Governance
AURELIUS is convinced that long-term and sustainable corporate success is only possible when carried out in conjunction with responsible corporate governance. This is an aspiration that is firmly anchored in AURELIUS’s corporate strategy.
Commitment to responsibility and values
The corporate governance approach includes a clear commitment to social responsibility and ethical values. AURELIUS stands for a well-lived corporate culture and an integrity that is clearly recognisable to the outside world.
We are proud to hold a strong reputation in industry for always conducting business fairly and in accordance with our corporate principles, our employee values and our collective commitment to integrity.
Responsible corporate governance
Our policy is to conduct all of our business activities in an honest and ethical manner. We pursue a zero-tolerance approach to bribery and corruption. We are also committed to acting professionally and with integrity, and to being fair in all our business dealings and relationships wherever we operate.
AURELIUS has identified data protection, independency and diversity of its Board as well as communication with its stakeholders as key governance issues. The corporate governance approach moreover includes overarching ethical principles, anti-corruption initiatives, measures against money laundering, an efficient whistleblowing approach, fair competition and a ban on lobbying and party donations. In addition, the company has established comprehensive insider trading guidelines.
In standard business practice, corporate culture means that corporate values are not only defined, but also implemented in a sustainable and consistent manner. For AURELIUS, one of the focal points is an appropriate risk culture with the focus topics (based on the risk assessments of BaFin and the FSB for the financial sector):
- leadership culture
- staff responsibilities
- open communication and critical dialogue
- appropriate incentive structures
Transparency initiative launched
For AURELIUS, good, responsible corporate governance involves transparency with all stakeholders. For this purpose, we launched a comprehensive transparency initiative in 2020 to improve our corporate governance, this is continuously reviewed and amended. In sum, the initiative includes the following core four points:
- change from the dualistic to the monistic performance system with a Board of Directors
- more independent staffing of the Supervisory Board, and additional committees will be formed
- increased detail and clustering of turnover and profit figures, and introduction of quarterly reporting
- conversion of Executive Board bonuses from virtual sub-participation bonuses to de facto participations