ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (ABN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders and receipt holders, I hereby declare today's meeting open. A very warm welcome to everyone at this fully online Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. On behalf of the Supervisory Board, we have the whole Board with us Arjen Dorland, Deputy Chair of the Supervisory Board and Chair of the Remuneration Committee; Tjalling Tiemstra, Chair of the Audit Committee; Jurgen Stegmann, Chair of the Risk and Capital Committee, Laetitia Griffith, Michiel Lap and [indiscernible] , Mariken Tannemaat and myself, Tom de Swaan, Chair of the Supervisory Board. The whole Executive Board is also with us today, Robert Swaak, CEO; Tanja Cuppen, Chief Risk Officer; Christian Bornfeld, Chief of Innovation and Technology Officer; and Annemieke Roest, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Robert Swaak, myself and the Secretary of the company are physically present at the location. Hanneke Dorsman will be the Secretary for today's meeting. Lars Kramer, [indiscernible] as the new CFO of ABN AMRO, he's with us today online and will be introducing himself later. And for E&Y, our auditor, we have Wolter Smit also present online. For the employee council, we have Arlene Bosman with us also via video link. The notary Clumpkens of [indiscernible] Notarissen is with us today in order to ensure that the voting takes place correctly. And before we embark, ladies and gentlemen, on the agenda for today's meeting, I would just like to take a moment to talk about events of last Monday. On Monday, the public prosecutor and ABN AMRO announced that the bank had accepted a settlement offer from the Dutch prosecution service in connection with shortcomings in our role as gatekeeper on money laundering matters. And as part of that settlement, ABN AMRO has paid EUR 480 million. The public prosecutor identified a number of shortcomings in the period of 2014 to 2020, and some of them are grave ones. This means that the bank's customers, in some cases, were able to abuse ABN AMRO bank accounts. That is a very grave matter. ABN AMRO did not fulfill its task as gatekeeper to a high enough standard that is unacceptable. This is distressing because society has expectations from the bank and expects us to play a role as gatekeeper and we have not been able to satisfy those expectations. We realize that this has damaged confidence in ABN AMRO, and this touches us very deeply. This is not what ABN AMRO is about. We want to be a bank which makes a positive contribution to society now and also in the future. In many occasions in the past, the bank has identified shortcomings in our fulfillment of the gatekeeper's role. And programs have been launched in various parts of the bank in order to improve the situation. I have no doubt that ABN AMRO is currently doing everything possible to achieve what everyone expects from us. That is to say every day embarking in the battle for a safer society and a financial system, which can live up to the highest standards. Well, I could imagine there will be questions about the settlement. With the public prosecute Service, and you'll have the opportunity for questions under agenda Item 2G. Now I'd like to ask you to bear with me for a number of practical announcements. In order to minimize health risks, ABN AMRO has decided to have a fully online Annual General Meeting of Shareholders today in accordance with emergency legislation currently in force. This means that there are no visitors, shareholders or receipt holders present physically today. Another measure is that you can cast your votes in writing or electronically. The meeting will take place in Dutch and as normal, is being sent out live as a webcast in both Dutch and English on the ABN AMRO website. The whole meeting is being sound recorded for managing purposes. The minutes of the meeting will be available on the ABN AMRO website no later than the 20th of July 2021, and we'll be open for comments for a 3-month period. I conclude that the shareholders and receipt holders were invited to the meeting in accordance with the law and the Articles of Association that the meeting can, therefore, take legally valid decisions, and that share and receipt holders have not themselves presented any topics for today's agenda. I'll now tell you something about how today's meeting will be taken place. You received the agenda in the notice convening the meeting. A number of agenda items are broken down into several sections, for example, agenda item 2. What we will do is go through all the items and presentations for each agenda item in succession. And at the end of the presentations, we will answer any questions regarding all those presentations together. On agenda Item 2. This means we will deal with questions after the presentation by E&Y. Agenda Item 2E is an advisory voting item, which means that we'll also give you opportunities to ask questions on agenda item 2E. And as much as they deal with the remuneration report for 2020. You will have -- therefore, have a clear, good overview to enable the meeting to run coherently. All shareholders and receipt holders who registered on time for today's meeting are invited to ask questions and make comments. Prior to today's meeting, we received a lot of questions sent in. And it goes without saying that we will be happy to respond to them in the course of today's meeting. At the same time, we have to keep an eye on the clock to make sure everyone can speak if they wish. We invite you, first of all, to restrict yourself to 3 questions per person per agenda item. If you want to ask a question using the chat in today's meeting, please ask your question as swiftly as possible. And we will attach each incoming question to the corresponding agenda item as much as possible. More general questions will be dealt with at the end of the meeting. Where the practicalities of the meeting require it, we will bundle questions on -- by topic or some will also be answered bilaterally after the meeting concludes. While answering questions on each agenda item, we will first deal with the questions sent in, in advance. After that, we will go through the questions asked on the chart in the course of the meeting. Finally, receipt holders