[Foreign language]
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The meeting is called to order. Before giving the floor to the secretary to read today's agenda, I would like to remind you that this general meeting is also being held online through the electronic platform that has been provided through our website. This platform will allow the shareholders to exercise their attendance rights, to be equally represented and treated for voting as well. As recommended by the Code of Good Governance of the CNMV, this board is being broadcast on the internet live so that any interested party may follow it live from anywhere in the world. Should the electronic systems or the communications fail and not allow this virtual meeting, it will be temporarily suspended, and it will be resumed after the system recovers. Now, the secretary will read today's agenda.
Good morning. Today's agenda for the board is the following.
First of all, we will be looking at the annual accounts and the financial statements for 2023. Approval of the Integrated Report for the fiscal year for the fiscal year. The approval of the various reports and the non-financial report, including the Integrated Report. The approval of the distribution of the dividends. Approval of the Board of Directors' management. Point number two: appointment, reelection, and ratification, where appropriate, of board directors. Reelection of Ms. Maria Leticia de Freitas Costa as independent board director. Reelection of Ms. Rosa María García García as independent board director. Ratification and appointment of Mr. Eduardo Pérez de Lema Holweg as executive director. Item number three: reelection and appointment of auditors. Reelection of the auditor for fiscal year 2024. Appointment of the auditor of accounts for fiscal years 2025, 2026, and 2027. Item number four: remuneration of the Board of Directors.
Update of the maximum number of shares the company to be allocated to executive directors under the Medium-Term Incentive Plans for 2022 to 2026. Referendum on the Annual Report on the Board of Directors' Remuneration for fiscal year 2023. Item number 5: authorization and delegation of powers for the interpretation, correction, supplementation, execution, and development of resolutions adopted by the Annual General Meeting. Item in accordance with Article 203 of the Corporate Laws, we have agreed to have the notary of Madrid, Mr. Prada, to write shareholders who are represented are 2,700 shares, of which 84% of the share capital, which is sufficient for the AGM to be held in the first call. Therefore, this general meeting is now fully constituted. I'd like to give the floor now to the notary for the legally established conditions.
As established in Article 107 of the Corporate Law, all the representatives attending this annual general meeting may make any comments or protests regarding the number of shareholders or share capital that is present. Those who are attending virtually can send an electronic communication link that says "register" objection to register an objection in the corporate website that has been provided for this purpose. Now, the secretary will talk about the documentation that has been made available to you and the procedure for voting of these proposals available to shareholders since this annual general meeting of all the proposals that are being voted for today, as well as for the Audit Committee and the Remuneration Committees.
Those shareholders who wish to vote against or abstain with regards to any of the proposals that are being presented to the board or who would like to make any comments when this Q&A is made available must identify themselves with their national ID card number and their name so that this is included in the meeting's minutes. If anyone decides that they don't want their full text to be included in the minutes, they must provide this text to the notary. If anyone shareholder is attending virtually and who want to abstain or object to any of the proposed agreements presented here may do so until the proposed agreements are finally read through the electronic platform that has been provided for this purpose in the corporate website.
Comments must be sent in writing through the link created for this purpose for the Q&A of the above-mentioned platform, following the instructions included in the call for this AGM. Likewise, if any shareholder would like the literal transcript of their intervention to be included in the minutes, they must say so expressly in the heading of their email. All interventions will be read and answered either at this AGM or responded to in writing within seven days of this meeting. Now, Mr. Fernando Mata, Third Vice Chairman and CFO of Mapfre, will be addressing us, who will be giving us the main figures of the consolidated accounts of 2023, and we'll discuss the main actions of the group within that year. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, a very good morning to you all.
As you all know, 2023 is Mapfre's first fiscal year to present its consolidated annual accounts under the new international financial reporting standards known as IFRS 9 and 17, which modify the accounting of financial investments and insurance contracts, respectively. Therefore, since January 1st, 2023, Mapfre has been subject to double accounting regulations. On the one hand, Mapfre, as a publicly traded company, is obliged to present its consolidated accounts under the new IFRS standards, which are being presented for approval here today. On the other hand, our insurance subsidiaries prepare their accounts under the insurance accounting standards applicable in each country where we operate. This is the case for Mapfre España, Mapfre Vida, Mapfre Re, just referring to the relevant companies subject to Spanish regulations. In only two countries, Portugal and Malta, do insurance regulators adopt the new IFRS standards as the default insurance accounting framework.
In this context, at the end of my presentation, I will briefly mention the most relevant figures of the Mapfre units in accordance with local accounting standards. In any case, and regardless of the criteria applied, Mapfre's main financial indicators show very positive performance for 2023, and they deserve special recognition given that they were achieved in a very challenging and complex scenario, right with political and economic uncertainty and with high inflation as a determining factor that has impacted our insurance activity. Let's look at the key figures. We closed the year with very strong growth in insurance service revenue, which stood at EUR 24.8 billion, with a rise in 9.1%. This new metric is similar to the previous direct insurance and reinsurance premiums, excluding life savings premiums.
The main growth driver was adapting rates to inflation, but we also recorded a solid increase in new business, especially in certain enterprise and reinsurance segments. In spite of the increase in cost and extraordinary events, we delivered a 20% improvement in the group's net results, up to EUR 677 million, with very significant advances in most of our businesses and markets. These results were affected by two catastrophic events, the earthquake in Turkey and Hurricane Otis in Mexico, with an aggregate impact of EUR 159 million on the net results. In addition, the higher frequency of storms and other weather-related events in Spain and Central Europe had a net impact of more than EUR 115 million over the figure for 2022.
On the positive side, I'd like to highlight the profitability of our investments and the good performance of the life business line, which have been a good tailwind for our earnings for this year. Finally, and based on prudential criteria, the group recorded a partial impairment of goodwill in the United States in the amount of EUR 75 million. We continue underpinning another defining characteristic of our company, namely our commitment with Mapfre's shareholders, who will once again receive one of the highest dividend yields on the Spanish market for 2023. This is the breakdown of insurance revenue by countries, by the most relevant countries and units. LATAM is the main contributor, with EUR 9.3 billion and a growth of 10%. Brazil stands out for its performance, growing almost 14% and accounting for more than 50% of the region's revenue.
Secondly, there's Mapfre Re, with more than EUR 8 billion in revenue and a growth of 17% in reinsurance and 8% in global risks. Next is Iberia, with almost EUR 7 billion and a growth of 7%. And finally, North America and EMEA, with almost EUR 2.6 billion and EUR 1.2 billion, respectively. This is a breakdown of performance. We've already talked about revenue. Let's look at expenses for insurance, including acquisition expenses, benefits, and other expenses for direct insurance and accepted reinsurance contracts, which amounted to EUR 22.4 billion. The reinsurance service, which includes premiums and claims ceded and commission revenue or fees revenue, represents a cost for Mapfre of EUR 1.4 billion. These three aggregate items provide an insurance and reinsurance result of just over EUR 1.4 billion.
The net financial result came in at EUR 928 million, while other results, including other insurance income and expenses, results from other activities, and the impact of restatement due to hyperinflation, show a negative balance of EUR 321 million. The compensation gave us a result before tax and non-controlling interest of EUR 1.65 billion. Taxes amounting to EUR 381 million and the participation of external partners in profits amounting to EUR 589 million are then deducted, leaving a net attributable result of EUR 677 million. Excluding goodwill impairment, the net result would be EUR 752 million, up 33% on the previous year, which is a remarkable improvement. I would like to remind you that this impairment has had no impact on cash generation or on Mapfre solvency or on its ability to pay out dividends. Moving on to the main balance sheet figures, total assets grew by 5.3% to nearly EUR 55 billion.
Insurance contract liabilities rose 7.9% to more than EUR 38 billion. This item is similar to what we previously called technical provisions. The investment portfolio is also driven by business growth and the improved valuation of the fixed income portfolio. It shows an increase of 6.6%, standing at EUR 44 billion. Regarding attributable equity, it stands at EUR 8.5 billion, up by 8.6%. On the screen, you could see the evolution of attributable equity. The first two components, the result for the period and dividends, are the usual items that support changes in equity. In addition, you can see a new item of EUR 360 million, which represents the net effect of the changes in value of financial investments for EUR 680 million and insurance liabilities for EUR 320 million. The new IFRS standards allow changes in the value of certain assets to be reflected in equity rather than in the income statement.
Mapfre applies this criterion for investments and liabilities in multi-year life and burial contracts, as well as the investment portfolio linked to equity. As such, the increase in shareholder value in 2023 would exceed EUR 1 billion if this component of changes in value were added to the result for the year. Finally, currency conversion differences reflect the effect of exchanging shareholders' equity in the subsidiaries operating in other currencies to euros. ROE for the year was 8.3%, and it would have been over 9% if we exclude the impact of the goodwill impairment mentioned previously. Regarding investments, most of the portfolio corresponds to fixed income securities and other similar assets, which represent over 76% of the total. You can also hear on the right Mapfre's position in public debt, which is EUR 23 billion, of which EUR 9.6 billion is invested in Spanish public debt.
This is the composition of Mapfre's capital structure, with over EUR 12 billion between equity, which is almost 78%, and senior, subordinated, and bank debt. The debt ratio remains at very acceptable levels below 23%. The solvency ratio, based on data up to September 2023, remains at very strong levels of 198%, practically twice the minimum required. 83.5% of our capital is of the highest quality, namely Tier 1. I will now refer to Mapfre's shareholder structure, stock market information, and dividend policy. As of December 31st, shareholders own more than EUR 3 billion outstanding shares. The financial indicators show us that earnings per share rose EUR 0.22. The ratio between the price and the book value of the share was 70%, which means that Mapfre's market capitalization at the close of the fiscal year presents a 30% discount on equity or on its own funds.
Finally, P/E increased at 8.8, which means that the market values Mapfre at almost 9x its annual earnings. As you know, the majority shareholder of Mapfre is Fundación Mapfre, with 69.8% of the capital. From the rest, approximately 17% belong to institutional shareholders, mainly overseas, while individual shareholders, who are 13%, are practically all Spanish investors. Mapfre also has 15 million in the form of treasury stock, which is equal to 0.49% of the capital. I'd like to now talk about the evolution of dividends. The results we have presented here allow us to hold firm on one of our defining characteristics, namely our commitment to shareholder remuneration.
