Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. May I introduce myself, my name is Michael Diekmann, and as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, I open the Annual General Meeting 2023 of Allianz SE. Dear shareholders, on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board and the Board of Management, I would like to welcome you cordially to the Annual General Meeting. With the approval of the Supervisory Board, the Board of Management has decided to hold the Annual General Meeting in virtual format again this year. That is without the shareholders or their representatives physically present at the meeting venue. I will explain the reasons for this at the beginning of my speech. Last year, the German legislature revised the laws that govern virtual general meetings based on the experience gained with virtual general meetings held under the conditions of the pandemic in the past three years.
When introducing the new virtual general meeting, it was the German legislator's objective to create a full-fledged and standalone meeting format equivalent to the in-person version. In particular, the legislator has expressly incorporated all existing shareholder rights into the new law. Only the physical venue of the general meeting is now replaced by a digital gathering. Under the new format, you, dear shareholders, can address the board of management and the supervisory board directly, and as usual, with your speeches, questions, and of course, any critical comments you may have. I will explain the specifics in greater detail over the course of this morning. I can well understand the criticism occasionally heard that members of management boards and supervisory boards are resorting to the virtual format to avoid interacting with shareholders directly.
It goes without saying that an in-person general meeting is more vivid than the exchange in the virtual format. Therefore, please rest assured that all of us will do our best today to convince all of you, including those shareholders that are critical towards the virtual format. As described, your rights are following the rights you would have attending a general meeting in person. From the board of management and the supervisory board's point of view, your contribution in a virtual format has the same importance as in an in-person meeting. The widely supraregional and international nature of Allianz shareholder composition is a good reason from our point of view, for holding general meetings virtually. It's not just that it gives a broader group of shareholders an opportunity to contribute to the discussion and ask questions.
It also creates a way to make your contributions available to a broad forum of shareholders. For many of the nearly 1 million shareholders of Allianz SE, the virtual format offers the only way to actively participate in our annual general meeting. Of course, this format today is new to all of us. It's no longer the type of virtual meeting that we experienced in the past three years under the COVID emergency legislation. Certainly, we will gain experience, valuable experience with the new format today, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions for improvement.
For the future, this new format will be the means of choice if for whatever reason, an in-person general meeting cannot be held, because the general meeting always has to be in a position to pass needed resolutions and specifically to decide on the appropriation of net earnings and thus on the dividend. For the future, the board of management and the supervisory board propose not to exhaust the statutory authorization period of five years for holding virtual general meetings, but to create the prerequisites for the next two years through the amendment of the statutes. The board of management will make the decision on the format and the exact design of the general meeting at its discretion and in the best interest of the company and the shareholders.
It will take into account the experiences made at today's general meeting, as well as your feedback, and ensure that the virtual format closely corresponds to the in-person meeting. Much about the virtual setup of today's meeting, and before I go into, my report, please allow me some organizational notes. In the past business year, first of all, the COVID-19 pandemic, with its effect on work, on the working life and supply chains, remained the dominant topic, which was then abruptly pushed into the background in February by the war in Ukraine. We at Allianz condemn this war and are appalled by its consequences, in particular for the civilian population in Ukraine. This has led to a huge wave of solidarity, compassion, and the willingness to help on the part of Allianz's employees.
As a consequence of the war and the ensuing energy crisis, there was a significant and nearly worldwide rise in inflation rates that prompted many central banks to move away from low interest rate policies and to increase interest rates. Signs are increasingly pointing to a higher inflation level than expected, and that we also have to take into account higher volatility, which is highly relevant to Allianz's business. Apart from this, the year 2022 presented many different geopolitical challenges that all affected Allianz's business in one way or another. To give you some examples, we have the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and China, as well as global climate change.
This spring, in addition to this, we had challenges by the turbulences in the financial markets triggered by difficulties at two banks in the U.S. and the emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS in Switzerland, and the takeover of the bank by JPMorgan Chase in the U.S. In contrast to 2008, the global impacts, at least so far, have been limited. It can also be seen that the Solvency II regime, in effect in the European insurance sector, is making a significant contribution to having risk-based capital resources and hence makes an important contribution to safeguarding the financial sector. There's been no chain reaction in the banking sector this time around either, in contrast to the year 2008 with the financial crisis.
However, it also appears that the outflow of client funds can be accelerated via social media, and that the corresponding domino effects need to be more controllable. Dear shareholders, please rest assured that the supervisory board, in close consultation with the board of management, will continue to analyze and evaluate macroeconomic and geopolitical developments to assess the impact on the risk profile of Allianz and thus to avoid negative surprises as much as possible. In addition to external factors, the financial year 2022 was particularly challenging due to an Allianz internal topic, and that is Structured Alpha. I will talk about this in a moment as part of my report to the annual general meeting in more detail. Ladies and gentlemen, this takes me to some organizational remarks about today's AGM.
First of all, I would like to state that the annual general meeting was convened in due form and time in the Federal Gazette on March 16th, 2023. The meeting venue again this year is Königinstraße 28 in 80802 Munich, Germany. The notarization of the annual general meeting will be performed by Notary Public Jens Kirchner, who's in the room with us. I would also like to welcome the members of the board of management to the stage. The members of the supervisory board are not sitting here on stage, but they follow the annual general meeting from another room at the AGM's venue. For our shareholders, we will once again broadcast the entire AGM live via our online service.
In addition, my introductory remarks and reports and the speech by the Chairman of the Executive Board can also be followed by anyone live on the internet. A recording of those speeches will be made available on our website after the annual general meeting. Shareholders connected to today's annual general meeting may exercise all their participation rights at the AGM. During the general debate, shareholders connected to the system can make live contributions via video communication. In addition, they have the right to request information, including the so-called extended information pursuant to Section 131, paragraph four of the German Stock Corporation Act. In my capacity as Chairman of the Annual General Meeting, I hereby stipulate that the right to information may only be exercised by way of video communication.