who asked in advance of the meeting are able to speak live at today's meeting. And they can ask follow-up questions using the telephone connection. Prior to this meeting, these participants were sent instructions to doing this. Our request to these people is as follows; if you have any follow-up questions, please phone on the telephone number given to you in due time, and certainly, no later than the relevant agenda item has begun. Participants can cast their vote any time during the meeting. As you see, voting is already open. And you will be able to continue voting until the end of agenda item 8, which is the last agenda item requiring voting. Voting results will therefore only be shown at the very end of the meeting. As you've seen on our press report and website, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board have decided that the agenda item on granting discharge to members of both boards should be scrapped from the agenda. You therefore cannot vote on those agenda items. Now this is a virtual online meeting. And that's one reason why most shareholders and certificate holders have already sent in their voting instructions. Now the important new information regarding the public prosecution service, as I mentioned earlier, was obviously came through after they had already cast their votes. That is why we decided that this agenda item should not be on the agenda today. I'll come on to that at a later stage. This brings us to the end of agenda item 1. We now have the next item on the agenda 2A, the annual report of the Executive Board. And here, I'll give the floor to Robert Swaak. Please go ahead, Robert.

[Interpreted] Yes. Thank you, Chairman. Now on behalf of the Executive Committee, I'll be running you through our activities and results in the past year. Well, it was a lively year dominated by COVID. But it was also a year in which we made important choices regarding the future. Firstly, I'd like to come back to Monday's announcement. ABN AMRO has accepted a settlement offer from the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, EUR 480 million has been paid because of shortcomings in our performance of our duties as gatekeeper and in preventing money laundering. We did not do it well enough. And our customers and the general public expect better from us. We take full responsibility for this very distressing situation. There is more than $19,000 and this is not what we wish to achieve every day. We want to be a bank which makes a positive contribution to society now and in the future. As gatekeeping activities have been centralized, we have carried out long-term structural changes we've guided from the public prosecutors and the Dutch National Bank. And I have no doubt that we're currently doing everything we can to fulfill everyone's expectations of us. Every day, we renew the struggle for a more secure society and a financial system, which can meet the highest requirements. Now coming back to 2020. Last year was a challenge. It was -- but it was also a very exciting time at which to start work as CEO. When I joined this position, the bank already had a strong capital position, strong liquidity and strong market position. And with all the events of the past year, I worked together with the ASCO and ASPO and set 4 clear priorities. One is navigating the bank through COVID-19, another is a strategy review. Another is our license to operate and find new banks culture. Now I'd like to start off by saying that I am proud, I am proud of our good bank and above all of how the staff have got us through the crisis. 95% of the staff have been working from home since last March, and most customer relations take place on video link. Now this is possible because of all our staff's great commitment and energy. Last year, there's about 90,000 customers who enjoyed our support, including payment delays and so on to help them cope with difficulties, and we have set up a number of bridging loans for companies. I'll tell you more about our strategy review in due course. But first, I'd like to talk about our license to operate and our culture, which are priorities. We want customer needs to be at the heart of the matter. We want to think and act from considering the joint interests. Those are the choices we make. And these are the things we need to do in order for our bank to shoulder its responsibilities and create long-term value for all our stakeholders. Now the strategy review, including the CIB review was one of our priorities. More than ever before, last year showed that our purpose, banking better for generations to come is inspiring our staff. We got good presence in all banking sectors. This is a unique range of products. We've had conversations with great many stakeholders, and this has strengthened the bank's position. But I also got a clear message, the strategy needs to be tightened up further. Our position wasn't always as clear as it might have been either. The strategy reviews position was to start with building on the strong foundations and choices already made back in 2018. In order to bring the bank further into the future in a rapidly changing world. Well, we made clear choices. We want to be a personal bank in the digital age, serving our customers markets where we have scale and presence. And we're working also in terms of sustainability, making the bank simpler and more efficient. All of this rooted in a culture of shouldering our own responsibilities. These clear choices gave us a firm basis on which to grow in a number of segments to costs and enhance profitability and, of course, to get a return on capital for our shareholders wherever possible. Let me run through some of those changes. Well, in order to help service customers in the segments where we have presence and scale deals with a matter of focusing ourselves on Europe and the Netherlands -- Northwest Europe and the Netherlands. We said that we would be withdrawing from all corporate banking activities outside Europe, apart from clearing. In the Netherlands, we want to build on our existing strong presence for SMEs, for example, by having money Union at present. In addition, we're investing in the Met office services in order to speed services up, and we have leadership positions in all client segments, which means we can have