If this annual general meeting approves the final dividend of $0.09 per share, which is $0.05 more than the previous year, the total dividend for the fiscal year will be $0.15 per share, equivalent to a payout of EUR 462 million, matching the highest ever dividend paid by Mapfre to its shareholders. Over the last five years, Mapfre has paid out dividends in excess of EUR 2.1 billion. Finally, I'd like to highlight that the dividend yield for fiscal year 2023, which you can see at the top of the screen for this year, 2023, was 7.7%. As for stock market performance, the Mapfre shares ended the year with a 7.3% increase, a level similar to that of the STOXX I nsurance Index that brings together the main European insurers.
If we add the dividend yield mentioned above to the stock market revaluation, total shareholder return would be 15%, one percentage point above the stock insurance index. On the top of the screen, you could see market capitalization at the end of the fiscal year, EUR 5.98 billion, although this week it has been around EUR 6.4 billion, quite a significant revaluation. As I said at the beginning of my presentation, I'd like to quickly review Mapfre's figures following the local principles in force in each country, which will give a sense of continuity to the information presented at the previous shareholders' meetings. This information is presented in greater detail in Section 1.7 of the Integrated Report. Mapfre's premiums in 2023 totaled almost EUR 27 billion, an increase of 9.7%. The result generated in the year produced a profit of EUR 767 million, up by more than 19%.
Given the goodwill impairment in the US mentioned earlier, the group's attributable profit stood at EUR 692 million, 7.7% more than the previous year. The combined ratio, which improved by 0.8 percentage points, is still above the levels expected by Mapfre. On the other hand, return on capital wrote 10%, which would be actually almost 10% if we discount the above-mentioned EUR 75 million in goodwill impairment. Here, you could see the distribution of premiums and the evolution of combined ratios by business line. As for non-life premiums, the growth of 10.9% in general P&C insurance stands out, as does the 9.5% growth in accidents and health and the 3.3% in automobiles. In terms of the life business, the premium volume is similar between life protection and life savings, but I'd like to highlight the growth of almost 35% in savings, driven in this case by the business in Spain.
In relation to the combined ratio, automobiles, with a ratio of 106%, continue to experience the impact of inflation on costs and its transfer over to rates, which has obviously slowed down to some degree over time. There have been significant improvements in the ratio in North America and LATAM, while both Iberia and EMEA have shown slight increases due to the greater frequency of atmospheric phenomena, especially in the second half of the year. Recovery plans for the automobile line are progressing in all countries, albeit at an increase. We have improved the non-life combined ratio in nine markets. In another 14, we already have it below 100, and we hope to achieve the same objective in practically all markets in the last few months of 2024. The general P&C ratio at 87.6% shows great stability, with Brazil's excellent performance here worthy of note.
The accident and health ratio also improved, falling to below 99% in 2023. Finally, the life protection ratio remains at very profitable levels that help offset the impacts of previous years due to COVID. This is the distribution of premiums by region and business unit. Iberia, which comprises Spain and Portugal, leads the group's business growth, with an increase of 15.8% and premiums of nearly EUR 8.9 billion. Mapfre Spain maintains its strong leadership position in the main business lines. Latin America is the group's main contributor to premiums and earnings. It contributes nearly EUR 10 billion in premiums, distributed almost equally between Brazil and the other countries in the regions. Brazil continues to present very strong figures, and its results grew by 62% this year, thanks to improved financial results.
In the remaining LATAM countries, premiums grew by 13.3%, while the net results stood at EUR 140 million, with significant contributions from Mexico and Peru. In North America, premiums grew by 3.6% to EUR 2.7 billion. The impact of automobile insurance in the United States, while Puerto Rico recorded a good result with a contribution of EUR 28 million. Mapfre's premiums rose by 8.8%, exceeding EUR 7.8 billion. Both the reinsurance and global risk businesses are progressing at a good pace. In terms of its results, Mapfre raised 8%, supported by the recovery of rates in the reinsurance market. This unit delivered the highest earnings in its history. Finally, revenue, as you could see on the right, revenue at MAWDY is back on a growth path, supported by its new strategy focusing on the assistance business.
In short and in conclusion, I would like to convey the message that the new IFRS accounting regulations bring a new economic vision of Mapfre's balance sheet and income statement, with significant changes in how insurance contracts are accounted for. However, the positive trend in business growth, increased profitability, and efficiency ratios are in line with the indicators presented by our subsidiaries under the local accounting principles. This new accounting will not change the cash flow, the solvency position, or the financial balance sheet. That's it for me. Thank you very much for your attention and for the trust you place in Mapfre.
Well, thank you, Fernando. Thank you very much for this excellent explanation, this rendering of accounts. Definitely, this year, you've seen how interesting everything is. We've seen the first time ever we address these new IFRS accounts, which do imply a change in the interpretation and which are not necessarily easy to understand, very much more difficult, actually, to explain. But I think that we will have to get used to it. Thank you so much, Fernando. Thank you. You've been, over the past few months, teaching us very much in the group. I have to say congratulations to you and to your team. Brilliant management, brilliant and very rapid implementation in the group of IFRS, this new set of standards. And thank you very much because you make understanding all of this very easy. I'm going to give the floor now to Mr. Inchausti, Vice President, who will address interesting issues. Thank you. You have the floor.
Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders all, good morning. Our corporate purpose, the raison d'être of our daily activity, is defined when we tell someone that, "We'll be at your side. You can take steps forward in the certainty that we will help you to build a more sustainable and caring society." In other words, we care about what matters to you. The CFO has gone over the figures, and in the final part of this AGM, the Chairman and CEO will present the new strategic plan and key aspects of the company's activity in 2023 and forward-looking. I am going to refer to more qualitative aspects of the company in terms of how we manage our business with our seven stakeholders, which you can see on screen.
At Mapfre, we believe that profitable growth cannot be understood solely from the viewpoint of financials. We are a company that is committed and that aspires to creating and distributing value to all of its stakeholders. Mapfre's strength lies in the nearly 31,000 employees and in the more than 250,000 intermediaries and collaborators that allow us to do what we do in 38 countries. That is our footprint, and we have actions undertaken in over 100 throughout the world. We are a company of opportunities. Talent, effort, commitment ensure that everyone can grow professionally with us. At Mapfre, your time is meaningful. We're proud also to be very diverse. This enriches our talent. It's something we are proud of. We have employees from 81 nationalities and five generations working together, sharing vision and knowledge, and working together. We have practically achieved parity on the board of directors.
Apart from the Chairman, we have seven female directors and seven male directors. 42.5% of our job positions of responsibility are held by women, and we have closed the gender pay gap to below 1%, which would be the corresponding objective of a global company such as Mapfre. We publicly committed to doing this by the end of 2024, and we have achieved it one year before our promised date. We protect talent through loyalty initiatives and professional development plans. 97% of our workforce has a permanent or open-ended contract, and there are over 1,000 persons with disabilities who help on a daily basis, thanks to their work, to make Mapfre what it is day after day. In addition, we have specific integration programs in place for LGBTI+ groups. These are programs aiming at younger generations as well, both to integrate, attract, and enhance loyalty.
We are also the best IBEX certified company in managing senior talent, as was recently recognized for the second year in a row. Our project, called Ageing, contemplates an orderly progression to the disengagement of seniors, continues to successfully deploy its initiatives. In 2023, we signed the fourth Mapfre Equality Plan in Spain. This brings together a number of measures in terms of access to employment, training, promotion, remuneration, communication, achieving work-life balance in a responsible manner, family and work-related rights, gender violence, prevention of harassment on the basis of gender, and occupational health with a gender perspective.
These opportunities that we generate for our employees also extend to the 81,000 intermediaries that boost our commercial deployment and to the more than 125,000 providers of service or support who help us provide the quality service that sets us apart from the competition and that our clients expect and do, in fact, receive. We also have specific value propositions that help them grow professionally. On a yearly basis, our provider network invoices over EUR 4.5 billion. I think that this is very telling. We foster growth. We generate job creation in other sectors as well. One of the defining elements of Mapfre is the commitment that we have to people. We are people who care for people. This way of understanding our activity reaches out, in particular, to most vulnerable groups, and this via our corporate volunteering program, which aligns perfectly with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
We're proud to say that 21.3% of our workforce, and often their relatives, have participated in one of the nearly 2,000 volunteering activities that Mapfre organized around the world in 2023. The result is a positive quality of life effect that affected over 127,000 beneficiaries. And now I'd like to refer to our customers, our raison d'être, as I said at the beginning. Over 30 million people and companies that trust us, Mapfre, to manage their business via a multi-channel philosophy, directly thanks to our employees through digital channels, and also personally because we have over 4,700 offices. An additional 7,500 offices of our banking partners are also to be taken into account. This ensures that we are very close to our clients anywhere and everywhere in the world.
As Fernando Mata pointed out minutes ago, our diversification is what best protects Mapfre's business model, also in relation to the product and service portfolio. Mapfre's service is and will continue to be one of our hallmarks. We are recognized because we outperformed the market when it comes to solving our customers' problems. In 2023, we carried out a new wave to measure the NPS in our main countries, our main 18 countries. That's our Net Promoter Score. We compare with nearly 90 competitors, and we've continued to improve. Clients perceive us as better than the competition almost 93% of the times. There is no doubt that this extremely high degree of satisfaction has much to do, of course, with Mapfre's values and business model, but also with the professionals that make it happen and with the company's innovative vocation.
This is what makes it possible to build better products, better services. AI is a reality of our lives. With over 90 projects now implemented, 6 of which are Gen AI and another 40 related to this technology under contemplation, we have good multidisciplinary teams working in this area. We have data scientists. We have developers. And we have legal experts and experts in security as well. 500 startup projects have been analyzed by our open innovation model, the Mapfre Open Innovation Model. Over 50 of them have been accelerated so as to onboard these innovations. Over 3 million Mapfre customers have benefited from solutions originating in this business. Shareholders, all, another one of our realities within Mapfre is that we are perceived and valued by our customers because of our broad commitment to sustainability. End of 2023, we had achieved 99.4% of the objectives established in the Sustainability Plan.
