Aviva 2013 Annual Report Download - page 64

Aviva plc
Annual report and accounts 2013
62
Chairman’s governance letter
Dear shareholder
The role of the Board is to set the tone from the top
on the Group’s governance, culture and values.
John McFarlane
Chairman
The Board ensures through its oversight that the
Group’s values are adhered to in everything we
do. We care about our customers and endeavour
to ensure that we provide them with products
that meet their needs and that their dealings
with us are undertaken in an efcient, simple
and fair manner.
For the Board and Board committees this
means ensuring we have high standards of
internal control and risk management; that we
comply with all relevant laws and regulations;
that we run our businesses with integrity; that we
use our capital efciently; that we deliver on our
strategy; and that we always put our customers
rst. If we can be consistent in all of these areas
we will be able to deliver strong, sustainable
returns to our shareholders.
Our values were in action during the year when
we found evidence of late allocation of trades on
a number of funds within Aviva Investors. The
Audit Committee led a thorough investigation
of the issue and reviewed the potential nancial
impact on the investors in the funds, and has
agreed and monitored the implementation of
measures to improve the controls to prevent
a reoccurrence. We engaged the relevant
authorities at an early stage and have kept them
fully apprised of the issue. We are taking steps
to ensure that customers will not ultimately be
disadvantaged as a result of these breaches of
the dealing policy.
Key activities during 2013
Board
The Board has delegated greater authority to its
committees during 2013, including expanding
the remit of what is now the Governance
Committee, and now receives more extensive
reporting from the committees. This has allowed
the Board to concentrate more on strategy;
nancial strength and performance; risk
management; internal controls and compliance;
and succession planning. I believe the Board
and management have made good progress
in achieving the turnaround aims we set at
the beginning of the year. We have agreed a
realistic and achievable strategy and plan for
the coming years.
Audit Committee
The Audit Committee has continued to monitor
the integrity of the Company’s nancial
statements; the system of internal controls and
issues arising through internal audits. It has an
open and transparent relationship with the
Company’s auditor. One area of focus for the
committee throughout the year has been the
oversight of the project to ‘raise the bar’ on the
internal control environment and the committee
is satised that good progress is being made.
Glyn Barker, the committee chairman, also
commissioned an external evaluation of the
quality and effectiveness of the Group’s internal
audit function and the committee. The signicant
issues discussed by the committee during the year
are disclosed in the Audit Committee report in
the annual report and accounts in line with the
new requirements in the UK Corporate
Governance Code.
Governance Committee
During the year we reviewed the purpose and
responsibilities of the Corporate Responsibility
Committee and decided to signicantly expand
its remit. It has been renamed the Governance
Committee and now covers the following areas:
§Shareholder (Governance);
§Regulatory and Government;
§Reputation;
§Customer; and
§People and Community.
Board composition
in 2013
1 Chairman
2 Executive directors
8 Non-executive directors
Balance of executive and
non-executive directors
6 UK
2 US
3 Australasian
Nationalities of
Board members