a life cycle proposal for entrepreneurs and businesses in the Netherlands and in Northwestern Europe. So what do we mean by a personal bank in a digital age? Well, in the digital age, a great deal of things are possible only digitally. Customers expect simple and perfect digital solutions to their problems in a single channel. This means that we can play to the bank's existing strengths. We have our personal relationship and trust with our customers. We want to be there for our customers when they need us with expert, personal advice for them. This is essential in order to keep our bank relevant. Our second choice is sustainability. In the last year, we've seen the sustainability is of increasing commercial importance to the bank for all our customers in the Netherlands and Northwest Europe, we are leading in circular growth and enhanced sustainability activities as a social impact. We are making sure that sustainability is rooted in all our segments. And as a bank, we are taking a leadership role in the sustainability movement. The third choice is making the bank simpler and more efficient. We will be serving our customers with digital first as a principle, and we will be a future-proof bank by computerizing our processes further. We also continue to centralize our activities and reduce red tape. This means we'll have more time available for focusing on our customers. In addition, we'll also be in a position in the coming 4 years to keep costs down to the tune of EUR 4.7 billion. This strategy should lead us to an 8% result equity in 2024. But as long as interest rates remain so low, our income flows will remain threatened. Before I tell you a bit more about the financial side of things, I'd like to run quickly through the Dutch economy, our main market. The last year, of course, has been the COVID crisis. And here, once again, the Netherlands was able to show a strong economy. We've got broad, strong support for business from the government, and that meant that we suffered much fewer blows in some other European countries. That does not alter the fact that COVID is having a very hard impact in some sectors. Regarding 2020, we had a small loss, EUR 45 million. We, therefore, did not achieve our targets for 2020, particularly because of increased credits. Our rent income is still low because interest rates remain so low, but also because we are building down our non-core activities. Costs remained under control last year, and we met our target for cost cutting in 2025, EUR 0.1 billion. Across the whole of 2020, our credit provisions were present throughout because of 3 major client losses and the corona crisis, et cetera. Now these are a problem. And in recent years, we have taken a -- in the last year, we've taken the necessary action to strengthen our position. I'm pleased to say that we remain a very capital strong bank, we can cope with a blow or 2. Regarding dividend policy, 50% of profit to be paid out means that this year, sadly, we will not be able to pay a dividend because we made a loss. And as I said, the final dividend for 2019 last year was also not paid out accordance to our guidelines. This is EUR 639 million is still set aside. Now because of our strong capital position, we have a good starting position to make the payment in due course when circumstances permit. Now cutting down on CIB noncore. This also has an impact on our risk profile. You can see that clearly in this slide now on the screen. Apart from noncore, trading profitability in 2020 was 5.4%. I'm delighted to see the progress in dismantling our portfolio. Last week, we sold some of trade commodity finance. At the end of this year, we're expecting something like 60% of our portfolio to have been dismantled. Regarding our nonfinancial targets. Well, again, this year, we've got good progress to report. Diversity is a very important topic, as I see it, getting more women into senior management where we've got 30% now. Sustainability again has been rewarded with a good score on the Downtown Sustainability Index. I'm pleased to see that our employee engagement rate is now up from 80% to 84%. Customer satisfaction for Private Banking and CIB both went up last year, but down slightly for Retail and Commercial Banking. We are going to be working on trying to improve that over the coming years. Finally then, 2020 was a dynamic year, dominated by COVID. But it was also a year in which we made some important choices which will affect the future of the bank. We are working flat out to be a personal bank in a digital age. We've got a clear strategy and set out clear targets to achieve that. In accepting the public prosecution services settlement offer, we can draw a line under a painful and disappointing chapter for ABN AMRO. In detecting financial crime, according to the Dutch National Bank and the public prosecution service, we have made some real steps in the right direction, which means that by the end of 2022, we hope that all our shortcomings will have been fully addressed. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all our staff. The past year has been a difficult one for everyone. Sometimes difficult circumstances, working from home, we've all put our shoulders to the wheel in order to assist our customers as well as possible. I very much appreciate this, and it makes me full of confidence for the next future. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Well, thank you very much, Robert. Thank you for that introduction to the Executive Board report. We'll now move on to agenda item 2B, the Supervisory Board. Now you can find a full version of that in the annual report, and I'd just like to run through that briefly. An important topic in 2020 for the Supervisory Board Robert mentioned that a moment ago so was, of course, COVID-19. In particular, its consequences for customers and staff in the bank and for the bank itself. When the COVID-19 crisis began, the Supervisory Board decided to continue meeting to discuss this topic every week until further notice. And these meetings were also attended by the Executive Board. So we have the CEO, the CRO, the CFO and the CITO, and they would give weekly updates on the impact COVID-19 team was having on all the parts of the bank. In addition, every meeting was attended by a CEO of one of the business lines in order to give the Supervisory Board a business update on the subject. In 2020, we saw the findings of the review of Corporate & Institutional Banking, and we approved them. In addition, ABN AMRO published the findings of a strategy review. And the Board set out its vision for the future, including financial targets. In addition, in 2020, there were a number of other topics on the Supervisory Board's agenda. And some examples would be, of course, the public prosecution service investigation, succession planning for the Executive Board, particularly including the planned nomination of Lars Kramer, as CFO, the renomination of Tanja Cuppen as Chief Risk Officer; and of Christian Bornfeld, as Chief Innovation and Technology Officer. In addition, nominating a new member of the Supervisory Board, Mariken Tannemaat and the annual evaluations. Now there are 4 committees in the Supervisory Board, that is say the Audit Committee, the Risk and Capital Committee, the Selection and Nomination Committee and the Remuneration Committee, and they also all discussed a wide range of topics, including preparing meetings and decision-making for these Supervisory Board. The Audit Committee, for example, was involved with the financial results. Risk reports covering the whole bank and funding and capital plans were important topics for the Risk and Capital Committee. In addition, the Risk and Capital Committee was regularly kept updated by the Detecting Financial Crime department. The Selection and Nomination community was working hard on the succession processes and developing talent and leadership. An important topic, which the remuneration committee discussed was the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on our staff. And the consequences for allocating the variable part of remuneration in 2020. We had active contact to the number of stakeholders throughout the year, including the Dutch National Bank, the European Central Bank, the Financial Markets Authority, the STACK ABN AMRO and last but not least, NLFI. The Supervisory Board's objective remains to ensure that the bank is in a sound position to create value in the long term for its shareholders and for society as a whole with a strong focus on customer interest and soundly weighing up the interest of all our stakeholders.

[Interpreted] Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to address you. Last Monday, on the day the results of the investigation by the public prosecution service were disclosed, my coworkers and I had a very moving day, a day of disappointment, frustration, shame, but also relief. We waited a long time for the outcome of the investigation. It hung over our heads like a Sword of Damocles. Although in recent years, the ABN AMRO took a great many measures to prevent money laundering. Unfortunately, they have not been sufficient. That is not good. It will take a great amount of effort to restore our credibility and trust in part because the bank received negative disclosures and announcements in the news. For example, partly that we're no longer a company publicly listed on the stock exchange or the ruling by fit about consumer credit, and that is also on our minds. But I have more than negative news to tell you about. There is -- there are a lot of good things to tell you about ABN AMRO, things that my coworkers and I are very proud of and energized is because we need energy to implement our strategy being a personal bank in the digital age. We're proud of how we managed to keep the bank going during the corona crisis for our customers. Most of us worked from home, but because the bank has such a pivotal social will, 1,000 coworkers did come to the office. They had to come to the office, and everything went off without a hitch. The corona crisis demonstrated that coworkers are perfectly capable of working at home whereas prior to the crisis, the emphasis was on physically working with each other at the office. And now we have focused mainly on working from home. Following the crisis, we'll transition to a hybrid arrangement, combining working from home with working at the office work at the ABN AMRO will never go back to what it was before the crisis. Much needs to be arranged to achieve these important steps include adjusting our collective labor arrangement for the new method of working and also adjust our buildings to a different way of meeting each other, and we'll also have to modify our conduct. Let's keep that in mind. We're learning. We need to improve our digital skills and reach agreements about optimal hybrid work, optimal for the bank and for the employee because although much of our work can clearly be done perfectly well from home, it's not the ideal situation for every employee. One size fits nobody matters here. Every job, and every employee requires a custom based approach. So employee participation has worked hard in recent years to ensure that within the bank, employees are dealt with more sustainably. We're transitioning it from classical restructuring to sustainable change, from a shocking change with forest redundancies to transitioning to the desired situation that gives employees the opportunity to train for new positions that benefits the bank and the employees. Employee participation is delighted at this trend. And this helps us learn together in the best possible way. Nonetheless, we -- undeniably our company will continue shrinking because of the ongoing digitalization. Wouldn't it be nice if employees could retrain for positions outside the bank, for example, in education, health care or construction. Finally, I'd like to mention another positive development that is excellent for employees, and that's that we are moving from a fragmented customer service to an all of us for the customer approach. Employees no longer sort of the customer based on their specialization, but bring this about altogether. And it may sound obvious, but it gives the concept of focusing on the customer interest a new meaning. We don't do risk management to obstruct commercial coworkers in the work. We do this to protect the interest of our customers. Overall, plenty of things and reasons for pride that are not always given adequate disclosure, nice things that fill us with energy and give us that desire to go the extra mile.