For your speeches and questions, you have to register a request to speak via the button in the main menu of the online service. This is the virtual registration desk. In due course, I will then call the speakers by name in blocks and ask them to enter the so-called virtual waiting room. To do this, a dialogue window with a corresponding button will pop up in the online service. By clicking on this button, you can enter the virtual waiting room. After you've entered the waiting room, there will be technical staff to welcome you to check the video and audio quality of the connection. Please remain in this virtual waiting room until the technical staff gets in contact with you.
After successfully checking the functionality of the video and audio transmission, I will then ask you to take a turn on the virtual stage. Your speech will then be broadcast live to the annual general meeting. You can also make motions and election proposals as part of your request to speak. If you want to announce a motion or election proposal outside of a regular speech, you can do so by using the corresponding button in the system. The rest of the procedure would then be the same as for a request to speak. At this point, I would like to point out that shareholders motions and election proposals submitted prior to the AGM, which were to be made available by the company, have already been deemed to have been submitted, so it's therefore not necessary to present them again at today's meeting.
In the run-up to the annual general meeting, you also had the opportunity to submit comments or statements on the items on the agenda. Statements are available to shareholders who have duly registered for the AGM and their representatives via the online service. They can also be viewed there today. Please note that questions, motions, election proposals, or objections contained in those statements will not be considered at the AGM. Voting right at today's annual general meeting may only be exercised by postal vote or by authorizing the proxies nominated by the company. You can change your postal votes or the instructions to the proxies appointed by the company until the end of the voting process. I would like to ask at this point to make any changes in due time as the live stream, as there might be delays in the transmission of the live stream.
I will explain the exact voting procedure following the general debate. Shareholders connected to the meeting can also use the online service to declare their objections to resolutions of today's annual general meeting, or request that minutes be taken in accordance with Section 131, paragraph 5 of the Stock Corporation Act. Please note that declaring an objection or requesting the minutes be taken will only be possible until the end of today's AGM and not after the annual general meeting. You'll find a button for this in the online service. Your objection or your request for the minutes to be taken will then be sent directly to the Notary Public via an electronic mailbox, which is managed by him personally.
Here again, I would ask you not to wait until the last moment to declare your objection or your request for minutes to be taken in the interest of an orderly process. As I've already mentioned, there might be technical delays in the live stream. All documents required by law for the annual general meeting have been made available on the website of Allianz SE under Investor Relations annual general meeting in the document center. The participation list contains the shareholders and shareholder representatives who are represented at the meeting. The list of participants will be updated continuously until the end of the annual general meeting and can be viewed by shareholders connected via the online service. As usual, I will let you know the attendance figures later on.
As chairman of the meeting, I would like to point out that recordings of the online transmission of our AGM are not permitted. I would ask you to note that our annual general meeting is a meeting of shareholders and is not intended for the general public. Much for the organizational notes. Ladies and gentlemen, before we move on to the agenda, I would like to first inform you about changes in the board of management and supervisory board of Allianz SE since the last annual general meeting. There have been two changes in the composition of the board of management since May 2022. First, on December 31st, 2022, Sergio Balbinot left the board of management to enter into his retirement. Mr. Balbinot joined the Allianz Board of Management in 2015 following a very successful career as co-CEO at Generali.
He was above all responsible for the regions of Western and Southern Europe, as well as for Asia Pacific. In this capacity, he successfully further developed the partnerships with UniCredit and HSBC, and both organically and through smart acquisitions, very solidly and profitably drove the growth of our subsidiaries in the Western and Southern European markets. During his tenure, he not only repositioned Allianz's business in Asia, but also doubled its share in the consolidated earnings. In China, Mr. Balbinot laid the groundwork for the expansion of Allianz's engagement, which led, amongst other things, to the granting of a state permit for a fully foreign-owned insurance holding company and for the first fully foreign-owned asset management company. With his professional and always prudent approach, Mr.
Balbinot has made an important contribution to the profitable growth of Allianz and the good reputation of Allianz amongst relevant stakeholders such as banking partners and supervisory authorities. Also effective December 31st, 2022, Ivan de la Sota resigned from the board of management of Allianz SE. As the Allianz Customer Model, one of Mr. de la Sota's main responsibilities was relayed to other board of management divisions earlier than had originally been planned. The supervisory board agreed with Mr. de la Sota on an early termination of his term of office and consented to the dissolution of the division of which he was in charge. Mr. de la Sota had been an employee of Allianz since 1991. After holding an initial position in the business segment Southern Europe, he assumed operational responsibility as abilities as CFO at Allianz Seguros in Spain.
As CEO of Allianz Portugal, he introduced a successful Spanish model there between 2007 and 2010. Following that, as the CEO of Allianz Spain from 2012 to 2015, he was one of the first to promote digitalization in the insurance sector. After serving as the regional CEO for the region Iberia and Latin America, Mr. de la Sota was appointed to the board of management of Allianz SE in April 2018, where as Chief Business Transformation Officer of the group, he advanced the topics of innovation and digitalization on a global scale. The Supervisory Board expressed its sincere gratitude to Mr. Balbinot and Mr. de la Sota for their many years of work and dedication to Allianz.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think I can speak on your behalf as well in thanking both gentlemen for their efforts, and we wish them all the best and good health for the future. New elections to the Supervisory Board were held at the last annual general meeting, and there have been no changes in fiscal year 2022. Dear shareholders, we will now move on to the discussion of the agenda. I call on agenda item 1, the presentation of the approved annual financial statements and the approved consolidated financial statements as of December 31st, 2022, and of the management reports for Allianz SE and for the group, as well as the report of the Supervisory Board for fiscal year 2022. First of all, I'll come to the presentation of the financial statements.