We have progressed in the four action lines of the plan, which you can see here on screen. Compliance metrics are detailed in our Integrated Report, so I am going to limit myself to briefly addressing the main projects. Environment. We advanced steadily in our commitment to decarbonize the economy. We've reduced our carbon footprint globally by 25% if we compare with 2019. This is thanks to measures such as reducing electricity consumption, the use of renewables, replacing our corporate fleet, conventional vehicles now have been substituted by hybrid or e-vehicles, and reducing business travel and employee travel, among others. This decrease is continuing to advance towards decarbonization, and this not only by means of investments and underwriting, but also by means of measures designed to reduce our footprint. Social action.
This is most transformative of people's lives, and this is where a company committed, as Mapfre is, has the most capacity to contribute. I have underscored progress achieved with employees and our policies looking at equality, inclusion, and diversity. I've also mentioned, with regards to the people who make Mapfre, we extend our actions to all of the groups we interact with, especially those linked to the group's value chain. We continue to progress in our commitment to help our collaborators improve their sustainability performance. In 2023, we have approved over 10,800 providers in line with ESG criteria. Two additional lines of work in social are promoting financial education and accessibility to insurance. In the first, we've developed content, financial, insurance, that is available to stakeholders via the group's communication channels.
As to accessibility to insurance, we continue to develop products and services that promote access to insurance in those segments of the population with lower income levels. By way of an example, Mapfre Na Favela, a project in Brazil which we will launch shortly to offer lines of protection to residents through microinsurance, basic coverage, at an accessible cost. And furthermore, we're aware of our role as investors and insurers in mobilizing economic resources that will encourage the achievement of a more equal and sustainable world. We've continued to develop insurance and financial products and services that respond to social, environmental, and corporate governance risks and opportunities. I am thus pleased to note that at the end of 2023, 96.6% of Mapfre's investment portfolio in Spain, the United States, and Brazil rated in line with ESG criteria.
Along these same lines, in 2023, as a member of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, we reduced the greenhouse gas emissions of our portfolios by 42%, this by 2030, and this is as part of our journey toward making good on our commitment to be a net zero emissions company by the year 2050. Compliance with practically 100% of the goals set down in the Sustainability P lan in 2023 hasn't slowed us down. In line with the new strategic plan, we have defined more ambitious sustainability objectives for the period encompassing 2024, 2025, and 2026, which will be discussed later by the Chairman, but allow me here to say that we are going to abide by being more demanding in terms of underwriting in relation to sustainability.
We will continue to promote socially responsible investment, inclusion, equality in everything we do, transparency, and furthermore, promoting, from our own activity, fulfillment of SDGs in the six years left until 2030. So, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders all, we are a solid and profitable company. We have changed. We hold firm on our desire to lead and, above all, to maintain our ability to provide a high-quality response to our clients. We are Spain's 10th most valuable brand in all sectors and activities, according to Brand Finance. Mapfre is number 5 in Spain in the 100 best companies, in reputational terms, according to Merco, the corporate reputation business monitor. Talent-wise, and say the indices ranking best companies to work for, we are in the top markets, and in some countries, we are actually leaders in the insurance industry.
Mapfre is also one of the companies that most actively promotes equality in the world. We are one of 484 companies in 45 countries and regions included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index 2023, the Gender-Equality Index, and we are committed to the UN Women's Empowerment Principles and Target Gender Equality, a global movement to accelerate SDG 5, gender equality. I conclude by referring very briefly to Fundación Mapfre. Next year, it's our 50th anniversary at the service of society. Some of you may have noticed it's the door that Fundación Mapfre opens every day to thousands who need it. It is the door to opportunity. Let's please now watch this video. Thank you. Fire Prevention. Socio-labor-related inclusion programs. Corporate volunteer work. We are rewarded by working to improve lives. Well, thank you. Thank you so very much.
Last year, the number of beneficiaries of the 34 actions carried out by Fundación Mapfre exceeded 6.7 million people in nearly 30 countries, both in person and via remote. Most of them are cases such as the ones we've seen in the video, people who need help promoting inclusion, equality, and the building of opportunities. The future of any society is built, of course, in the present by helping to grow and develop its people. And thus, in Latin America, we offer a comprehensive education program which mainly is aimed at children and youth. 78,000 persons benefit from this program every single day. We call it integral, comprehensive, because it trains, but for most of them, it guarantees one square meal every day together with basic healthcare services.
Accident prevention, road safety, health promotion, financial and insurance education, art and culture, social action, opportunities for a long life, and more recently, our role as intermediate body of the European Social Fund, plus promoting projects that benefit the least populated areas of Spain, together with the work carried out by Fundación Mapfre Canarias, are the main areas in which we open thousands of doors to hope every day. Thank you. Thank you. The video you've just seen is part of a campaign deployed since February to raise awareness regarding our activity. This will enable us to further increase the number of participants in the program, but it will also allow us to send a message that another society is possible, and together, we can get things done by building a more humane future. This is what the foundation asserts in its objective.
The fact is, we were delighted by the response to this campaign. 32 million people have seen the spot on TV and another 17 million saw it on digital channels. Fundación Mapfre now is more visible than ever before. So for all of us at Mapfre, our values, our way of understanding the business, the profitability, despite the difficulties we face, the strength of the group, and our intense social commitment and the work of Fundación Mapfre are tangible realities, and we're proud of them. We encourage all of our groups to focus on this, all of you. We invite all of you to be a part of this sense of pride. Focusing on people, deploying our corporate purpose every day, is one of the greatest contributions that Mapfre can make to society. Again, thank you very much for the trust you place in us.
Thank you very much, José Manuel. This is your first participation at this AGM as new First Vice President for Mapfre, and I would like to say to you, but especially say to all attendees, that 35 years ago, 35.5 years ago, José Manuel Inchausti and myself, we were coming into the offices of Mapfre together. We had never met before, but we were embarking on a new project 35.5 years ago, 35.5 years ago. For me, it's a luxury and an honor to be members of this board as President and Vice President of Mapfre. Thank you all very much. On the corporate website, you can see the text for all the agreement proposals that are being presented at this AGM. Nonetheless, previously, I would like to briefly refer to some of these proposals in particular.
In the section on appointments, the AGM is proposing reelection of Ms. María Leticia de Freitas Costa and Ms. Rosa María García García as independent board members for a new period of four years. These proposals have been presented to the Board of Directors by the Appointment and Remuneration Committee. In addition, we propose that this AGM ratification of appointment as Executive Director of Mr. Eduardo Pérez de Lema Holweg, who was appointed by the procedure of co-option on the 26th of October 2023, effective on the 1st of January, and to be reelected for a further period of four years. This proposal has been favorably approved with a favorable report by the Appointment and Remuneration Committee. The referred proposals will be understood as approved without prejudice to compliance of all bylaws and good governance regulations.
Also, for approval at the AGM is the Integrated Report for the fiscal year 2023, as well as the non-financial information for that year included in that report. We also propose the distribution or payout of a complementary dividend of EUR 0.09 per share. With the current number of shares outstanding, it will be EUR 261.8 million. The dividend that was paid out in November for 2023 was EUR 0.06 per share, representing EUR 184.8 million. The sum of the dividend and the complementary dividend for the 2023 year would be EUR 0.15 per share, which would be 3.4% more than what was paid out in 2022, with a total of EUR 461.9 million. The payout would be 68.2% for 2023.
Under that contemplated in the dividend policy, the Board of Directors has considered it as convenient to formulate this proposal to pay out dividends of over 65% of the attributable results based on the excellent recovery of the capital base undergone in 2023 after the recovery of the financial markets, the demand of solid and stable remuneration for shareholders after sudden and finally, the extraordinary nature of the impact of the result in the amortization of goodwill in the United States. We also propose the renewal of the firm KPMG as account auditor for the company for the year 2024, as well as appointing it as auditors for the years 2025, 2026, and 2027. I would like to highlight that in line with the current regulations during the year 2023, the Audit and Compliance Committee led a comprehensive standard process, which was the participation of the main auditing firms.
This proposal, therefore, is for appointing KPMG, and the Board of Directors would like to present this proposal to this AGM. I would also like to say that the outgoing president of that committee, Ms. Ana Fernández, as well as the incoming president, Francesco Vanni d'Archirafi, who've done excellent work together with the management of internal audit of Mapfre to conduct this process, considering the difficulties involved because there was a change in the chair in that committee throughout the tender process and its development and final proposal, which has been submitted here. So thank you both very, very much for this excellent work.
In addition, we propose an updating of a maximum number of shares of the company to be provided to the executive board members under the incentive plan, the medium-term incentive plan for 2022-2026. Next, in accordance with the recommendation of the Code of Good Conduct of Publicly Listed Companies, I would like to express why the company hasn't fully fulfilled some of the recommendations included in the report for 2023. First of all, the powers of the lead director do not include coordinating the succession plan for the chairman or to have relationships with shareholders or investors because it is the Board of Directors themselves who are in charge of establishing and supervising the adequate communication mechanisms with shareholders and investors, advisors of the vote, and economic, financial, and non-financial, and corporate communications.
In relation to the recommendation of separate committees for appointment and remuneration, Mapfre is advisable to maintain them united in the same committee because these matters are closely related. As far as a recommendation to attribute to delegate bodies of the board the functions of establishing and supervising adequate mechanisms of communication and relations with shareholders, Mapfre has attributed those functions to the Board of Directors. As far as a recommendation to maintain the board members for a minimum of 3 years with shares, options, or financial instruments coming from remuneration systems, Mapfre has recommendation to maintain the shares for a maximum term of 2 years. So the delivery of themselves in term will be deferred by 60% during a period of 3 years by third parties.
Finally, as far as a recommendation regarding payment for contract termination, leaving the position by executive directors entails the suspension of the prior relationship prior to the appointment as such. Therefore, the early termination of this relationship will, unless there is a justified cause of dismissal, entail the indemnities established under the workers' bylaws regarding these kinds of dismissals. This concludes at this moment the period to request intervention to those attendees at this AGM. Five shareholders have requested to speak, and now we will be reading and answering their interventions. I imagine these five shareholders will read directly their comments. We'll read their comments directly. First of all, Mr. Del Barrio Colmenarejo, go ahead. The floor is yours.
