Message from the Chairman

Cheng-chiu Tsai Chairman of Cathay Century Insurance Cheng-chiu Tsai

COVID-19 continued to affect the world in 2021. Every industry faced drastic changes following changes in custom- ers' consumption patterns and lifestyles. Zero-contact issues arose from anti-epidemic measures, sparking fiercer competi- tion within the insurance industry, a sector that requires frequent contact with people. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 also made citizens more aware of risk transfers and prompted them to better protect themselves by buying insurance. As a result, insurance companies successively launched new products to meet customer needs and reduce the impact of the pandemic.

Facing the rapid and multiple changes in the market and competitive environment, Cathay Century Insurance upholds the business principle of "equal emphasis on quality and quantity," initiating a series of actions to comprehensively enhance its competitiveness, including activating its organizational response mechanism, strengthen-ing professional capabilities, and optimizing digital services. Thanks to the concerted efforts of all of our employees, Cathay Century Insurance generated US$25.735 billion in premium income, an increase of 11.6%. Our market share was 12.4%, up 0.1% from 2020, placing us firmly in second place within the industry.

We won three Gold and five Silver Awards among the Insurance Excellence Award and a National Brand Yushan Award - Best Product Category, the first of its kind in Taiwan.

With a steady financial structure and rigorous risk management, Cathay Century Insurance won the recognition of international credit rating agencies with a "twAA+" from Taiwan Ratings, "A-" from S&P, "A2" rating from Moody's, and "A" rating from AM Best. We also won three Gold and five Silver Awards among the Insurance Excellence Award and a National Brand Yushan Award - Best Product Category, the first of its kind in Taiwan. While pursuing maximum effciency, we adhere to a "customer-oriented" service attitude, enabling customers to feel our thoughtfulness and value in every part of the service they received. For this reason, Cathay Century Insurance has been ranked in the top 20% in the FSC's Fair Customer Treatment Principles Evaluation for two consecutive years.

Cathay Insurance (Vietnam) accelerate its digital transformation, launching the "Smart Agent Go" app for insurance sales agents to improve their service effciency.

We also put in a huge amount of effort in managing overseas markets. In 2021, Cathay Insurance (Vietnam) contin- ued to operate steadily and expand its business organization and concurrently accelerate its digital transformation, launch- ing the "Smart Agent Go" app for insurance sales agents to improve their service effciency. We also developed an event-based web page, which helps customers to better understand insurance products, and gave priority to providing convenient digital services for customers, which was why in 2021, we also reported a 14.7% double-digi growth for our premium income despite the severe outbreak of COVID-19 in Vietnam. Cathay Insurance (China) has vigorously developed its internet services and continued to generate profit ever since its strategic partnership with the Ant Group. In the future, we will continue to strengthen our overseas operations and digital transformation to expand market scale and stabilize profits.

Cathay Century Insurance has successively obtained EPA's Carbon Label and Carbon Reduction Label in the past two years, making us the first dual-certified non-life insurance company.

In addition to the global impact of COVID-19, recent climate changes have also led to the recurrence of natural disasters around the world. In response, we used our core competency in insurance to gradually move towards zero-car- bon operations, continued to invest in the innovation and promotion of green products, established a low-carbon process for digital services, developed smart insurance tools for sales agents, and also took the lead in offering a one-of-a-kind e-commerce insurance platform, providing customers with fragmented took the lead in offering and one-stop shopping service experience. Meanwhile, Cathay Century Insurance also utilized its expertise in loss prevention, assisting enterprises in reducing the frequency and magnitude of accidental disasters, and entering campus grounds to promote a series of accident-free activities to raise public risk awareness. These activities show that we put "people first" during the steady operation of our businesses, actively address environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues among other corporate social responsibility issues, and promote the sustainable development of the company. Our first "Corporate Sustainability Report" was published in 2021, which won us the title of being the best-performing insurance company in Taiwan with a "Silver Award" in the Sustainability Reporting Category of the "Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Awards (TCSA)." In addition, Cathay Century Insurance has successively obtained EPA's Carbon Label and Carbon Reduction Label in the past two years, making us the first dual-certified non-life insurance company.

Looking forward to 2022, we will continue to focus on the promotion of diversification and digital developments based on our business motto of "Dual Transformation and Digital Leadership", and while strengthening our organizational performance, also seek optimization and innovation in our products, services, and marketing activities so that customers can perceive the novelty, trustworthiness, and warmth of our contact points, and eventually rank us as the most recom- mended non-life insurer.

Lastly, on behalf of my colleagues, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the longstanding support and assistance of the competent authorities and our customers.