The annual financial statements of Allianz SE and the Group, together with the relevant management reports, have been audited and deemed proper by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The auditor issued an unqualified auditor's opinion for both financial statements. The Board of Management and the auditor explained the financial statements in detail, both to the audit committee and to the plenary session of the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board approved the annual financial statements after a thorough examination. The annual financial statements of Allianz SE have thus been formally adopted. This takes me to the report of the Supervisory Board. In the past financial year, the Supervisory Board held six regular meetings and three extraordinary meetings. Following the elections to the Supervisory Board at the Annual General Meeting 2022, there was moreover a constitutive meeting.
In addition to the plenary meetings, there were 26 regular meetings of the Supervisory Board committees, which were held along with four extraordinary meetings of the audit committee. As usual, you can find the detailed written presentation of the work of the Supervisory Board and its committees in the annual report of Allianz Group on pages 4 and following. Let me just highlight some of the priorities of our work. One of the defining topics last year was dealing with the Structured Alpha matter of Allianz Global Investors in the United States. We had to deal with this from various perspectives.
In order to ensure an appropriate and close monitoring of the whole matter and of the internal investigation and review of the facts, the Supervisory Board delegated to the Audit Committee the task of closely monitoring the Structured Alpha matter and of regularly reporting to the full Supervisory Board. As in the year 2021, the working group that the Audit Committee had set up for this provided assistance in a supportive capacity. To gain an independent overview of the legal issues involved, the Supervisory Boards, again in the past year, consulted a law firm which was commissioned by the Supervisory Board itself. We dealt with these topics in numerous meetings. At the beginning of 2022, the main focus was on talks with investors and the formation of provisions.
Over the course of the year, the focus then turned to the settlement proceedings with the U.S. Department of Justice, DOJ, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC. That was the case especially in the run-up to the agreement which we reached on May 17th of last year. At its five regular and an additional four extraordinary meetings, the Audit Committee comprehensively discussed questions related to the Structured Alpha matter. The working group of the Audit Committee met a total of 10x , and the full Supervisory Board dealt with the matter in detail during its six regular and three additionally scheduled extraordinary meetings. With the support of the law firm we had commissioned, we extensively discussed with the Board of Management its considerations and weightings relating to the conclusion of settlements, both with investors and the U.S. authorities.
It goes without saying that when dealing with events of this magnitude, the Supervisory Board also lends detailed attention to the question of potential responsibility at the level of the board of management of Allianz SE. With this in mind, we commissioned the external legal advisors to conduct an independent investigation relating to potential claims for damages against former or current members of the board of management of Allianz SE. These investigations came to the conclusion that there were no indications whatsoever for any breaches of duty that could lead to claims for damages against former or current members of the board of management in connection with the Structured Alpha matter. In particular, no evidence was found that former or current members of the board of management had any information on the fraudulent schemes of the portfolio managers of Structured Alpha.
This is also in line with the assessment of the U.S. Department of Justice. Furthermore, no breaches of duty on the board of management with regard to the business organization on which claims for damages could be based have been identified. To ensure together with the board of management that an incident like this will never happen again, the supervisory board closely monitored and supervised the internal review of the matter, paying particular attention to the internal investigations launched and measures adopted by the board of management. From the point of view of the supervisory board, the board of management managed to swiftly handle the Structured Alpha matter and to strengthen business in the U.S. by quietly-timely partnering with Voya Investment Management. Let me now come to other topics in the work of the supervisory board during the past year.
As usual, the board of management informed the supervisory board about the development of business at all regular meetings, providing details about the development of revenues and results, as well as the individual business segments. We also regularly engaged in discussions with the board of management about the adequacy of capitalization and the solvency ratio, both for Allianz SE and for the group. We focused intensively on the corresponding stress and risk scenarios. Another focus of the work of the full supervisory board, but also of the audit committee, involves the impact of the change over to the new accounting standards IFRS 9 and 17 from financial year 2023 onwards. We received continuous reporting on the status of the implementation measures for a proper transition to the new standards, and discussed their impacts on financial reporting at Allianz with the board of management.
Last year again, we dealt in detail with a variety of strategic topics and with the Board of Management's plans for the financial years 2023 and 2024. During meetings of the plenary session of the Supervisory Board and in the Technology Committee, we addressed the topic of cybersecurity and discussed the potential of data analysis and artificial intelligence for Allianz with the Board of Management. Finally, we again devoted extensive attention to Board of Management personnel, as well as succession planning for both the Board of Management and the Supervisory Boards. I will return to the challenges involved in a moment, especially in the search for suitable candidates for the Supervisory Board in my presentation on agenda item 7. Dear shareholders, it is also a responsibility of the Supervisory Board to monitor compliance with the standards of good corporate governance.
Details on the development of corporate governance within the Allianz Group can be found in the corporate governance statement that begins on page 16 of the annual report of Allianz Group. In December 2022, the board of management and supervisory board submitted the declaration of conformity with the German Corporate Governance Code. This declaration has been made available permanently to the shareholders on the company's website. In summary, it can be stated that Allianz is in compliance with all the recommendations of the code in its current version and also observes all the suggestions made therein. Ladies and gentlemen, in spite of the Structured Alpha matter and despite the numerous geopolitical tensions, Allianz managed to increase revenues in the past financial year and again achieved a record operating result.
The Solvency II capitalization ratio at the end of the year stood at an impressive 201%, which confirms the capital strength of Allianz. With the proposed dividend of EUR 11.40, you, dear shareholders, should benefit from these successes too. I would like to take this opportunity to express our thanks to all employees of Allianz Group on behalf of the entire supervisory board. This, again, outstanding result would not have been possible without your continued commitment and dedication. It is all of you who make Team Allianz what it is. Thank you very much for your efforts and your commitment. With this, I come to the presentation of the remuneration of the board of management and the supervisory board in the past financial year.