[Foreign language]
Good morning. Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen and all of Mapfre staff, I would like to take this opportunity of this AGM to congratulate you for the work you have conducted for the year 2023, where you have obtained EUR 692 million in profits. It's still far from the pre-pandemic profits, but it's better to have profits than losses. The financial and insurance industry that we are a part of has managed this year, 2023, the highest earnings in its history. Mapfre, only 7.7% more than the year 2022. We need to do it better this year, 2024. Mr. Antonio Huertas, the European Central Bank is recommending that independent directors are appointed and to have the organs of power leave the foundations, especially in the financial and insurance industry.
I would like to ask you, when will the Mapfre Foundation stop having the same chairmen and the same directors as Mapfre Corporation, which is what I am reading here as the members of this governance body? I think you need to take a step back, and whoever is in the two boards should be only in one of them, whether it's the foundation or the company. That's all I wanted to say. I don't know how many times I have to tell you this. You've gone from trading, and please don't laugh, at 363 EUR a share in 2015, which is when I bought the shares. The price, after 9 years, has not been traded at that level ever. Now we're trading at 2.065 EUR per share, which is a loss for previous or old shareholders of 30% we've lost in share price.
I would like to ask you, since Mapfre S.A.'s solvency is around 200%, why don't you buy back shares for your treasury or for amortization now that they're cheap? I think it would be a good business for you in case you need to sell them later on. Mr. Antonio Huertas, dividends. For 5 years, it has been at the same level, stagnant or with negligible rises. We're always talking about EUR 3 is 5%. It's not 7% or 9% because if the share is at 1.9, you could say, yes, that you're paying out dividend of 10%, but because the basis is only EUR 3, you're only being paying out 5% for the last 5 years.
So the question is, are you for once and for all going to try to raise dividend to 0.8% per share, or are you going to try extraordinary dividends because of the end of the insurance banking alliance with Bankia, which had so many capital gains? But as far as your salaries, my question is, would you be willing to raise your salaries only if share prices were higher? In this year, 2024, you have to manage through or achieve three major milestones to reform corporate governance by hiring to achieve the earnings that we had prior to the pandemic, which other companies in the industry have already achieved in 2023, and increase, especially increase, above all this, a higher rise in dividends. Finally, to work to make sure Mapfre can capitalize around EUR 3 for the year 2023.
We need to work very hard for this, and I trust you, and I encourage you to achieve this. That's all I had to say. Thank you.
Next comments, Mr. Blanco Cid, and clarification. I will be answering all your questions at the end of all the questions, just to clarify. Someone recently said that Mapfre would be under the radar for possible deals with our company. Agnelli said that. How do you assess this? Are there any conversations? Ali? Ms. Hernández Pradas, please.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and board members. Mr. Mata said that catastrophic effects have had a cost of EUR 150 million, but he also said that weather-adverse events in Spain and Central Europe have had an additional cost of EUR 150 million. The question is, what are your projections for Mapfre in these two scenarios that are increasingly frequent and expensive?
The Insurance Compensation Consortium, shouldn't they be covering these weather-adverse events, at least the ones in Spain?
Thank you. Shareholder Mr. Serra Marzà, please.
Good morning, Mr. President and ladies and gentlemen directors. Mr. Inchausti mentioned specific AI solutions that are already being applied in Mapfre. I would like to ask you, how is the company prepared to compete with these tools? And secondly, what level of transformation is Mapfre at? Thank you very much.
And finally, shareholder Mr. Sancho Rodríguez .
Hello. Good morning. Thank you very much for your presentations. I have seen that the financial business is boosting figures much more. My two questions. Number one, in this environment of rates, what is Mapfre's strategy to take advantage of these opportunities and growth in this regard? And secondly, I don't know if you're considering any acquisitions in the market to continue growing. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. I don't believe there are no more questions. We will now, with the help of my colleagues, Mr. Inchausti, we're going to reply to your questions. First of all, I will follow the same order of the questions. So first of all, to Mr. Del Barrio Colmenarejo, I apologize for smiling. I was smiling because of your great memory, because indeed, as you have so very well said repeatedly, you have asked these questions many times before, which is well and fine because this keeps us constantly on our toes of how to continue improving. I don't know how they translated your terms in English and Portuguese. I am sure they have been very, very correct. In Spanish, we're very clear on the nuance of your terms, but I thank you for your intervention.
It's very positive, and I would like to take on your congratulations for the team of employees and directors and executives for our results. It's very gratifying to be congratulated by shareholders, aside from those that obviously you must also make constructive criticism, as you have done, so that we can continue improving our management. You have said that indeed, the results of the financial industry and the insurance industry have this year been the best earnings in history in 2023, especially financial industry. Banks, because of the shift in interest rates, have had excellent earnings. Insurance companies depend on the different things. Depends on where we are. Whether we have a single line industry, the ones with multiple lines, we suffer more.
If we're too diversified, those who work only in a few countries or only in one country, they have more possibilities of concentrating both successes and failures. In Mapfre, we are highly diversified, so we are more affected by volatility of this diversification. You have pointed out in your very long comments that we need to improve for 2024. You can rest assured that that will be the case. We need to improve. We're not at all fully satisfied with our results because we understand we need to continue improving. You have pointed out that the European Central Bank has recommended appointment of independent directors. Well, the European Central Bank does not supervise insurance activities. Only they supervise banks.
We have the equivalent, which is another body, which is EIOPA in English, and they supervise in a very limited way our activities because they're the regulators that establish regulations that must be applied immediately in some countries in the European Union. However, in Spain, we still have a certain anomaly. As you all know, we're the only country in the European Union, together with Cyprus, where we don't have an independent supervisor. We have a general directorate from the administration within the Ministry of Finance. The interpretation of recommendations that may come from EIOPA can be based also on the criterion of this other body. But in any case, there is none, until now, any obligation or recommendation for foundations to leave the insurance company. Definitely, as a publicly listed company, we do follow the good governance rules established by the CNMV regarding independent directors.
I will continue talking about this because some of your comments are connected. When will the Mapfre Foundation stop having the same directors and the same president as the corporation? Indeed, the president of the group is the same, and that's included in our bylaws and articles of association because Mapfre Foundation, as the owner of over 69% of the shares of this company, and it has been established thus. But I must contradict you. Well, it's actually a clarification because not the same directors. The internal rules establish that half of the trustees of the foundation are appointed by Mapfre S.A., the corporation. And the summary of the integrated you have the list of the trustees of the Mapfre Foundation, and at current moment, there are 15 trustees in the Mapfre Foundation, and only seven are directors of the company, Mapfre S.A.
So we're not only fulfilling internal rules, but it contradicts what you have just said. It's not the same people. There are eight people coming from other business areas, other professional areas, or from the third sector that are also part of that board of trustees. You've asked about whether we're creating value in the markets. It's very difficult to assess that, and I'm definitely not going to be justifying the performance in the stock market of Mapfre over the last few years. We're reasonably satisfied with our performance in recent months. We believe that finally, analysts are understanding the underlying value of a company such as Mapfre's. And although there have been significant impacts and incidents related to adverse weather events, the inflation has been brutal in the industries more related to us, such as healthcare and automobile.
This has had a huge impact in not so much in the past two years, where there's definitely been a recovery, and it's going to improve our results. That's why I understand that your recommendations are very positive, and we'll take and we hope that the share price will go up. The share price is not the only way to measure the work of the company. The good, and the work of our teams are good, and we've fulfilled our objectives. We still have one of the highest dividends that have been paid out in the Spanish stock market. We're always among the third and fourth best value as far as remuneration year-on-year, I recognize.
I'm also a shareholder, and I also bought many years ago that we bought at a higher price years ago, not only Mapfre, but many other companies that are currently in the stock market. And so that gives us a bit of unhappiness at the moment, but I'm sure everything will return to the adequate levels when things are normalized. Regarding the question of solvency and treasury, I'll allow Fernando Mata to answer that. When then talking about the dividends, it had been stagnant for five years. Well, it had been, but there were two significant incidents. When COVID arrived, we received a recommendation from the supervisors not to pay out dividends, and Mapfre decided by proving to the supervisors that we had sufficient liquidity and solvency to pay out dividends. And we didn't just have to negotiate.
We actually had to debate with the supervisor, convincing them that Mapfre will continue fulfilling its obligations to shareholders. We went down slightly to follow the recommendation for prudence from the supervisor, but we never stopped paying out. This year, finally, not only had we recovered the level of that dividend payout of the previous year, but this year, we've reached the highest payout level of dividend in history. The question that is being presented and will be voted on is to increase this year's dividends by EUR 0.05. So it's no longer regarding salaries, Mr. Del Barrio. I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind if the appointment committee proposed that my salary directly be connected to the share price to a given ratio, but it hasn't been established thus in our contracts. The pay rise for the chairman is proposed by the appointment committee.
After conducting an analysis, every time we conduct an analysis of these kind of proposals, it seems that we're executive directors and the president have sufficient connection or relation to the company's performance. I would like to remind you that half of my remuneration is strictly connected to the performance of the year for Mapfre. It's a percentage that's directly related to achievement of those objectives. Half of my remuneration is fixed, and the other half is variable. The long-term incentive plan that has been split into two parts over the last few years. One part is so that we could connect the various embedded plans to remunerate in the medium and long term, both that short-term plan and the three-year plans that were approved by the board and that have been supported by this AGM.
30% of our incentives are connected to total shareholder return, TSR, which is related to the performance of share price compared to international peers. The other important concept is that 25% is based on compliance with ROE, and the other 25% is based on the combined ratio, the trading gains. Therefore, it appears that we are sufficiently connected, and the group's financial interests are very closely related to the remuneration of the president and all other executives and many executives in the group. But in any case, I understand that the president, the second vice president of Mapfre, is listening to you, and she will take your comment into account. Finally, you've tasked us with three different things. First of all, we have to reform our corporate governance by hiring more independent directors. We already have eight independent directors out of 15 at the moment.