[Interpreted] Thank you for your fine words, Arlene. On to agenda Item 2D, which is corporate governance. In the Leadership Governance section in the annual report, you'll have read an extensive explanation of the ABN AMRO corporate governance structure. On 22 April 2020, the Supervisory Board appointed Robert Swaak as the new CEO at ABN AMRO. The terms of the Executive Committee who are not members of the Executive Board were extended by 2 or 4 years in March 2020. The terms of Frans van der Horst, CEO of Retail Banking; and Pieter van Mierlo, CEO of Private Banking, were extended by 2 years. The terms of Daphne de Kluis, CEO of Commercial Banking; and Rutger van Nouhuijs, CEO of Corporate and Institutional Banking were extended by 4 years. The bank has opted for distributed terms to ensure that executive committee members do not all need to be reappointed at the same time. Gerard Penning was appointed new Chief Human Resources Officer and member of the Executive Committee from 1 August 2020. On 17 November 2020, ABN AMRO announced that Clifford Abrahams, CFO at ABN AMRO and Deputy Chair of the Executive Board and the Executive Committee, would be leaving the bank on 28 February 2021 for a position closer to home in the United Kingdom. The Supervisory Board then started a search for a new CFO, and we're delighted that Lars Kramer has been nominated, and he will introduce himself to later on in this meeting. His appointment is subject to approval by the European Central Bank. Until then, Annemieke Roest Head of Controlling at ABN AMRO will serve as interim CFO. Finally, please know that ABN AMRO in the annual report from 2020 accounts for compliance with the corporate governance code in 2020. ABN AMRO meets all corporate governance code provisions except for those described in the chapter corporate governance codes and regulations in the 2020 Annual Report. In addition, on our website, you will find a detailed description of how the bank applies the corporate governance code. Now on to agenda item 2E, the remuneration report for 2020. Please see the remuneration report as it appears in the 2020 annual report and added as a separate meeting document. And I'm pleased to give the floor to Arjen Dorland, Chairman of the Remuneration Committee on the Supervisory Board for a brief description. Arjen, you have the floor.

[Interpreted] During the previous Annual General Meeting last year, ABN AMRO presented the remuneration report for 2019 for an advisory vote. Over 99% of the votes cast supported a positive advice. ABN AMRO was pleased to note this and elaborated on this in structuring the remuneration report for 2020. One important topic in 2020 with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on employees in general. For example, there was a question whether the COVID-19 crisis would affect allocating variable remuneration. Given the COVID-19 crisis, the financial results and the social role of the bank, it has been decided that all performance-related variable, remuneration for employees in the Netherlands will not be allocated for 2020, and those abroad will be curtailed. Other topics in 2020 included the Bank wide Global Reward policy, retention packages related to divestitures with a view to the adjusted strategy of corporate and institutional banking. ABN AMRO has based the principles of its remuneration policy on its purpose banking for better for generations to come in the 3 strategic pillars, customer experience, sustainability and a bank that's fit for the future. As described by Robert Swaak, ABN AMRO has a moderate remuneration policy that meets all rules for public listed and financial institutions. These include restrictions concerning variable remuneration for some employees and senior management, for example, there's a prohibition of bonuses. And these are also established in ABN AMRO's global reward policy and in the remuneration policy of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board at the Annual General Meeting in 2020. And important opportunity was provided to all shareholders and depositary receipt holders to share their opinion about the remuneration policy for the Executive Board and Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board is responsible for allocating remuneration of the Executive Board within the limits of remuneration policy. As long as the Dutch date is a shareholder of ABN AMRO, no variable remuneration can be granted to members of the Executive Board, and there's also a prohibition on individual adjustments of annual base salary in 2020. There were no deviations from the remuneration policy. The CLAs of ABN AMRO apply until 1 January 2022. That's why negotiations for the new CLAs from 1 January 2022 will start in the course of this year. The current term of the banking CLA ended on 1 January of this year. On 9 March 2021, a new banking CLA was agreed and applies from 1 January 2021 through 31 December of this year. The agreed structural wage increase is 1.4% from 1 July 2021. The ratio between the average annual employee remuneration and the annual remuneration of the CA -- CEO was 10.2% in 2020. The ratio equals the remuneration of the CEO, including pension charges divided by the average employee salary, including pension charges in 2020 and was regarded as a fair reflection of current position within ABN AMRO. The fixed salary for the 5 positions in the executive committee who are not members of the Executive Board is based on the salary of the Executive Board. Taking into account the different responsibilities of these executive committee members, the remuneration for the members of the Supervisory Board is determined by the general meeting. ABN AMRO does not grant variable remuneration or shares or options to members of the Supervisory Board. Finally, the auditor has checked whether the remuneration report contains the legally required information, which it does. Over to you.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Arjen. Ladies and gentlemen, as I indicated at the start of the meeting, we will now move on to answering questions relating to the remuneration report for 2020. Other questions concerning the annual report corporate governance and financial statements will be answered after the following agenda item. All questions will be supported by a moderator. We kindly request participants to curtail the number of questions for each agenda item to a maximum of 3. We did not receive any questions about the remuneration report in advance. Now I'm pleased to give the floor to the moderator for any questions received via the live chat.