You will find detailed explanations on this in the remuneration report, which begins on page 27 of the annual report of the Allianz Group. The remuneration report for financial year 2022 is presented to you for approval today under agenda item 6. The report describes the compensation system adopted by the general meeting and then explains the application of the respective remuneration system in financial year 2022. On this, you will again find detailed and individualized disclosures on the remuneration of current and former members of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board. As required by law, the report was prepared jointly by the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board. It takes into account the requirements of the German Stock Corporation Act and the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code.
As in the previous year, we commissioned our auditor to conduct a full review of the contents of the remuneration report for 2022. With its auditor's report, PwC confirmed that the remuneration report for the past financial year, including the related disclosures, complies in all material respects with the provisions of the German Stock Corporation Act. As in the previous years, the format of the remuneration report is focused on complete transparency by the Board of Management and Supervisory Board. As an additional service, a summary is included which gives you an overview of the remuneration of the Board of Management.
To substantiate the remuneration of the members of the Board of Management, the report provides you with the calculation of the group's financial targets and with regard to the derivation of the individual contribution factor and individual remuneration amount, a detailed statement is made on each individual member of the Board of Management. We also explain our expectations for the active Board of Management members for the current financial year. The financial performance of the Board of Management with regards to the operating business for the financial year 2022 can be once again characterized as very strong. Despite strong capital market distortions, solvency and essential credit ratings stabilized at a solid level.
Unfortunately, the region Iberia and Latin America once again failed to reach its operating target, and the asset management business segment also missed the planned target level due to extremely volatile capital markets and the strong rise in interest rates. All in all, however, it can be observed that the strong overall performance in the financial year 2022 was achieved on a sustainable basis. Both customers and employees of Allianz, as well as the awarded Allianz once again with very good ratings with regard to the quality indicators in question. Specifically, these include improvements in the relevant indexes for the measurement of customer and employee satisfaction. The environmental target set for reducing CO2 emissions per employee was also clearly exceeded compared to the base year of 2019.
At this point, I would like to draw your attention to the adjustment in the target net income attributable to shareholders. As a consequence of the war in Ukraine, Allianz SE decided to withdraw from the Russian market. This decision was not foreseeable at the time of the budget planning, nor in terms of the setting of targets for the members of the Board of Management. The planned divestment of the majority stake in the Russian business led to EUR 437 million in extraordinary expenses in the financial year 2022, as reflected in the net income attributable to shareholders. It is at the discretion of the Supervisory Board to take unpredictable and extraordinary developments such as these into account when determining target achievement.
In order to recognize the actual performance of the Board of Management when determining the variable remuneration, we've decided to exercise this discretion. You will find a detailed explanation of this also in the written reports provided to you. As I had mentioned at the beginning of my report, the Supervisory Board has thoroughly assessed whether Allianz SE has any claims for damages in connection with the Structured Alpha matter. When determining the variable remuneration for members of the Board of Management, we also considered whether there is a basis for reducing the payout, the so-called malus payback of variable remuneration components that have already been paid, or which is also known as a clawback. Neither the internal audits nor extensive external reviews conducted with the support of various independent consultants have produced any reasons for a malus or a clawback arrangement.
I would like to present to you the adjustments to the Board of Management remuneration that have taken effect as of the beginning of this financial year, and I would like to point out that these are non-substantial changes to the remuneration system and therefore do not necessitate a presentation of the remuneration system to the annual general meeting for approval. First, the first change is about the target setting for net income attributable to the shareholders and more precisely about the bonus curve. As of the beginning of financial year 2023, the new financial reporting standards IFRS 9 and IFRS 17 apply. The transition to IFRS 9 leads to a significant increase in the share of assets measured at fair value on the income statement in the property and casualty business segment.
This leads to markedly higher fluctuations margins in net income in combination with fewer steering options on the part of the Board of Management. For the medium term, we therefore plan to adjust the group's financial target net income attributable to shareholders by eliminating certain non-operating effects, such as fluctuations due to market movements. As a transitional measure, the Supervisory Board has decided to adjust the bonus curve to address fluctuations in net income in both directions which are beyond the control of the Board of Management. For this purpose, 100% target achievement is defined as a plateau with an upward or downward fluctuation range of EUR 500 million.
We intend to present the revision of the group targets for approval at the 2024 annual general meeting or in 2025 at the latest as part of a general review of the remuneration system for the Board of Management. In addition to this technical adjustment in its annual review of the appropriateness of the Board of Management remuneration, the Supervisory Board identified the need to adjust the level of remuneration. The remuneration of regular members of the Board of Management was last adjusted in 2019. Looking at the remuneration of the Board of Management compared to other DAX 40 companies on the basis of revenue, number of employees, and market capitalization, it turns out that the remuneration of the chair of the Board of Management is below the benchmark.
In addition, after reducing the entire Board of Management to nine members, we also redistributed the tasks assigned to the members, leading to an increase in the workload for the remaining board members as of this year. For these reasons, the Supervisory Board considers a 5% increase in the annual target remuneration of all members of the Board of Management to be appropriate. The remuneration report contains the exact euro amounts. I would like to point out that the ratio of the remuneration that the general limits have not been increased. That takes me to the remuneration of the Supervisory Board. The remuneration of the Supervisory Board continues to consist of a fixed remuneration with committee memberships remunerate differently. The individual breakdown of remuneration can be found in the remuneration report.
There were no exceptions applied for the financial year 2022. In our annual review, however, we identified the need to adjust the remuneration of the Supervisory Board as well. This adjustment is presented to you for voting under agenda item 7. The last adjustment to the remuneration of the entire Supervisory Board was made at the Annual General Meeting 2018. Since then, the sole amendment made was the introduction of remuneration for the members of the Nomination Committee at the Annual General Meeting 2021. Over the past few years, the workload has increased significantly for both the full Supervisory Board and the Supervisory Board committees. This was not only caused by special topics such as the Structured Alpha matter, which was of course time-consuming and professionally demanding for the Supervisory Board as well.