8 out of 15. Spanish law establishes that large companies should have at least half of external directors. We already have 8 out of 15, but that same Spanish law establishes that companies with a shareholder that has at least 30% stake of the company should be a company where there's a predominance of a shareholder, which is the case of Mapfre. They only have the obligation of having 30% of external directors. Only 30% need to be external. And yet, Mapfre has 8 independent ones and 10 proprietary ones. So we're fulfilling this obligation. We'll continue doing this. We'll continue including the best talent possible to our board of directors when the positions are renewed. Right now, we have 15 members, which is the highest number recommended by the CNMV for the company the size of Mapfre.
The second task you've entrusted is to return to the profits pre-pandemic, which other companies in the industry have already achieved with a significant rise in dividend. You've said, "Yes, definitely. We accept this challenge. We'll take on this challenge, and we're going to be fighting for this." Altogether, if conditions are appropriate, we hope to achieve the milestones of the past. In regard to this, the third task is practically the same one, to try to make sure we all work so that Mapfre reaches the share price of EUR 3 in this year, 2024. It won't be easy. The market has many different bits of information, and it comes from many different sources. The insurance industry is not always well understood.
As a matter of fact, we just took a step, which the Third Vice President and CFO has just presented, because the new IFRS 9 regulations, it's rather more new elements to help us achieve profits as an insurance company. It is definitely not easy. You are an advanced investor. You know this very well. You've been trusting this company for many years. You understand this much better than others. But for the average investors who come in and out of Mapfre, it's not easy for them to understand how we make profits given the complexity and all the regulations and the increasing complexity in these international corporations.
These new regulations have a lot of positive aspects, but they also lead to a lot of volatility, although we're also saying that they transfer to the P&L account a lot of volatility of what is happening outside the company, of what's happening with its investments. They keep changing the interpretation, incorporating both future earnings and future losses to current P&L accounts, which is definitely very complicated to understand. We've always been. Reinsurance expenses, and so on. That is no longer the case. That's no longer how we're being assessed, and it's really very complicated. We will definitely try to do it as Mr. Mata has done this year, and he has presented. I must read this last sentence because I want to thank you in advance.
We will definitely be working very hard, and I say this to all my colleagues, to all the board members. You say you trust us, and you encourage us to achieve this. Thank you very much for your kind words.
Continuamos con.
Yes, I continue now with Mr. Serra. No, I'm sorry, not Mr. Serra. Mr. Blanco. Mr. Blanco asked about statements from the CEO at Generali. I read them, and I have to say, when you read this piece of information from Bloomberg, it's not my friend Philippe Donnet, who is the CEO of Generali, the global CEO. He did not make this statement. I don't know who said. Sometimes in the media, they go to sources, and if you read it, if you read it carefully, Bloomberg says, actually, strategic desires. Well, I don't know who desires what. Bloomberg, the analyst, the person who was writing, or somebody who was walking down the street in front of Generali. But Mapfre is there. Sources from Generali quote and say that, well, it's practically the entire European insurance sector. So either Generali isn't focusing, or they're a little bit confused.
I think that all of us know, all of us know that Mapfre is independent as a group because it is stable in institutional terms, because of its position in the country, is absolutely rock hard. Our commitment vis-à-vis the countries where we have a presence is absolute. And if we've ever had to take a decision to leave a market, it has been solidly based on long-reaching work after having achieved unsatisfactory results. But we're very happy with our current footprint. We've said so once and again, and there is no doubt in our minds, no doubt, there will be no kind of a relationship with Generali, not now and not in the near future. I imagine that my friend Philippe will hear a warm greeting. Be careful with what your people are saying. Now, a comment from, I think, Mrs. Vandorf, Mrs. Hernández, yes?
She talks about the weather. She talks about climate. She addressed the issue of cost. This is important. There is a debate. There is a debate, a very important debate in Europe right now. People are talking about those situations that we're not used to because we saw extreme weather events as a problem that happens in faraway countries, in Africa, in Asia, in the Americas. We have had winter storms in Europe. We have had issues, but we were not fully aware in Europe. And I'm not talking about Spain. I'll talk about Spain in a minute. But we hadn't really grasped that Europe is a very developed part of the world. In theory, everybody's insured. In theory, everything is protected.
Well, if you see the numbers published by the well-known think tank that studies this, the yearly report by Swiss Re, well, what we were surprised to read, it's not even 40% of the kind of weather events that are protected in Europe, 40%. It's incredible when you see how hard climate hits. Insurance in Europe is fine, not in Spain, not sufficiently developed. If you compare life, I'm talking insurance, if you compare with other similar countries, we are not quite there, but we're fine. So why? Why this insufficient degree of? Well, because of values affecting property that's grown a lot, development of cities in settings where that wasn't contemplated before. That's one. But then two, the increased frequency of these weather events, medium intensity.
There are no major catastrophes in Europe, but there are more and more claims because of weather, not extreme weather, but mid to concerning. Germany and Italy, well, very telling, I think. Italy, actually, just this week, there was a meeting that I was then with the CEO of a leading Italian company. The society that Mapfre is a member of, we discussed the problems in Germany and Italy hail. That definitely has turbulent. The way we traditionally said anything that's weather-related, we say it's an act of God because it's not acts of man or of woman. It's something that happens. It's damages. It's claims that have to do with, well, we know that climate change definitely results in changes the world over, and we know that things are speeding up. But in any case, these are not person-made.
So what we can see is that we're going to continue to work hard. We're going to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, reach out, work with governments so that everyone understands that things are changing. We've got to help the population to be better prepared. And what maybe 20 years ago was good enough, now it's not good enough because we never had sufficient in emerging countries in Latin America, our beloved Latin America, where we have many, many companies. And we know what's happening there so frequently, unfortunately. And in Europe, unfortunately, it's happening more and more frequently. So we've got to reach out, train, and skill our citizens, teach people so that the right coverage is assured.
But we've also got to accept the fact that this is a private sphere, and there are economic interests, not in the short term, but in the midterm, in the long term, a cycle which is sufficiently generous so that in a 10-year period, when these things happen, we will have had time and reinsurance is actually something that can be recovered. But we've got to accept that prices are going to continue to grow. Reinsurance is more expensive now than it was 2 years ago. There will probably be a stabilization, but it's going to depend on that ratio that we talked about before, that percentage of events with those damages and the ensuing claims, which have been what they've been. Mapfre is preparing itself, and because Mapfre is preparing itself, we have been alerting the public.
Another series of companies have expressed our desire to talk with the consortium, which I am sure is an exemplary private-public partnership that was established some 40-odd years ago and which has brilliantly done its job. The job it was assigned, perhaps the most important one for many years, was providing coverage for climate, "climate claims," let me say, because it's not all about climate, and it's not only climate. There's a lot more happening. I'm going to actually remind you, the most striking event was Filomena, that snowstorm, that blizzard, which we remember. Yes, it was beautiful, but those claims, the fact that the country came to a standstill during Filomena, the consortium paid out not one single euro. Every single euro was paid for by private companies, and it was a wonderful job that we did because the consortium, I insist, the consortium, I think, is praiseworthy.
I will continue to praise it, but it needs to be overhauled. It needs to transform. When it was created, we never expected snowstorms in the peninsula, or water or wind damages would be limited. The conditions were very demanding in order to prove that the damage had happened. That's not happening anymore. Now, anywhere, snowparks, we've got people measuring. There are risks. You've got snow. You've got the difference. It's difficult to understand. Those claims were not included before. But furthermore, the frequency is on the upswing. Before, when the consortium was created, things were completely different, which is why, via UNESPA, we have requested that the consortium do whatever needs to be done in legal terms, of course, reaching out to the appropriate authorities, and explain that there is a pressing need to turn the consortium into something else.
Because otherwise, let me be very blunt here, insuranceholders are paying twice that premium for reinsurance purposes, mandatorily, because it is an additional mandatory amount and only covering 30% of the damages, which is what the consortium has been covering recently, which is well below what we saw was the going rate in Europe. The remaining 70% is being paid by insurance company with the premiums and additional charges that we are collecting in order to tackle these damages, these claims. So there's an inflation, if you will. There are two degrees of protection in times of catastrophe, what we pay to the consortium and what we, as insurance companies, need to buy in order to be protected in the face of that insufficient coverage. So.
[Foreign language]
We're going to continue to work hard along those lines. Please rest assured, Mapfre has everything it needs to have to comply with its coverage. And we have a commitment with. Thanks to Mapfre Re, reinsurance within our group, we are much more efficient, much more efficient, and we, therefore, can have more competitive premiums.
We continue now with the next question. I think it was Mr. Serra, artificial intelligence. I've been talking for a long time now, and we have an expert, a vice president. I would ask Mr. Inchausti to please cast light and provide an answer.
Thank you, sir. Thank you for giving me the floor and for defining me as an expert. Mr. Serra, thank you for your question. Of course, we could talk about this for days, but that's not what I'm going to do. Mr. Serra broaches two issues.
Are we prepared, and up to what point are we prepared with regards to artificial intelligence? Well, if you remember when I took the floor before, we have 90 projects, 6 Gen AI, and 40 ready to float. Well, I think that this is important and very telling. It means that we began to work on this before artificial intelligence became all the rage. We've been working on this for over six years now. Another consequence is that artificial intelligence is deployed pretty well in the entire value chain. AI now helps us to underwrite, to determine rates, to tackle fraud, to segment, to be selective. It helps us in the daily activities which we need to carry out as an insurance company. It is true that artificial intelligence, or Gen AI, has evolved very quickly.
Again, there, we're lucky because we are able to work with top-notch companies that are at the head of this race. Let me just add one final thought. Artificial intelligence and using data in the company efficiently also calls for the fundamentals being in place. We need to have data as it should be, governance of data, cybersecurity, which is increasingly mission-critical. And we need to have the right kind of team here at headquarters in the different countries, and that, fortunately, we do have. I think that I've answered the question about artificial intelligence, but then there was a follow-up, and it was the degree of transformation. Well, it's actually very difficult for me to say anything. I mean, from 1 to 10, we are at whatever number. No. When we talk about transformation, especially digital transformation, there are very many numbers to take into account.
