Aflac Named a World's Most Ethical Company for 8th Consecutive Year

COLUMBUS, Ga., March 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac, the leading provider of voluntary insurance in the United States and a 2013 FORTUNE Blue Ribbon Company, has been named to the Ethisphere Institute's 2014 list of World's Most Ethical Companies. It is the eighth consecutive year that Aflac has been included on this list. Aflac is the only insurance company to have appeared on Ethisphere's World's Most Ethical Companies list every year since the inception of the award in 2007.

"Appearing on Ethisphere's World's Most Ethical Company list for the 8th consecutive year validates our belief that ethical practices are essential to business success," Aflac Chairman and CEO Dan Amos said. "The foundation of our relationship with customers is trust; trust that we will pay claims quickly during times of need. This honor reinforces the faith that customers and shareholders place in our commitment to serve them with integrity."

"Aflac has been listed as a World's Most Ethical Company for eight years running which demonstrates their commitment to doing business ethically and with integrity," said the Ethisphere Institute's Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Erblich. "Their leadership team clearly understands the correlation between trust and better business practices which is why we are excited to recognize them for, among other things, displaying clear leadership in reputation, innovation and operating a robust ethics and compliance program with excellent tone from the top. We congratulate everyone at Aflac for this extraordinary achievement."

The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient™ framework. The Ethics Quotient framework has been developed over years of effort to provide a means to assess an organization's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics. The Ethics Quotient framework and methodology was determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere's network of thought leaders and from the World's Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.

Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (25%), reputation, leadership and innovation (20%), governance (10%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (25%) and culture of ethics (20%).

­­The full list of the 2014 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.

ABOUT AFLAC
When a policyholder gets sick or hurt, Aflac pays cash benefits fast. For nearly six decades, Aflac insurance policies have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. In the United States, Aflac is the leading provider of voluntary insurance. In Japan, Aflac is the number one life insurance company in terms of individual policies in force. Aflac individual and group insurance products help provide protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. For eight consecutive years, Aflac has been recognized by Ethisphere magazine as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. In 2014, FORTUNE magazine recognized Aflac as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America for the 16th consecutive year. Also, in 2014, FORTUNE magazine included Aflac on its list of Most Admired Companies for the 13th time, ranking the company number one in the life and health insurance category. Aflac Incorporated is a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFL. To find out more about Aflac, visit aflac.com or espanol.aflac.com.

ABOUT THE ETHISPHERE INSTITUTE 
The Ethisphere® Institute is an independent center of research, best practices and thought leadership that promotes best practices in corporate ethics and compliance and enables organizations to improve governance, mitigate risk, and enhance relationships with employees, business partners, investors and the broad regulatory community. Ethisphere evaluates and benchmarks compliance and governance programs, honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies'™ recognition program, and publishes Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs that include: Ethics Inside® Certification, Compliance Leader Verification™ and Anti-Corruption Program Verification™.

Media contact:
Laura Kane, 706.596.3493 or [email protected]
Jon Sullivan, 706.763.4813 or [email protected]

Analyst and investor contact - Robin Y. Wilkey, 706.596.3264 or 800.235.2667, FAX: 706.324.6330, or [email protected]

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SOURCE Aflac