Rather, we can observe an increase of new topics in general, such as in the field of technology, sustainability, and accounting, as well as continuously grown legal and regulatory requirements for the Supervisory Board. As I can tell you from personal experience, all of this is particularly true for the chairperson of the Supervisory Board, the chairperson of the Audit Committee, and the members of the Audit Committee. However, there's another factor which is decisive for the assessment of the appropriateness of the remuneration of the Supervisory Board, which I would like to mention here as well. The regulatory requirements regarding the qualifications of Supervisory Board members in the insurance sector have significantly increased in recent years. In order to be able to attract suitable candidates for Allianz, it is essential to offer attractive remuneration, also in international comparison.
We will need to replace three retiring members of the Supervisory Board on the shareholder representative sides in the coming two years alone. By now, institutional investors, as well as proxy advisors, increasingly expect that the chairperson of the Supervisory Board is no former member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE. In order to be able to attract suitable external candidates for this position, the remuneration must be sufficiently attractive. For these reasons today, the proposal is put before the Annual General Meeting under agenda item 7 to adopt an adjustment of the Supervisory Board remuneration along with the corresponding amendments to the statutes. It is proposed that the annual fixed remuneration paid to all regular members of the Supervisory Board be increased to EUR 150,000 apiece.
The remuneration for the chairperson of the Supervisory Board is to be increased threefold, i.e., to EUR 450,000, and for the vice-chairs to EUR 225,000 apiece. The annual fixed remunerations for members of the Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board is to be increased to EUR 75,000 apiece, and the remuneration for the chairperson of the Audit Committee to EUR 150,000. In all other respects, the remuneration system for the Supervisory Board adopted by the Annual General Meeting in 2021 shall remain unchanged. With this, I've reached the end of my report. I would like to thank you kindly for your attention, and I would like to ask Mr. Bäte, the CEO of Allianz SE, for his report.
Thank you very much, Mr. Diekmann. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, colleagues, and employees. A warm welcome to you and this year's annual general meeting from Allianz SE from the sunny Munich. I also welcome you on behalf of the management board and of our more than 159,000 colleagues located around the world. As Mr. Diekmann has already explained our motivations for arrangement, we are still in the virtual space, and Mr. Diekmann has explained our motivation for this arrangement. Let me make this opportunity. Regardless of the format in which we meet, the annual general meeting lives and breathes only through you, ladies and gentlemen, and your questions and contributions. We will try our best in order to answer to your demands as much as possible.
Over the next 30 minutes, I will report to you the developments within the company in 2022, although it has been completed for a few months already. There are four topics that I would like to touch here. First of all, I would like to talk about the share performance development, but also the economic environment of last year. Second, I want to present the business results for each segment. Third, I would like to talk to you about our commitment to society and our efforts towards greater sustainability. In doing so, I will also provide details on the conclusion of the proceedings surrounding the Structured Alpha funds. Fourth, I will be talking about the further development of our Allianz. You know, in these times, Allianz is as solid as a rock, and it's an investment that pays off long term.
These characteristics were once again demonstrated by Allianz during 2022 in the very challenging conditions. First, let me describe the long-term development of our company, Allianz. In the previous 10 years, we have generated a total shareholder return of 204% that constitutes a tripling of our investment. One significant aspect of this result was we have paid about EUR 47 billion to you through dividends and share buyback programs. This is made possible because we have continuously increased our operating profit by 6% annually alone over the past three years. Today, I can once again report on a record operating profit of EUR 14.2 billion for the financial year 2022. I can also reveal that the management board and the supervisory board are proposing to distribute a dividend of EUR 11.40. Mr.
Diekmann mentioned that already, representing an increase of 6% compared to the previous year. Before we examine these results in more detail, I would like to review the economic environment of the last financial year. At the beginning of last year, we remember, we considered the Corona pandemic overcome in Europe. People were once more looking optimistically into future. They expected rising wages and salaries. The economic expectations became more optimistic. Many people wanted to now make purchases that had been put on the back burner during the battle against the pandemic. They also wanted to travel. This demand was confronted with supply chains that were still disrupted. Specifically by the lockdown in China. Along with the tightening labor market came the harbingers of a phenomenon that was to shape 2022 until today.
The return of inflation at a rate not seen for decades, specifically in Germany. Within just one year, ladies and gentlemen, the rate of inflation rose to approximately 8% in December 2022. The situation in Europe became exacerbated, particularly with Russia's invasion into Ukraine. Global supply chains became tools of leverage within this geopolitical crisis. Recently as December 2021, Europe still procured around 41% of its natural gas from Russia. This dependency had to be abruptly reduced in an environment in which the prices for natural gas, but also for oil and coal, surged to previously unimagined heights. In response, central banks around the world introduced a cycle of rapid and drastic interest rate rises, which also triggered a collapse in global bond and equity markets. That is something you would only see three times in 100 years.
The impact of these changes is a harsh test for the business model in Germany and a lot of countries in Europe. It's also leaving its mark in our industry. Consequently, we swiftly had to adjust our capital investments to significantly more volatile and different markets within short notice. That is a topic that is going to keep us busy, as we can tell by the disruptions of the U.S. American banks. The political and economic challenges of the previous years, ladies and gentlemen, were enormous. They impacted every single one of our business segments. Nevertheless, we still performed very well in this environment, as proven by our business results for the year 2022. At EUR 153 billion, our revenues have never been higher. This figure represents a rise of 3% year-on-year.