Fortunately, Mapfre does nicely. Whatever the ratio is that you look at, whatever number of digital transactions, sales that originate digitally, any data, any indicator, how our apps are rated, for instance, all of that, I have to say, the numbers are wonderful. But I think it's more than just indicators. I think it's more than technology. Our strategic plans of the past talked about digital transformation, and now we talk about the challenge of implementing and unfurling that new technology and the processes, processes that were not designed with this technology in mind, I remind you. And now what we need to do is understand what kind of a company we are is being achieved in order to ensure that our employees have the best possible toolkit. We're not thinking about substituting our people by AI. No. We want to transform.
We want to have better and faster access to our applications, but our customers will always have a branch to call, a phone number to dial, a person to sit and talk with. And we want to be inclusive with the distribution networks, the networks of mediators, our agents. All of them have been absolutely essential for us. And what we're doing is ensure that they have the best possible set of tools so that they can do their job as best as possible. I think I've answered. Thank you. Yes. Question has to do with the financial activities in Mapfre. Fernando, I'm sorry, but this one is yours.
Yes, thank you. Let me first answer Mr. Sancho and then the two comments or questions from Mr. Del Barrio. Mr. Sancho, financials.
Well, fortunately, scenario of zero interest rates or negative behind, the increase or the benefit from our portfolios allows us to be more profitable, especially in non-life, and it allows us to offset, as we said, the diversification of flows which offsets adverse realities. Automobile. We are going to continue to seek opportunities which will be guaranteed to us thanks to fixed income activities. As to non-life and profits, well, this allows us to launch more attractive products, and it, therefore, allows us to foster new production, new products that will be increasingly profitable. Has to do with asset management. The fact of the matter is Mapfre now is keen to grow organically. We have Mapfre Gestión Patrimonial, which is doing beautifully. We're growing very robustly in asset management, and we're going to continue to foster this organic Mapfre GP growth. We're also thinking about possible acquisitions, inorganic growth, therefore.
We've done it in the past. So in France, we have an activity, and we have stake with Abante. So we are very much focused on the market, and we, of course, will always study as we must. But at this point, we are focusing on Mapfre GP. Mr. Del Barrio now, you talked about solvency and creditworthiness. Well, we are solvent. Mapfre is 200%, six years already, and tremendously stable in that solvency ratio, neither above nor underneath our peers. I think that it's been six years, and not having had practically any volatility is proof of the fact that we've done something right. There are three reasons that would explain the solvency ratio. First, regulatory. Mapfre is an international group that is very active. We are in the group of what we might call systemic entities. Systemic sometimes sounds ugly. It just means that we're big.
It just means that we're really important. So a company like ours, with this degree of capillarity, we cannot limit ourselves to the minimum solvency requirement. And then there's business. When we sell a product to our customers, our private insured parties, the best entities, the best corporations, the best multinationals, well, what we do is we allay their fears. It's always better to have a mattress or a buffer, an additional solvency buffer that will help us deal with the unexpected, which is what we've seen in the more recent crises that we've survived. And then capital structure that I talked about before. Capital structure, well, you're part of it, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, as bondholders, as others who lend us money.
So let me just say that now, financial entities, yourselves, all, please rest assured we have that additional buffer or mattress which will allow us to tackle the unexpected. Now, as to the shares buyback, well, yes, it's very fashionable, isn't it, to buyback shares for amortization purposes? Well, that's an instrument which has tax advantages, yes. But we've said this on other previous occasions. That is an instrument that we're not going to be looking at. Our Mapfre culture, our DNA, is cash. We've got over 200,000 shareholders, minority. Many of you are here with us today. And every month of May, every month of November, you receive a cash dividend. And as we said before, when times are good, when times are not good, in critical times, it's a very important amount. It supplements your wages. It supplements your pension. It supplements your whatever income.
When we reach out to minority shareholders, the two meetings we have in Madrid, we have a couple of meetings in Barcelona, most of them say, "You're going to continue to pay out dividends, right? Please." The dividend is a very important slice of their life. And finally, what about that? What about that treasury stock? Well, it has to do with our accounts. We have not bought shares in the market recently. It's something that we did do in the past. But we're not going to amortize, as I said before. No, it's for coverage purposes, for payment in shares, variable incentive, and the plan we have for our employees. And I think that I've provided a response to the questions.
Thank you very much, Fernando. Thank you. That was the five questions. And now we are going to request the approval.
We're going to be hearing from the secretary.
The literal wording of the proposals for resolutions that are presented at this AGM have been made available to all shareholders and delivered to the notary public. They are summarized as follows: approve the annual financial statements and the individual and consolidated management reports for 2023; approve the Integrated Report; approve the non-financial information statement for 2023; approve the proposed board of directors and consequently distributed total dividend for 2023. The approval for this year and the previous years is as follows: for dividends, EUR 461 million; for remnants, EUR 94,529; total distributed, EUR 656,453,985,072; approval of the management of the board of directors; reelection of Ms. María Leticia de Freitas Costa as independent director; reelection of Ms. Rosa María García García as independent director; ratification and appointment as director of Mr.
Eduardo Pérez de Lema Holweg as executive director. Reelection of the firm KPMG auditors as auditor of the company's accounts for the year 2024. Appointment of KPMG as auditor of the company's accounts for the years 2025, 2026, and 2027. Updating of the maximum number of shares for the company to be delivered to executive directors under the medium-term incentive plans 22-26, which is set as 2,562,271 shares. Support of the annual report on remuneration of the directors for 2023. Authorization and delegation of powers for the interpretation, correction, complementing execution, and development of the agreements adopted at this AGM. Delegation of powers for the execution and creating of a deed of the agreements adopted at this AGM. This now concludes the period for voting for the proposals of the AGM, and they have all been approved.
The result of these votes will be posted in our corporate website within the legal period. Therefore, all the proposals of this AGM have been duly approved. I appreciate on behalf of the board of directors your trust. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the trust you have placed in us for yet another year as shareholders. In these final moments closing this annual general meeting, I'd like to give you a brief, maybe not so brief, overview of this 2023 for Mapfre. I'll briefly go over the achievements and main lines of action in the various regions and business units in the world. I'll also go over the main challenges we're facing with the review of our strategic plan and an update of our aspirational objectives for the next three years.
Once again, we've had to deal with a very unfriendly environment for non-life insurance. Two key factors were a drag on income statements of insurance companies. Firstly, the persistent high inflation in many world markets, which have significantly affected our costs, primarily those connected to non-life businesses, which are highly demanding in terms of human and logistic resources. Auto insurance is the most impacted worldwide, with significant losses in the main global markets. The changes in social behaviors affecting driving led to an increase in claim frequency, and inflation affecting the automotive world, which is even higher than what is called core inflation, is causing cost increases that were not sufficiently included in our rates, which had also gone down significantly during the pandemic.
The second factor is related to what we mentioned previously, the impact related to the climate, which is increasingly changing and causing damages to property and, unfortunately, people. In recent years, the overall damage caused by weather events worldwide has continued to increase along with large catastrophic claims, which respond to unpredictable cycles. Medium and high-intensity events are now happening far more frequently, and they are affecting more developed areas like Europe, as previously mentioned. The insurer's task is not easy when faced with these changes, which do not match any known historical series, and they require reasonable rate increases if they are to be properly managed and furthermore improvements in efficiency and productivity. It takes time and much analysis to adapt prices to new circumstances. In the meantime, they significantly affect the profitability of the insurance business.
Insurance companies specialize in risk management, which involves both the most and the least predictable risks. And the essence of our activity is based, as you know, on proper diversification of these risks to offset these imbalances. For this reason, for Mapfre, despite these circumstances and precisely thanks to the diversification we boast of, last year has been a good year for our group. To summarize 2023, I would like to highlight, first of all, that premium growth was excellent. Together with a strong performance of our investment, it has allowed us to set historic records for revenue, far exceeding EUR 32 billion in revenues. Secondly, earnings were also very good because, excluding our goodwill write-down in our U.S. operation, we have exceeded our targets. However, these results show certain imbalances if we analyze them by product or region.
Automobile continues to be the most challenging business in the main countries where we operate. However, our diversification has helped us once again, thanks to the significant contribution to profits made by the Life and Property and Casualty businesses, in addition to the Reinsurance activity and enterprise risks. It's important to note that 9 countries improved their total Combined Ratio this year, and we have 14 countries with total Combined Ratios below 100%. That's half of the countries. The other half are all still facing significant challenges. The significant recovery in ordinary financial income, thanks to higher interest rates, is significantly helping to achieve our financial objectives. Brazil, Reinsurance, Spain, and the rest of Latin America reported very positive results. So our territorial diversification also helped us not to depend exclusively on one or two large operations.
This has strengthened our commitment to a global, multi-line, multi-channel, and geographically diverse approach across the different regions and business units, as well as an assessment of the outlook on the immediate horizon. In Iberia, Spain, and Portugal, we closed the year with exceptional growth, and we outperformed the market in both life and non-life. We can highlight the positive performance of the life business, where our increase in provisions almost doubled that of the industry. In non-life, we maintained strong leadership in the auto, homeowners, commercial, and condominium lines. And in health, we continue to be the largest multi-line insurance company in the Spanish market. We still have room for improvement in profitability due to the change in climate events that we mentioned previously and the rise in the compensation scale for personal injury in automobiles.
Perhaps there was an increase at the least appropriate time, but we're confident that the improvement measures adopted, both in terms of adopting rates and boosting efficiency and productivity, will continue to bear fruit. We remain committed to our approach with the implementation of a new commercial model that gives us a uniform view of the entire territory while raising the quality of service provided by all channels. Our own network is still our greatest strength, and we have continued reinforcing it while other activities have been closing down. Mapfre has opened 60 new net offices this year, which adds up to an impressive 3,061 owned offices or branches in Spain. We objectively have the largest insurance and financial network in Spain.
We have also identified the development of new agents who will continue joining our exclusive network of franchise delegate offices and will be providing them with technological and operational tools that will enable them to improve their sales activity and enhance customer experience. We've also continued strengthening our relationship with brokers with positive growth data, and we have further strengthened our partnerships with our main banking partners in Spain and Portugal, Bankinter and Banco Santander, with extremely satisfactory progress being made for both parties to boost our commercial positioning. We're taking into account new consumer habits, and we continue developing online self-service features, which have enabled us to grow in the number of customers who use our digital assets. I'd just like to highlight some impressive data. We already have over 2.4 million digital customers, which is an increase of 25%.
