Whistleblowing Portal

Anyone can report. This includes but is not limited to our own employees, our customers/clients, suppliers and other business partners as well as the general public. Anyone who decides to report is generally referred to as “Whistleblower”.

Reports may cover potential compliance violations (which occurred or are very likely to occur) relating to, among others:

• Corruption/ Bribery
• Other white collar crime (fraud, embezzlement, etc.)
• Data Protection
• Antitrust/ Competition
• Insider Trading/ Market Manipulation
• Regulatory
• Anti-money laundering (AML)
• Sanctions
• Information Security
• Human Rights or other ESG aspects

Other topics that do not necessarily fit into any of the abovementioned categories or that defeat the object or the purpose of any underlying rules or regulations (statutory or internal) may be reported as well.

In addition to competence and performance, we place great emphasis on dealing fairly with our employees and business partners. This includes compliance with statutory regulations, with the company's internal Code of Conduct and the regulations resulting from it.

Behaviour or circumstances that do not align with our Code of Conduct could damage MEAG, or in extreme cases, even threaten the company's continued existence. By providing your information, you can make an important contribution to identifying financial or reputational risks at an early stage, thereby preventing losses.

The MEAG Whistleblowing portal can be found here: MEAG Whistleblowing Portal

You can choose to report to the Compliance department or the group wide MEAG Ombudsperson. Your report will only be visible for those compliance functions with whom you want to share the information.

In addition to the MEAG Whistleblowing Portal, individuals may of course also reach out by post, by internal mail or by e-mail to MEAG’s Compliance department at:

MEAG MUNICH ERGO AssetManagement GmbH

Legal, Regulatory & Compliance
Am Münchner Tor 1
80805 München
Email: Whistleblowing@meag.com

In case of personal notification, please make an appointment in advance via e-mail.

 

Markus Brinkmann  is MEAG’s group wide Ombudsperson. He can be contacted by telephone, post or e-mail (via your office or private PC):

Markus Brinkmann
Partner, Leiter Forensic, Risk & Compliance, CFE
BDO AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
Fuhlentwiete 12
20355 Hamburg, Germany

In addition, he can be reached from the countries below toll-free on the numbers indicated, which are reserved for his activity as ombudsman:

• Germany: 0800-66 45 89 5
• USA: 866-77 85 03 0
• Canada: 866-65 65 14 5 (direct dial)
• UK: 0808-23 89 57 7
• China (Beijing and Shanghai): Beijing: 10-800-712-2617
• Shanghai: 10-800-120-2617 
• Singapore: 800-12 05 333 
• Poland: 00-800-12 13 62 9
• Mexico: 001866-38 38 05 2

From all other countries the ombudsman can be reached on the following number (calls charged at normal rates): 0049-40 33 47 53 74 35

The ombudsman can be contacted from 9.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. CET. Should he be temporarily unavailable between the above times, you may leave a message on his voicemail.

Email: ombudsmann.mr@bdo.de

Finally, MEAG employees who become aware or are suspicious of circumstances relating to compliance may first refer these within their immediate work environment, in particular to their line managers or their HR department. The data protection officer, who is bound to maintain confidentiality, is also available insofar as the protection of personal data is concerned.  

Any report is appreciated and retaliation is not to be feared. We encourage you to use the above contacts. In addition, anyone may report potential compliance violations to the respective competent authorities in their local jurisdiction.

The detailed process steps are described on the Whistlebowing Portal.

The input mask is available in German and English. The text input can of course be done in another language. It is free of charge and can be accessed from anywhere in the world and at any time.

You will be guided through the reporting process in five steps, including a categorisation of the reported topic and selection of the compliance function you would like to report to. The incident can be reported in a free text field (up to 5,000 characters) or via upload of a file (up to 5MB). The Whistleblower Portal also allows a set-up of a protected mailbox function (“postbox”) which allows the responsible compliance function to contact you in case there are any questions.

The compliance function will follow up on your report, i.e. review the information and where required commence an investigation.

Provided you have chosen to include a communication channel via which the responsible compliance function can contact you (e.g. via a protected mailbox function within the Whistleblowing Portal), you will also receive an acknowledgment of receipt of your report within seven days and further feedback no later than three months following your report.

We therefore encourage you to set up the protected mailbox function within the Whistleblowing Portal as this will also allow the responsible compliance function to contact you in case there are any questions.

Yes, your report is confidential!

You can choose to report anonymously or by name.

Should you decide to give your name, we guarantee that your identity will only be disclosed to those persons directly concerned with processing the case. Once processing of the case has been concluded, your personal data will be deleted again.

Either way, confidentiality and the protection of you as a Whistleblower is the top priority and guiding principle of our Whistleblowing system and all reports will be handled on a strict “need to know” basis. Your report will only be visible for those compliance functions with whom you want to share the information.

The principle of the Whistleblowing Portal is to protect the Whistleblower's identity. The system's anonymity protection function is certified and can be verified by you at any time.

Encryption and other special security methods ensure that your report remains anonymous at all times. At no time during the process will you be asked for personal information.

The person in charge of your report will contact you via a secured postbox to provide information about the status of your report or to ask further questions if certain details need to be clarified - your anonymity will be always protected during this process.

No!

As long as you had reasonable grounds to believe that the information reported was true at the time of your report, you may not suffer any retaliation as a consequence for your report and any attempted retaliation would in itself be considered a severe compliance violation. If you feel that you are being intimidated or retaliated against as a result of your report, please contact the Whistleblower Portal. Such intimidation or retaliation will also be reviewed and, if appropriate, further investigated in accordance with the procedures described above.

Vice versa, suspecting another person of a compliance violation may have serious consequences for those implicated. For that reason, the Whistleblower Portal is to be used responsibly. Whistleblowers are encouraged to only provide information whose correctness they are convinced about to the best of their knowledge and belief. If you deliberately make a false report, this would also qualify as a severe compliance violation and may have serious consequences under criminal and labour law.