No questions were received via the live chat about this item.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first agenda item for voting. And as expected in these circumstances, the vote will be conducted electronically. If you vote in favor of this agenda item, you are in favor of a positive advice. If you vote against this item, you are voting for a negative advice concerning the 2020 remuneration report. And the result will be the advisory nonbinding vote. And I need to tell you the numbers of shareholders present, I'll receive this now. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Issued share capital of ABN AMRO comprises 941 million share. At this meeting, we have present or represented 1,701 shareholders and depositary receipt holders present or represented, whether online or otherwise, who represent 762,576,662 votes, which equals 81.11% of the issued share capital. Prior to the meeting, shareholders and depository holders had the opportunity to exercise the right to vote online, that's e-voting. And these votes will be included with the electronic votes cast during this meeting. As I mentioned at the start, participants may cast their vote throughout the meeting. And the result will be announced at the end of this meeting. This takes us to the end of 2E. We will now move on to 2F, which is the presentation by the external auditor, E&Y, about the audit duties performed during the 2020 financial statements process, and I'll hand you over to Wolter Smit from E&Y for this.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the opportunity to -- thank you for this opportunity to present our involvement as external auditors. I'm Wolter Smit. And since 2016, I've been the external auditor at ABN AMRO on behalf of E&Y since 2016. In this presentation, I will address the following segments of auditing the banking over 2020, the scope and the timing and the audit of the bank and the main risks we identified. The impact of COVID-19, the materiality that we applied, communication and interaction with the bank, some considerations relating to the wire card file dealing with fraud and noncompliance and finally, the outcomes of our audit. On this slide, you'll see the scope of our audit. This is what we audit. Perhaps on the back one slides as the speaker, the corporate consolidated financial statements for 2020 of ABN AMRO. We checked whether the annual report meets all legal requirements and assess the half year figures for the half year report. And we perform a review of the quarterly figures for Q1 and Q3 for the ECB. We examined the integrated report and issue a separate statement about that. Finally, we audit the report from the regulator, Central Bank and the ECB by the corporate. And when do we do this is our time line throughout the year. We are very busy working for ABN AMRO, and we signed the auditor's opinion on 9 March. And you can see the prudential audit is still pending, we'll be performing that in May. Now our approach is consistent with last year. I understand the business and the environment based on global sector knowledge within the EY. And we take a top-down look at our audit approach also risk-based in accordance with Dutch and international standards. Next our risk assessment and scope assessment results in an audit plan, which we discuss with both the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board. In the audit plan, we described where we want to rely on internal control measures by the bank. And the substantive complete, where we aim to do a substantive complete audit ourselves. And we include certain countries in our scope because we're not only the auditor of AB AMRO in the Netherlands, we're the auditor of ABN AMRO in all other countries. Based on our risk assessment and the relative extent of the operations and the scope, we determine the depth of our audit. The results of local audits is assessed and discussed with our teams on site and with ABN AMRO, our team and the specialists has sector knowledge and is independent and meets all relevant training requirements. Our experts are deployed to audit valuation of financial instruments, IT environment, hedge accounting models of the bank as well as fraud and corruption risks. Now what's changed with respect to last year COVID-19 and a stronger focus on other aspects of compliance or noncompliance as well as more specialist disclosures than in the past, in part because of the implementation of IFRS 9. Now the COVID-19 impact. I can see we're moving on. Now one slide back, please, respected speaker. What are our focus areas? You'll see them at the right. I'll tell you more about COVID-19 in a moment, the estimation uncertainty figures prominently in several items, for example, impairment allowances, which because of IFRS 19 is subject to even more models. We audit substantiation and documentation by deploying modeling specialists, and we consider the adequacy of the financial statements extensively. In addition, there are the model overlays, which are additional provisions beyond the model outcomes because the models cannot accurately calculate the complete impact in these exceptional circumstances. Another estimation uncertainty concern other provisions for claims and compliance-related topics because a provision needs to be taken if as a consequence of an event in the past, the chance is greater than 50%, this will result in a payment and a reliable estimate is possible of the impact. A subsequent focus area is the investigation of the public prosecutor. ABN AMRO, as you know, has been the subject of an investigation by the public prosecution service since 2019. And upon completing the 2020 financial statements in early March 2020, the timing of the completion of this investigation and the outcome were so uncertain that a reliable estimate of the impact was not possible at the time. And that's why in the 2020 financial statements of the bank, no provision was taken. As EY, we analyze the relevant documentation, and we received legal letters from the bank's external legal counsel that represents the bank in this case, and we spoke directly with that same lawyer and checked that the financial statements were complete and accurate and discussed them with the ExCo and the Supervisory Board until the date we signed off on our statement on March 2021. The final focus area you see on this slide concerns reliability and continuity of the IT environment, and we have access to cyber risk and change management procedures for this in our auditor's opinion. The detailed one, you can read our audit approach for each individual item here