That's almost 500,000 new digital customers this year, an equivalent of 37% of our total portfolio of individual and self-employed customers. Another figure as far as apps and websites in Mapfre have reached almost 2.15 million digital customers, with an increase in the year of 28%. With regard to business development, we will continue in Iberia emphasizing more on better managing adequate rates, improving the efficiency of operations, especially in terms of benefits. We also have to expand our offer in life protection insurance and taking advantage of the optimal conditions for the distribution of life savings and retirement insurance. We will also continue managing more horizontally our offer of solutions for companies that include business risk and the protection of employees and their families.
We're absolutely certain that our specific plans in Spain will result in significant improvements in the technical result and profitability that our country provides for the group as a whole. Obviously, I don't want to forget Portugal, who's had a wonderful year with excellent growth both in premiums and profits. Our expectations for our dear neighbor country are very optimistic, both because of the development of our own network and that contributed by our bancassurance channels, the same as in Spain by Bankinter and Banco Santander. But let's talk about Brazil, the second most important country in the world for Mapfre, reported excellent financial results. The technical adjustments made in the main lines have taken effect. This is particularly true in the case of auto, where the combined ratio improved by more than 12 percentage points.
Life protection, with historic profitability due to both the excellent interest rates mainly through our partner Banco do Brasil, which we are very grateful for. In terms of agricultural insurance, the line in which we are leaders, together with our partner Banco do Brasil, we continue growing, and we managed to greatly reduce claims or accidents due to excellent weather in 2023. In short, our improved technical management, portfolio restructuring, structural adjustment, and creation of new capabilities, together with excellent financial results, have led to deliverable continued success. There involves making our operations more efficient, using technology and processes that will allow us to boost productivity while improving the perception of our customers and distributors seeking to increase their loyalty to our company and improving product offer, service, and retention.
And of course, we'll keep working with our partner Banco do Brasil to continue growing vigorously and profitably, taking advantage of the bank's enormous commercial strength, the country's size and economy, and the still low rate of insurance penetration. Elsewhere in Latin America, we also delivered fantastic results for 2023. The region improved its indicators, showing a good technical balance. As always, Peru and Mexico were standout countries for us, the largest and most profitable countries in the area. In Peru, despite the country's political challenges, there were still significant opportunities for the insurance business. Our excellent market position, nationwide presence with our own network, and excellent diversification between life and non-life are strengths that, together with our proven management capacity over many years, suggest that we will continue to achieve good results in this country in the coming years.
In Mexico, we took another step forward with the acquisition of Insignia Life this past year, adding a powerful life insurance distribution network to our sales force to increase the diversification of our portfolio. 2023 was an excellent year in Mexico, no doubt, but the outlook for activity in this country must improve due to the quality of our management and Mexico's low level of insurance development. I would also like to highlight the growing weight of our businesses in the Dominican Republic, as a part where we have placed enormous trust in the BHD Financial Group to make sure our operations continue growing in a healthy manner in this lovely Caribbean country. In Latin America as a whole, we're developing a strategy of greater diversification, promoting the life insurance business more, reducing costs, and improving efficiency while consolidating our excellent technical management, which is deployed throughout the region.
In the United States, as you are all well aware, the auto and homeowners insurance lines are experiencing one of the worst crises in many decades in terms of results: the end of the pandemic, sudden and uncontrolled increase in claim frequency, which the insurance business either could not or did not know how to anticipate. This scenario has dragged Mapfre's profitability in the United States, which we are already seeing improvements, which will undoubtedly continue to improve further in the coming months as technical rate and efficiency adjustments are deployed across the portfolio as a whole. The increase of reinsurance costs in North America has also contributed to last year's negative results in this region. However, we are optimistic. The North American economy is in an excellent position, and that will help us grow once again profitably in the coming years.
We are confident that our strategy in the United States to recover profitability is the right one. In the same region, Puerto Rico has delivered extremely positive results, which are very consistent year on year, and which, given the maturity of our operations there and their market position, they will continue being excellent. It wasn't all good news, though. Aside from the situation in the United States, I'm going to talk about EMEA now, where we know the fiscal year has been particularly challenging given the inflationary environment and the negative cycle of the auto line at a global level, which was aggravated further this past year. I mentioned this in some of the answers to the questions: the high frequency of climate events never seen until now, especially in Italy and Germany.
Italy was unable to offset these negative impacts with rate increases, improved efficiency, and structural adjustments undertaken. It was unable to. It will require two more years to come up with acceptable figures. As for Germany, the auto insurance market took longer to get into difficulties due to the inflationary situation, so the higher cost increases were mainly concentrated in the final months of the past year. We hope this year, given the positive results that this country usually delivers. On the other hand, a very dear country in the European Union, Malta, we have an extraordinary partner there, Bank of Valletta. We'd like to thank their chairman, Mr. Cordina, who's here with us today, for his commitment and the joint efforts carried out with our own organizations. In 2023, we've managed to reinforce our leadership position there, and we've achieved excellent results.
Turkey has fortunately, despite their difficulties, is obtaining profits once again despite the hyperinflationary environment and was affected by a terrible earthquake. But they've achieved an improvement of the combined ratio of almost 25 percentage points. The country's economic outlook is once again promising after the adjustments made by the government, which will help improve our technical and financial revenue. I would like to also talk about the other business units. The reinsurance unit has performed brilliantly. The capital increase at Mapfre for the amount of EUR 250 million carried out at the end of 2022 to leverage new and advantageous market conditions has been a strong driver for this unit. It has helped it benefit from the cycle change and grow further in the new environment of higher profitability, boosting its technical rigor while expanding its ability to serve customers.
In 2023, despite the high loss experience due to both the aforementioned earthquake in Turkey and a greater number of high-intensity claims, this unit exceeded expectations and achieved its best results in its over 40 years of existence in both premiums and net earnings. It has also continued its transformation process and integration of its underwriting and capital management tools, which are accompanied by a technological renewal to improve and optimize operation management. The reinsurance unit is facing this year great confidence, more capacity to take advantage of the cycle, a healthy and balanced portfolio. Its balanced strength, together with its solvency and technical capacities, suggests that if it is not impacted by major disasters, it will continue being a significant contributor to the group's results. Our sister unit, Mapfre Global Risks, also closed 2023 with better-than-expected performance and generalized improvement in its business indicators.
Reporting its highest revenue in 15 years of existence, it is tackling 2024 with a target of increasing its acquisition of new large business customers to consolidate the portfolio, make it sustainable over time, and promote new lines of business and ensure better business diversification.
Then MAWDY, our assistance unit, also a good year with revenues that surpassed expectations and a positive result. This company, as we said, has undergone an intense transformation process, and it is now more digital and more focused on countries where Mapfre carries out other operations with an innovation-based strategy to bring more value to its customers. Then Solunion, the credit and surety insurance company that we operate together with Allianz Trade, Spain and America, specialized in credit, has obtained again, in its 10th anniversary, very positive results.
In 2024, it will continue to pursue a growth strategy because it understands the complexity of the economic cycle and focuses on strengthening technology. This is a strategic value: consolidating huge talent, efficiently managing financial resources, and boosting sales profitability with prudent risk management. To complete my assessment of the year's achievements, I would also like to talk about something Fernando broached when he provided a response to one of the questions. Spain, and it's financial advisory. Asset management is over 30 years old and manages the group's own investment portfolio but also has a wide range of mutual funds and pension plans that offer very attractive returns, suitable for all risk profiles, and with a large ESG component. Our assets under management in 2023 were more than EUR 10 billion, excluding institutional mandates of the group's companies. That's more than 3x the volume.
This proves that increasing numbers of customers rely on our products, including retail and institutional investors. We continue to develop our advisory area, which provides quality financial planning for our clients. Mapfre GP just presented its strategic plan 2024/2026 with the main objective of exceeding EUR 2 billion in assets under advisement during this period, both through its own offices and its growing number of financial agents. Now, in the management of investments in alternative assets, they have helped us to offset the sluggishness of interest rates in recent years, and we continue to innovate by developing new options. We invest with the best possible partners, such as Macquarie, Munich Re, and Swiss Life, which we carry out through funds in real estate and infrastructure as well as private equity.
We have added an innovative project that we are especially proud of: the recent launch of a pioneering fund that invests in the production of biomethane. It will have its first plants in, you can imagine how excited I am, in Extremadura, which is where I'm from. We will not only help to improve the environment with this 100% green biofuel, which is obtained from animal and plant waste, but we will create jobs, especially in towns that are located in the least populated parts of Spain. Now, very briefly, a look at our more strategic reflections, some of the conclusions reached. As I said, far from having a stable, predictable environment to conduct our business as usual, we again face volatility, uncertainty, complexity. Persistent inflation, sluggish economic recovery, the energy crisis, general political instability, and war are factors that contribute to increasing uncertainty around economic growth.
But at Mapfre, we have an experienced management team. We've got talent. We're taking the right decisions to prepare for Mapfre's future in the coming years. We are optimistic, as always, but we never lose track of reality. We believe the time has come to boost our team's enthusiasm, the sense of pride and belonging, and, of course, the quest for new horizons that will help improve our results, increase our commitment, and strengthen our values. Thank you. After seeing this complex internal and external backdrop, we understand that it's full of opportunities. We need to be more and better prepared. The fact is, our business is changing a lot. We face technological changes. We face social disruption. We face new competitors, new forms of distribution, a new post-pandemic labor environment, and many other elements that must be assimilated and considered.
Ladies and gentlemen, our strategic plan that guided the company in 2023 met most of the targets that we set for that year. You can see it on screen. All of them were achieved except for the combined ratio. It's no excuse because it's very important, but growth has definitely surpassed levels. The ROE almost made objective. Our solvency is excellent. The investment portfolio is managed in alignment with the ESG criteria. And above all, we have practically eradicated the gender pay gap at a global level. We're very proud of these achievements. Therefore, we can conclude that we have been able to accomplish almost everything we brought here to you two years back. As our First Vice Chairman, José Manuel Inchausti, has said, we've deployed our sustainability strategy, meeting practically 100% of our goals, highlighting, as we know, our progress in one of our hallmarks, which is social commitment.