Our operating profit has performed just as well. Like I said already, with EUR 14.2 billion, again, we have reached another record high, that was an increase of 6% versus previous year. Our P&C business revenues grew dynamically by 12.4%, reaching EUR 70 billion. Operating profit increased to EUR 6.2 billion. Of course, the investment result benefited from higher interest rates. Our underwriting result improved further despite these sizable natural catastrophe losses in the course of the year. In the life and health segment, ladies and gentlemen, we grew operating profit by 5.4% to EUR 5.3 billion.
The value of the new business, despite all these distortions, remained stable at EUR 2.5 billion, while the new business margin even expanded to 3.8% because of higher interest rates and a better business mix. Despite those dramatic conditions at the financial markets, our asset management segment, which is our third core piece, we generated an operating profit of EUR 3.2 billion, representing a decrease of 8.3%. However, it is really strong when you compare it with the peers. At the end of 2022, assets under management amounted to EUR 2.1 trillion. These figures underline, from our perspective, just how well and successfully we ran our business.
This also meant we were able to stabilize our solvency ratio at 201% by the end of the year, while at the same time significantly reducing the effects of capital markets fluctuations on our company. We also launched two share buyback programs worth EUR 1 billion each. We registered a considerable negative impact on our net income, however. This was primarily caused by the conclusion of the proceedings surrounding the Structured Alpha funds and the unavoidable withdrawal from our business in Russia. We generated, nevertheless, a profit of EUR 16.35 per share, representing a year-on-year increase of 2.4%. Our return on equity continues to be in the double-digit range in this difficult year. Based on these results, the Management Board and the Supervisory Board proposed to distribute a dividend of EUR 11.40 for fiscal year 2022 tomorrow.
This represents another increase, this time of 6% already mentioned, and is the eighth dividend increase since 2013. These results once again demonstrate the resilience of your company. The management board and our employees around the world are working hard to ensure this remains the case. I'm also delighted, by the way, to report that last year, approximately 90,000 new shareholders have decided to invest into Allianz, 22,500 of whom are from our own employees. This is an increase of 11% and an impressive proof of trust in us in those difficult times. Thank you so much. I would like to add, personally, I'm particularly happy that almost 100,000 Allianz employees, 90,000 Allianz employees are also our shareholders. That constitutes 60% of our global workforce so far.
Since the relaunch of our employee share scheme in 2018, that is roughly five years ago, their number has risen eightfold. That is quite remarkable. Ladies and gentlemen, the trust of our customers and employees, and the trust shown by you, your valued shareholders, is what makes this possible for us to achieve record results. This trust is both incentive and commitment for us to deliver what we promise and what you rightfully expect from us. We talk in this context about the health of our organization. This is a testament of our ability to build trust and to convince our most important stakeholders of our plans and proposals. This ability directly translates into competitive advantages and subsequently into financial success. Let's look at this aspect a little more closely. The most important topic. Business success cannot happen without satisfied customers.
This is measured by the so-called Net Promoter Score, NPS, which reflects our customers' willingness to recommend us and also their trust in us. This is directly connected to improved business results. Because after all, delighted customers cancel their contracts less frequently, buy more, and help us to become better all the time. Therefore, nothing trivial. This has been wanting to further increase to become the loyalty leader, the financial service provider, to the most loyal customers. That is paramount importance for us. I'm therefore delighted today that around 60% of our subsidiaries worldwide have achieved this goal. Back in 2015, that was only 30%. That was only half of it based on where we're standing today. The satisfaction of our customers seamlessly translates into the strength of our brand.
It ensures we remain visible and strong among our competitors, it is a key element for any purchase decision. By the way, our Allianz brand is the, you know, in the brand ranking has been number one in the global insurance brands for the fourth time in the Interbrand's Best Global Brands ranking with a brand value of $18.7 billion and growth of 23%. This makes us one of the 11 fastest growing brands in the industry, alongside Microsoft and Tesla. Alongside the brand, a motivated and committed workforce is one of the strongest competitive advantages. After all, it's all about the motivation and passion of our employees that impress our customers each day. Despite all the digitization, this is why we keep investing into your satisfaction through our concept, new Ways of Working.
With that initiative, for example, we create conditions worldwide that our employees are very able to work flexibly from at home and our offices, supported with digital collaboration tools and an office landscape designed for hybrid working. By the way, the health provision also rounds off this comprehensive program. This boosts the motivation and commitment of our workforce many times over. A fact confirmed by the result of the latest employee survey. That we are carrying out in an international comparison. Beating the trend with our sector, Allianz once again achieved an all-time high in terms of employee motivation, even surpassing the global best-in-class benchmark. That is not all. Very recently, we were declared to be a Great Place to Work, one of the best employers in Germany.
Which is a great result as we find in the management board, we are so proud of that. We keep investing into the satisfaction of our customers and employees, we are committed to our society because we want to win people's trust in Allianz and expand it. Allow me to elaborate on that for a moment. Give you an example. For example, we are the market leader in Turkey in property and casualty insurance. For more than a century, we have maintained close relations with our business partners and customers locally in that country. Therefore, it was a matter, of course, to help when provide emergency assistance in response to the earthquake, which devastated entire cities in the Turkish-Syrian border region in February 8. February 6.
A few hours after the disaster, we had eight ambulances on the road in the crisis-hit regions, medical personnel and intensive care facility on board. We delivered 43 containers fitted with heaters and provide warmth to the people there in order to help them when they were freezing. We provided EUR 6 million as a disaster relief for financial assistance. The aim is also to get schools back into operation as soon as possible. We want to do more than just provide emergency aid. We also want to provide emergency aid in a disaster scenarios. We want also to improve living conditions over the long term. For that reason, we've been actively working in combat climate change. We, for example, have undertaken to become climate neutral by 2030.
Already today, we have reduced our carbon emissions per employee by 57% versus 2019. Running contrary to a normalization in the travel patterns. We cover almost 90% of our global electricity needs through renewable energy sources, which is not easy in each country. Next year, we wanna reach the 100% finally. However, we do not intend to limit ourselves to merely using renewable energies, but are instead also actively advancing an expansion in these energy sources, including, for example, by investing into more than 100 wind and solar farms around the world. Another two wind farms were added last year. The output is comparable to that of a nuclear power plant. These investments show how opportunities can always be identified with great challenges, by the way.