as well as our key observations. Now on to the COVID-19 slide, please, respected speaker. Now the restrictions resulting from COVID-19 led us to conduct a lot of our audit by remote. And several years ago, this might have been a problem. But thanks to modern technology this year, we were able to obtain adequate audit information by remote means. And this concerned internal audit measures, the impact on credit risk is issued loans, IT security and the explanatory notes in the financial statements. We summarized our duties and conclusion in our in our auditor's opinion. The most important aspects of the COVID-19 impact concern lending losses based on historical data assumptions and expectations for the future. And they are inherently subjective. We assess the methodology of the bank and reviewed the expectations based on our own expectations and external benchmarks and considered assessment based on asset impairment analysis and summarized this in our auditor's opinion. Next slide, please. Noncompliance were an important part of our activities based on our standards, we assess whether there is any noncompliance considering concerning law or regulation that could have a material impact. And to this end, we assess the systemic integrity risk analysis known as SIRA. We examined the structure and existence of internal audit measure at the risk of a material error and the risk of external fraud. To this end, we assign specialists that these are forensic auditors who check all risks and audit information provided to us by the bank. And we read these letters together with them. And we assess whether the broad and risk factors by assessing the overall audit system of the bank as depicted on this slide has a total of detective and proactive and reactive measures. And we also assess the tone at the top and overall governance of the bank. We test the journal entries with analytics assess the approvals and to determine accurate also to identify entities that would not be expected in normal operations. And we review possible preferences by management and bias in determining any significant aspects. And finally, we discussed these with internal audit, legal compliance and the Supervisory Board. Now materiality is based on international standards and the objective is an accurate depiction of the financial statements. Based on our professional opinion, we determined it's EUR 145 million comparable to last year. And as I say every year, we don't use the same materiality for all items for remuneration of the board. For example, we do not consider materiality because the accuracy of that explanation requires such. All observed and -- all observed deviations exceeding EUR 7 million are reported to the Supervisory Board. The topics discussed with the super report as follows. We confirm our independence every quarter, and our plan is approved by the Supervisory Board. In the management letter, we describe our observations about the internal audit environment, important estimates and assumptions by the management in the financial statements are assessed as to whether they're reasonable within the context. So this year, we considered COVID-19 expenses. Finally, we report quarterly to the management about our findings concerning the annual reports and in our audit report about the continuity and IT specific audit observations of difference and as well as the findings by our auditor's report. Any significant difficulties would also be reported to the Supervisory Board. But in the past year, we didn't need to report anything. And in keeping with corporate governance rules, we regularly have face-to-face discussions with the chairpeople of the risk, audit and audit committees as well as the Supervisory Board. Last year, we faced the bankruptcy of Wirecard in Germany. Part of the reported cash balances turned out not to exist. Based on published fact, we evaluated our audit impact and determined that no adjustments were acquired. As of end year, we were able to confirm all ABN AMRO cash balance We received written confirmation And this primarily relates to the confirmations for ABN AMRO by DNB and the ECB. And then we evaluated independence and determined that we remain fully independent of ABN AMRO, and we discussed this and reported it to the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board. Finally, the outcome was an unqualified auditor's opinion for ABN AMRO 2020, confirming the other information in the financial statements, we also performed a review of each quarter and provided a review statement for each quarter. And we provided a statement for the integrated report 2020, as well as the statements from the various subsidiaries of the bank and will also provide a similar statement concerning other measures -- concerning COVID in 2020. This is my fifth and last year as the external auditor of ABN AMRO. I will be succeeded by my coworker, Bernard Broders. And I'd like to thank the management and Supervisory Board and U.S. shareholders at the bank for the excellent working relationship in the past 5 years and for your confidence in EY and me personally.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Wolter. Well, you're not free yet because you don't leave us until the end of today's meeting. We're not saying goodbye until then. So you'll be with us for as long as this meeting continues. So thank you very much for your presentation. Now as I mentioned, we're dealing with the previous agenda item. The next agenda item 2G, is what we're going to deal with questions relating to the settlement with the prosecutor annual report, corporate governance and the financial statements. So we'll now go on to agenda Item 2G, adoption of the audited 2020 annual financial statements. Could I refer you to the financial statements as set out in the 2020 annual report and duly scrutinized by the external auditor, as you've heard just a moment ago. And as he said, they have approved the financial statements. Adopting the financial statements as a voting matter, and as I said at the beginning of the meeting, participants can cast a vote at any time during the course of the meeting, and the results of the vote will be displayed at the end of today's meeting. So we'll now move on to deal with questions dealing with the settlement with the audit prosecutor, the annual report corporate governance and financial statements. And as I said before, we'll start off by looking at questions submitted in advance. What I'll do is I'll read the question out and then nominate someone who I think is best positioned to provide the answer, that might sometimes be me.

