGM, and as such, I now declare the poll closed. As I said earlier, the final result of the poll will be provided to the ASX today, and will be placed on the company's website. Mr. Mayne, a full transcript along with the webcast of the meeting will also be available on IAG's website.
On behalf of your board of directors, thank you to everyone who has attended in person today, and also those who joined us online and by phone. I now declare the meeting closed. Thank you. For those attending in person today, the board look forward to mingling with you over some light refreshments in the Smith Room, which is located to the left of the foyer. Thank you very much for your attendance.