That's why these so-called alternative investments, for example, has been bolstered us in a very challenging low interest rate environment. In terms of sustainability, there's always things to be done. Specifically in our core business, we can do more. Sustainability starts with us deciding to conserve resources and repair rather than replace at high cost. Clearly, repairs generally leave a significantly smaller carbon footprint, ladies and gentlemen, than a new procurement. Sustainable claims management is the key phrase here, particularly in our motor insurance area. The leverage effect is huge. In increasing repair rates in Europe by only increasing it by 2 percentage points, we could prevent almost 30,000 tons of CO2 emissions every year. This is why we are campaigning for the introduction of sustainability standards in auto repair shops and in the automotive industry.
Ladies and gentlemen, your Allianz, your company is a healthy organization. We are advocates for our customers and employees and the societies we operate in. Many people trust us. However, over the past two years, this trust has been put to the test. The past year has been marked for the management board, and for me personally, still by dealing with the events surrounding the Structured Alpha funds of Allianz Global Investors in the U.S. In less than 12 months following the start of the Department of Justice investigations, we agreed a settlement with the U.S authorities. We successfully reached a settlement agreement with all affected investors in the U.S. We paid our customers more than $5 billion as compensation for their losses, ultimately.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my and the entire management board's claim to safeguard your trust in Allianz and to restore it. For that reason, we rigorously work towards achieving fast and fair compensation for those affected by the Structured Alpha. Allianz's efforts in this regard also have been recognized by the U.S. authorities. Allianz is a financial service provider that operates on a global scale, and these occurrences do not deflect us from this aspiration. In order to maintain our presence on the U.S. markets on behalf of the customers of IMAGI, we have agreed a strategic partnership with Voya Investment Management. We have transferred a larger part of our asset management business in the U.S. to Voya from AllianzGI. In return, we are acquiring a 24% stake in the newly expanded U.S. asset management firm of Voya.
Allianz Global Investors also works as Voya's distribution partner, specifically for customers outside the U.S. This partnership is running really successfully. Now we would like to conclude the review work around the Structured Alpha funds matter. We have fairly compensated those affected. We have taken actions in term of personnel. Above all, we have enhanced our controls further. All this in close cooperation with the authorities, external consultants and our local management. Our cooperation and with the authorities, external authorities and with the German Federal Financial Supervisory in particular, has been remaining constructive and was designed for the well-being of our organization. Allianz is a organization that learns, and we will evolve, elevate the implementation of the manifold regulatory routes and being a compulsory exercise to a key discipline over the senior management, because an occurrence of Structured Alpha must never be repeated.
Despite the challenges I have just described, 2022 proved to be one of the most successful fiscal years in the history of our company. That is, you know, something of which we can be proud based on the background. Also this is the basis for looking forward into the future. Last year, I told you about our strategic direction. Simplicity at scale. That is, simplicity should be attained everywhere. We reported on how we will continue increasing the value of our enterprise by employing these levers by 2023. Our growth of the improvement of our profit margin and the more effective use of our capital. Today, I would like to place this approach in the context of a bit bigger picture. Let me go back briefly to 2015. I started my position of CEO of Allianz SE back then, an honor.
It was also a challenge because the task was to take Europe's biggest insurer into the future, and one of the biggest investors as well, into a digital and globalized tomorrow for our company. Into a future that was made more uncertain than ever due to the Eurozone crisis. Today, we can only say, oh, yeah, things can become even more challenging. The benchmark for success has been set high. Allianz is a worldwide financial services provider that has managed and supported customers, employees and shareholders since 1890. It has survived dictatorship, wars and economic crisis. Back then, just like today, it was anchored in place as solid as a rock. Conscious of this legacy, we, the board of management, developed the Renewal Agenda. Since then, it has been the engine that continuously drives us to new record results.
Our performance, ladies and gentlemen, that is not a coincidence. It follows a very concrete and detailed plan. Even though we have already accomplished many things, I believe, we believe that the exploiting Allianz's full potential still can go on. Let's look at the five dimensions of the Renewal Agenda to see where we're standing and what still needs to be done. The most important thing first, true customer centricity. We serve roughly 122 million direct customers worldwide. It is our aim to satisfy each and every one of those. Satisfied customers buy more and cancel their contracts less frequently, and they're willing to actively recommend to us to others. In order to achieve this goal, we had to transform Allianz into a data-driven and customer-driven enterprise, not only in pricing, but for every customer contact too.
For example, at the end of each telephone call, we give our customers the opportunity to rate our service based on the five-star logic. If this shows that we still haven't resolved the matter, we get back in touch and find a solution for a better logic for our customer. In Germany, our services has been given a top rating of 4.6 stars last year. However, we can still be better. We still have not succeeded in translating this satisfaction into greater customer growth. Specifically, not only in Germany, but that also applies to other key markets in Europe. To change that as soon as possible will be our claim and our ambition. Second. Digital by default. We have started a mammoth project that's gonna last many years. Some that, some of our only few who dare to do that.
This is the systematic simplification and renewal of our IT systems. By the way, the success of this endeavor is tangible to our customers daily. We are accessible via every channel all the time, whether by email, letter, over the phone, also via video, of course, or if preferred, by face-to-face contact with our agencies and partners. We often use fully automated processes to check customers claims for benefits under their coverage. For example, we do this in the private health insurance in Germany. You might not know, 70% of all invoices here are checked and paid out without any human intervention. The majority, this happens within less than 24 hours. That means our employees also benefit from our efforts. They can work productively both in our offices, but also from their homes. When they're on the go.
