Aflac Named to Ethisphere's World's Most Ethical Companies List

Company Celebrates Nine Consecutive Years on Prestigious List

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Mar 09, 2015, 12:00 ET

COLUMBUS, Ga., March 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac, the leading provider of voluntary insurance at the work site in the United States and one of FORTUNE's 2014 Blue Ribbon companies, today announced that it has been named to the Ethisphere Institute's 2015 list of World's Most Ethical Companies. This marks the ninth consecutive year that Aflac has appeared on this prestigious list, making them the only insurance company to appear every year since the inception of the award.

Aflac Logo.

"We are very pleased to appear on Ethisphere's list for a ninth consecutive year," Aflac Chairman and CEO Dan Amos said. "As a business that sells a promise to our customers that we will be there for them in their times of need, it is reassuring to our company and our policyholders that the standard-bearers on corporate ethics believe Aflac behaves with integrity and ethics."

"The World's Most Ethical Companies embrace the correlation between ethical business practice and improved company performance. These companies use ethics as a means to further define their industry leadership and understand that creating an ethical culture and earning the World's Most Ethical Companies recognition involves more than just an outward-facing message or a handful of senior executives saying the right thing," said Ethisphere's Chief Executive Officer Timothy Erblich. "Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a global workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at Aflac for this extraordinary achievement."

"Ethisphere challenges companies to prioritize ethics with a rigorous survey that touches upon everything from corporate giving to compliance and governance," Aflac Executive Vice President and General Counsel Audrey Boone Tillman said. "It provides a strong barometer with which to gauge our company's approach to ethics, so we are very proud to have made this list again in 2015."

The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient™ (EQ) framework developed over years of research 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 EQ framework and methodology is 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 (35%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%), culture of ethics (20%), governance (15%) and leadership, and innovation and reputation (10%).

The full list of the 2015 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 at the work site. Through its trailblazing One Day Pay^SM initiative, Aflac U.S. can receive, process, approve and disburse payment for eligible claims in one business day. In Japan, Aflac is a leading provider of medical and cancer insurance and insures 1 in 4 households. Aflac individual and group insurance products help provide protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. For nine consecutive years, Aflac has been recognized by Ethisphere magazine as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. In 2015, Fortune magazine recognized Aflac as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America for the 17^th consecutive year. Also, in 2015, Fortune magazine included Aflac on its list of Most Admired Companies for the 14th time, ranking the company No. 1 in innovation for the insurance, life and health 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 and One Day Pay^SM, visit aflac.com or espanol.aflac.com.

ABOUT THE ETHISPHERE INSTITUTE
The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies^® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with the publication of Ethisphere Magazine and The World's Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs. More information about Ethisphere can be found at http://ethisphere.com.

Media contact – 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]

Ethisphere Media Contact - Clea Nabozny, 480.397.2658 or [email protected]

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SOURCE Aflac