Principal® Named One of the 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere

Recognizing Principal as a leader in integrity, compliance, and ethical leadership
Mar 11, 2025 10:30 AM ET
Principal Financial Group logo.

DES MOINES, Iowa, March 11, 2025 /3BL/ Principal Financial Group® has been recognized as one of the 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. This marks the 14th time Principal has received this prestigious honor, recognizing its dedication to ethical leadership and corporate responsibility.

“Ethical business practices are fundamental to garnering trust with customers and contribute to our long-term success,” said Deanna Strable, president and CEO of Principal. “We are honored to be named as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies®. By consistently doing what’s right, we not only drive our success but also deepen the trust we build with our clients and communities. This recognition reflects our commitment to integrity, governance, and ethical business practices in our unwavering pursuit to help more people and businesses access financial security.”

Inclusion in the 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies® list underscores continued efforts by Principal to foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and trust. Through strong governance, compliance programs, and employee engagement initiatives, Principal ensures ethical decision-making is embedded in its operations worldwide.

Principal joins 136 companies spanning 19 countries and 44 industries worldwide. The 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies® honorees outperformed a comparable index of global companies by 7.8 percentage points from January 2020 to January 2025.

“Congratulations to Principal Financial Group for achieving recognition as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies®. Behind this honor is a true dedication and a commitment to advancing business integrity. This approach is good for business – employees and other stakeholders value companies that prioritize the kinds of practices we measure with our process,” said Erica Salmon Byrne, Ethisphere’s Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Chair.

Methodology & Scoring

The World's Most Ethical Companies assessment is grounded in Ethisphere's proprietary Ethics Quotient®, which requires companies to provide more than 240 different proof points on practices that support robust ethics and compliance; governance; a culture of ethics; environmental and social impact; and initiatives that support a strong value chain. That data undergoes further qualitative analysis by our panel of experts who spend thousands of hours vetting and evaluating each year's group of applicants. This process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify best-in-class ethics and compliance practices from organizations across industries and from around the world.

About Principal Financial Group®

Principal Financial Group® (Nasdaq: PFG) is a global financial company with nearly 20,000 employees1 passionate about improving the wealth and well-being of people and businesses. In business for 145 years, we’re helping approximately 70 million customers1 plan, protect, invest, and retire, while working to support the communities where we do business. Learn more about Principal and our commitment to building a better future at principal.com.

1 As of December 31, 2024

About Ethisphere

Ethisphere is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that strengthen corporate brands, build trust in the marketplace, and deliver business success. Companies turn ethics, compliance, and culture into a business advantage by leveraging Ethisphere’s data-driven program and culture assessments featuring the latest guidance and the practices of hundreds of global organizations across the 8 pillars of an ethical culture, and 240+ ethics, compliance, social, and governance data points delivered through a proprietary software platform. Ethisphere also honors superior integrity programs through World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition, brings together a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and advances ethical business practices through the Global Ethics Summit, Ethisphere Magazine and the Ethicast podcast. For more information, visit https://ethisphere.com

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Insurance products issued by Principal National Life Insurance Co (except in NY) and Principal Life Insurance Company®. Plan administrative services offered by Principal Life. Principal Funds, Inc. is distributed by Principal Funds Distributor, Inc. Securities offered through Principal Securities, Inc., member SIPC and/or independent broker/dealers. Referenced companies are members of the Principal Financial Group®, Des Moines, IA 50392.​ ©2025 Principal Financial Services, Inc.

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