This proved to be an invaluable competitive edge during the pandemic. We could justifiably rest on that, we remain convinced that we have to do even better, and we can. It's above all the speed, efficiency, and reliability demonstrated in the implementation of new IT projects, which will prove critical to our future business success. Technology will be the core piece of our business. Unfortunately, we are still planning too complex and too expensive. The working partnership between IT and the technical departments has to be improved. We're doing fine. We are investing more than EUR 5 billion in our digital infrastructure every year. We are making expertise in IT a basic skill of every manager. We also continuously improve our partnerships and between our services and in all these segments.
This helps to continuously enhance our productivity, which you can also see in the cost rate of the P&C insurance for six years. Thirdly, technical excellence. We do not mean IT, but we mean the technical insurance technology. We have seen the effects of a world that is changing rapidly and fundamentally, and to put that into fair premiums. For example, the market standard risk maps cover only 40% of the damage caused by the catastrophic flooding in Germany, 2021. Our maps were twice as precise. This is a capability that becomes even more important because it's really a differentiator in terms of pricing, but also in customer advice. That is why this data needs to be made available widely for our customers. This is where the new direction of our P&C business with our corporate customer starts.
Far, the task of looking after these customers has been shared between the national subsidiaries and the Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, regardless of their turnover. In the future, all commercial customers with an insured sum in excess of EUR 10 million will be served through our global organization, Allianz Commercial, no matter if it's a family business or global player. This will enable customers to be addressed in a holistic basis while also creating the foundation for further growth. Fourth, growth engines. We are continually developing new growth markets, like in Africa. From the start of July onwards, following the establishment of a joint venture with Sanlam, we will together service 30 million customers and turning over EUR 3 billion each year. With this partnership, we can open the African market professionally.
With Allianz Direct and Allianz Partners, Allianz Direct, our European direct insurer, initially focused on the technical transformation of its insurance platform. Since last year, we are reaping the fruits of this work. We've reduced the cost per policy by 30% globally, even by 50% in Germany. That's why since the second half of the year, we successfully began growing again. Allianz Partners, our specialists for global assistance and reinsurance services through other platforms, had already shaken off the effects of the corona pandemic in 2021. Over the past year, it successfully increased its revenues in the areas of mobility, health, and travel by EUR 2 billion within one year, which is a great performance of our global market leader. We have also started developing a digital platform for claims management and motor insurance, focusing on Europe.
We have combined the expertise of three companies that we bought, ControlExpert, GT Motive, and the Innovation Group, so that we can offer our customers access to Europeans, Europe's largest car workshop network, for example, and to top-grade spare parts at fair prices. The use of artificial intelligence means we can assess claims even better and process them quicker than before. By doing so, we create an added value for our customers and dwell as the basis for further significant productivity claim gains, also for you as shareholders. We will also be offering these services beyond Allianz Group, thereby creating another growth area for our business. The fifth, the last, but one of the most important levers is our Inclusive Meritocracy. I began by talking about our investments into health of our organization.
I told you about our successes we have enjoyed regarding the satisfaction of our customers and employees. This aspect of the Renewal Agenda goes even further. Due to its size and importance, Allianz bears a responsibility to the entire society. In order to live up to that responsibility, we have to be making ourselves even more crisis proof. This is something that concerns not only the management board, but also the supervisory board. We have to prepare ourselves to cope with highly improbable risks and hold a considerable loss potential. Investors call us risks, these risks black swans. We have to look at these risks and also extreme scenarios. We have to ask ourselves, what is the worst case that could happen and how we can prepare ourselves for it?
The main lever is a culture that understands the high level of trust in every colleague, but also that relies on strong controls as two sides of the same coin. Ladies and gentlemen, the inspiration of the Renewal Agenda is to deliver superior service and performance in each of these five key areas. This is the reason why we work tirelessly to be merely not just good, but to be benchmark. We in the management board are conscious that we are demanding a great deal of Allianz and its people. However, in an environment in which the political, social, and economic parameters are becoming increasingly challenging, only the best companies can be successful over the long term. At the end of 2021, I presented our plans for the period up to 2024. This came with three specific targets. Let me repeat.
First of all, an annual growth of earnings per share of 5%-7%. Second, a minimum 13% return on equity. Third, a solvency ratio above 180%. Even if the environment in which we exist has become fundamentally tougher in the meantime, ladies and gentlemen, we remain unwaveringly committed to our goals. Our results for fiscal year 2022, our share buybacks and our dividend payments once again demonstrate the performance, capacity, and resilience of your Allianz. We also have set an ambitious target for the current fiscal year, and are planning to achieve an operating profit of EUR 14.2 billion ± EUR 1 billion, representing an increase of the approximately 6% planned previous year.
Dear shareholders, on behalf of the management, finally, I would like to thank our employees for their service and commitment for the great performance also in the last year. It is a great pleasure for me and for us to be part of that community. On behalf of the management board and all employees of Allianz, I also would like to say thank you, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, for your trust and for your willingness to continue supporting our enterprise. We are confident, I am confident that we will continue our success. Our company is in excellent shape and well prepared for the future with a strong team behind us and you at our side. Thank you cordially for listening, and now we look forward to receiving your questions.
Thank you very much for your report, Mr. Bäte. Ladies and gentlemen, at this point, I would like to announce the attendance figures. Currently, 44.43% of the statutory capital stock is represented at the annual general meeting, of which 173,906,796 votes or no par value shares are connected. This corresponds to a participant presence of 43.12% of the capital stock. In addition, we have received postal votes for a further 5,303,727 no par value shares, which corresponds to 1.23% of the share capital. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of the public part of the live broadcast of our annual general meeting.
At this point, I would like to say goodbye to all non-shareholders. From now on, only those shareholders of Allianz SE who have registered for the broadcast with their shareholder number and password in the online service will be able to follow the rest of the meeting.