We are a company with a differential purpose, which focuses on people and their environment, and our commitment is to ensure a positive footprint in the face of global challenges facing humanity. So we take care of what matters to our clients, our employees, our intermediaries, collaborators, shareholders. In a nutshell, we take care of everything that matters to them and affects our society. As we see, we finished one cycle and started another one in 2024 with a renewed team that combines experience, diversity, and generational depth. We are preparing for a new stage, and we will continue to focus on growth and better results. We have decided, thus, to complete our current strategic plan one year in advance, and today we present a new three-year strategic cycle, which will cover the period 2024, 2025, and 2026.
We review our strategic approach, and these are the objectives: first, to intensify our—continue to exist and that are being corrected; second, to tackle this stage with greater enthusiasm and commitment, all Mapfre employees; and third, update our strategic objectives and public commitments. After this work, which I have to say, we all met in the Villanueva de la Serena in Badajoz, and we were comfortable enough to be able to really think at length and talk about the challenges, bringing us to understand that we need to maintain nearly all of our business development and action plans while we streamline some aspects and make them easier to follow, evaluate, and present.
We are committed to what has brought us here: financial strength, excellent service, proximity to the customer, trust in personal relationships, and, as I said before, a careful focus on all stakeholders, an ethical and social commitment to these are essential values that have always been in the group and will continue to guide us. The more relevant aspects will be to improve efficiency and competitiveness in auto. We need to return rates to a sufficient level. Expand our offer for protection and pension savings products in view of the positive interest rate situation. Develop the operating model in the commercial segment. Be more cross-cutting. Consolidate excellent technical and sales development in reinsurance. Update our risk appetite on the basis of profitability. This is what we call the MNP, Modelo Negocio País. Scalability, which is necessary to manage with appropriate efficiency and productivity.
Further reinforce the development of our people, increasing support for training and talent. Again, promote the cultural aspect that unites us and sets apart. This is what we call the Mapfre attitude. Our claim is going to be: we are Mapfre. We make Mapfre what it is. In terms of growth, we commit to growing at least 6% on average over the coming three years. This will allow us to exceed $32 billion in premiums at the end of the three-year period. We will continue to seek new distribution channels in core countries, as well as in other strategic ones: Spain, Brazil, the U.S., Mexico, and Germany. And this, together with complementary growth paths in life, in order to balance our portfolio. This, of course, calls for an increased weight of bank insurers in Mapfre.
Profitability: we understand that the average ROE under new IFRS criteria would be 10%-11%. 11% is our aspirational goal for 2026, and I can assure you that this is an extremely demanding objective in view of IFRS. It's difficult to compare because nothing exists as yet in Europe, so each group is doing as it will. Technical efficiency: we have to see 96%-95% over the next three years. Remember, things being as they are, it is not that demanding to have this combined ratio as this. In any case, we want to reach 95% by the end of 2026. We reiterate our commitment: the solvency level will be approximately 200%, leverage ratio around 24%, and dividend payout of our annual attributable earnings in the coming years. As to sustainability, we confirm there are no major changes.
It is a pillar for our plan, together with growth, transformation, and efficiency. We see sustainability. We will continue to prioritize on the onboarding of those businesses in a cross-cutting and gradual manner, focusing especially on our environmental footprint, supporting the circular economy, developing inclusive policies supporting financial education, encouraging greater accessibility to insurance, promoting better governance, fostering transparency and dealing with our social footprint, and developing a more committed management approach with stakeholders, products, investments, and underwriting aligned with SDGs. So these are the objectives, and they have to do with sustainability as a strategic pillar. In the next three years, we will be carbon neutral in 15 countries. This is tremendous if you compare with past commitment. At least 95% of our total investment portfolio will be according to ESG. So far, we only talked about some countries. The percentage of female managers in the group will grow.
Our commitment is, by 2024, to have a percentage of at least 34% in top management with a 1 percentage point increase every year, 36% at the end of the three-year period. About 47% of female managers exist in the group. And it's interesting. Now, we're being even more demanding. Now we're not talking about managers. We're talking about top managers in the group, in global terms. I can assure you that this objective is extremely demanding, but we will make good on it. So shareholders' own, predictability, and certainty are key elements for the stability of insurance activities. We face tremendous amounts of uncertainty if we think about the evolution of the global economy. We have, as yet, avoided a global economic recession, but inflation is not fully under control, and central banks face the dilemma of whether to begin or not to lower interest rates.
This uncertainty, of course, generates. Now, we cannot foretell the future, but we need to be prepared for whatever may happen. And so we are sure of one thing: Mapfre is making positive progress with a geographically product-based business model, which allows for profitable growth even in these very complex conditions. But we're ambitious. We want to take advantage of all of the opportunities for growth, always in a prudent and rigorous way, with the aim of protecting the interests of our shareholders and ensuring the company's long-term sustainability. I am coming to the end of this annual general meeting, and I have to make a reference to three persons who have so greatly contributed to Mapfre on the board and in other executive bodies and functions in the company. First, Ignacio Baeza.
Here he is for the first time, not with me here by my side but with us, with his wife, Mar, paying close attention. "Ignacio retired," we said, "on December 31 after a long career, over 27 years with the group." Not that many. Some of us have had an even longer career, but 27 years definitely is very important. During this time, he has held multiple positions: general manager of Mapfre in the Canary Islands, he hails from the islands, general manager of Mapfre Seguros Generales, chairman and CEO of Mapfre Vida, chairman of Mapfre España, Mapfre Global Risks, Mapfre Asistencia, among others, and a member of the board as of 2008 and vice chairman of the board as of 2012, which is when I was appointed chair, and the past 5 years as first vice chairman. Ignacio, well, we're not letting him go anywhere.
He is a non-executive, but he will continue to be non-executive chairman of Mapfre España and Mapfre Vida. And we need his advice and his support on other boards in the group. For all this time, he has been a wonderful and loyal collaborator, very efficient, a wonderful manager, a great people and team manager everywhere he's been. He has successfully resolved complex situations one after another we asked him to deal with because he was very specialized in dealing with those difficult times: Mapfre Asistencia or the transformation of Mapfre Global Risks. We've seen the successes that have been achieved. So we need to say thank you for your contribution throughout your long career. Thank you for making Mapfre better. Thank you, Ignacio. Thank you. But you're not leaving, so we know that we can continue to rely on you.
You will continue to help us, of course, wearing a different hat. We know that you are wonderful in terms of contributions you can make and the model you can be for others to follow. We appointed, as you know, José Manuel Inchausti Pérez. We've heard him this morning. He was former—second, our current secretary of the board of directors, general counsel, and general manager of the group's legal services, among others. This is Ángel Dávila. Ángel has not retired but will retire shortly after a brilliant 32-year career at Mapfre. He was designated general counsel a few months before I was named chair, and he has been with me. I have to say that he's been loyal, of course. I mean, this is taken for granted, but he is dedicated and committed and very professional over the course of his long and successful career within our group.
We know that he has always been very attentive to the legal, ethical, and institutional arena. Thanks to his hard work, the company has only done better. At the end of April, he will no longer be executive in Mapfre. We're sure that the future will hold only the best for him. We wish him well. We know that the board has already nominated and appointed the person who will be our new general counsel, general manager of the group's legal services, and secretary to this board of directors. It is Mr. Alcolea Santos. We are lucky to have him with us. Mr. Alcolea is Abogado del Estado, a state attorney, and joins Mapfre after a long career in the public sector and in the private sector as well. Finally, I have to make a reference to María Luisa Gordillo. I can see her also.
She is our Group Chief Internal Audit Officer. This has been her position over the past six years, and she has carried out a number of other different activities throughout her long career with the group. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for the decisive nature of your reactions. We've been working together for years, and I have seen that with my eyes, but others who worked with you before confirm that you have always successfully carried out the functions that have been entrusted to you. So we will miss you, but of course, you will be enjoying this new part of your life. I'm sure that you'll be enjoying it. I wish you well. From April 1st onward, José Luis Gurtubay. We used to call him Koldo, but we don't call him that in Spain anymore. We call him José Luis.
He will be new Group Chief Internal Audit Officer. Recently, he has held the position of Chief Strategy and M&A Officer. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders all, to conclude, we've said so more than once, but I have to repeat it because it's very important, and it is, of course, your request. We have got to boost profitability. This is one of our objectives. But we want to return the trust you place in our company as generously as possible. It's essential for us. It encourages us. It is what keeps us working hard. I said Mapfre, and it should be a good year again for you, shareholders. Fernando Mata, our CFO, said that we had proposed an extraordinary dividend, and this is something that you have approved.
We are happy to state that we are firmly committed to continue to increase this payout as the group's profits continue to increase, always, of course, keeping solvency at the appropriate levels. We're optimistic when we think about the future. Since the crisis of 2008, we have faced years of tension that have altered the world. Our company situation is solid, robust. Our debt levels are low. Our solvency is high. We are growing, and we will continue to grow profitably. Interest rates are a wonderful tailwind for our investments, and they are going to further drive the already high results-generating capacity of our activity, insurance and reinsurance alike. We are on the right track, and we will deal with this new strategic period in a trustworthy way: our trust in the business model and the trust that you, our shareholders, place in us.
To finish, then, let me share with you a video, a video that talks about us as a leading, profitable, innovative company that is committed to people and the environment. Today in Mapfre, talking about us is talking about you. To you, it makes sense because we are there to help others resolve their needs. We need to transform, respond, preemptively build a society, adding value at every contact point. We innovate. We adapt to new business models, to new organizational models. We are there when and how and wherever you need us. Being sustainable is not for today. It is what we want to do and be. It is the engine of our activities. It is a sample of our engagement, people, society, and planet-wise.
For all of these reasons, today in Mapfre, we want to be there to move and progress, contributing to the development of a more sustainable and solidary society. This is our commitment. We care for what matters. Well, thank you. That round of applause. I thought the video was very good also. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. We have come to the end of the session. Thank you.