AA1000 (AccountAbility1000): a standard developed by the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability
(ISEA) to promote the adoption of CSR principles, thus providing stakeholders
with quality assurance in accounting, auditing and social and ethical reporting.
ANIA: Italian Association of Insurances Companies (Associazione Nazionale fra le Imprese Assicuratrici).
Asset Management: the business of managing third party (and other) financial investments.
Benchmark: an objective reference parameter used to evaluate company performance in relation to analogous companies.
Best practice: the most significant experiences or those achieving the best results which are adopted in similar contexts.
Broker: an insurance or reinsurance broker whose profession entails creating direct
contacts between an insurance or reinsurance company, with whom he has no binding
commitments, and people who intend to draw on his services to obtain risk coverage.
He helps determine the content of contracts and where necessary participate in
their management and execution.
Captive company: company which provides its products and services to companies in its group.
Collision damage waiver: policy that covers accidental damage to the insured vehicle.
Combined ratio: overall costs for claims and expenses expressed as a percentage of the value of earned premiums for the financial year. The combined ratio is equal to the sum of the expense ratio and loss ratio.
CONFINDUSTRIA: Confederation of Italian Industry representing Italian companies.
Consolidated Financial Statements: a document that shows the financial and asset status, economic results and variations in the shareholders’ equity of a group of companies considered as a single economic body. It derives from combining the financial statements of the companies belonging to a group, net of amounts relating to internal group operations.
Consolidation Area: a group of companies brought together by means of the “integral consolidation” method and included in the Consolidated Financial Statements.
Core business: the main area of business for a company operating in many fields.
Core competence: competence critical to the development and success of a company.
Corporate Centre: The body of the Group that is responsible for managing, coordinating and controlling activities within the scope of the general guidelines defined by the Parent Company Board of Directors.
Corporate Governance: a governance system encompassing various bodies (levels, composition, competence, etc.) and the rules that govern the relations between them (right to vote, delegation of powers, etc.).
Credit rating: credit evaluation by quantifying the likelihood of a person’s/company’s insolvency.
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility): "Companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. […] Being socially responsible means not only fulfilling legal expectations, but also going beyond compliance and investing ‘more’ into human capital, the environment and the relations with stakeholders". (Source: “Promoting a European framework for Corporate Social Responsibility” - the European Commission’s Green Paper).
Customer satisfaction: a process of knowing clients’ perceptions and expectations concerning a service or product. It is used to compare in relative terms the value of a particular service offered to the public.
Customer service: a group of services provided to the client.
The above definitions are planned to offer our web site users a general, courtesy
explanation: they are not meant to be used in contractual nor legal contexts.