I'll start off with PGGM. They sent a number of questions in before the meeting. And I'd like to thank them for their questions. Quoting the question, in the 19th of April press release, it is stated that ABN AMRO has accepted the settlement which draw the line under a painful and disappointing section in ABN AMRO's history, and lessons have been learned. PGGM would like us to tell them what lessons we have learned. Robert, could I ask you to answer this question from PGGM.

[Interpreted] Yes, certainly, I'd be happy to. Well, it's true. But as I said earlier, we've got structural, sustainable improvements that we've put in place. We've been looking to see what didn't work out in the period under investigation. And one of the main lessons we learned from that is that we can't go through improving things on our business line by business line basis. No, you've got to carry it out across the whole scope of the bank. I think that's the main lesson that we've learned from all that.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Next question from PGGM is about the detecting financial crime program. AB AMRO has set out a program called detecting financial crime. It is quoting the question, DFC. And this is a substantial investment in the number of full-time employees dealing with ABN AMRO's client life cycle processes. Could you tell us whether, and if so, how, you're working on a culture change? How is compliance embedded in the organization? We'd like to have more and more explicit information about this in your report, dealing with whistleblowers, code of conduct and so on. Could you please tell us more about this? Robert again?

[Interpreted] Yes. Well, culture and strategy, obviously, are inseparable. We can only achieve our ambitions if we really live our culture. And culture could only mean who we are and what we're about. Our purpose is the guideline here. Our purpose helps us to achieve our strategic ambitions. And it's important for us to listen to our customers, our staff and all our stakeholders. We're working together to construct a bank, which will be future proof. And finally, you create a culture where all of us share the same ambition, which is a purpose that unites us all that been working on for many years, banking for better for generations to come. Now of course, in our culture, compliance is the greatest importance. And we expressed that from the very top, the tone from the top. All our staff have an important role to play, and our 3 lines of defense are the model that we all operate in the bank, taking ownership, setting clear objectives, this is all part of our license to operate. And of course, risk management and compliance are very important components. We are committed to our moderate risk profile and also to our role as gatekeeper of the whole financial system. Our go-to-conduct as a final point, gives guidelines for day-to-day work and dilemmas we encounter. We've got a permanent education program with a compulsory training activities dealing with financial economic crime. And we also demand that individual members of staff notifies of any strange events they find have a speed cap program a whistle none procedure, which is also available in the bank and for outside parties as well.

[Interpreted] Thank you. I'd also invite you to pay your attention to Page 32 and 63 to 65 of the annual report. A final question from PGGM regarding the public prosecutor and the settlement we found with them. This is what moral task does ABN AMRO see as being assisted one of the main banks? How could it protect the financial system from misuse by criminals? Robert again.

[Interpreted] Well, I repeat, again, I said many times, we must fulfill our role as gatekeeper. And that is our moral task in order to make sure the financial system can be honest and we can have a more secure society.

[Interpreted] Our last question from PGGM on Agenda Item 2 is remuneration. PGGM is asking what role the variable remuneration plays in the bank? And what impact the decision had that there would be no performance-based variable remuneration in 2020. Arjen, could you answer this question from PGGM?

[Interpreted] Yes, I'll be happy to. Though ABN AMRO has a moderate remuneration policy, as you know, and a variable component part is an important part of that. Sometimes in other countries, the variable component is a major part of the remuneration package. ABN AMRO greatly reduced the performance-related component in 2020. You can see that in the annual report, the effects of that fairly limited in 2019, the total was 3.4% of the bank, and this time is 0.9% of the total remuneration. So the impact has been limited, but is an important decision and it's sending out a clear signal.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Now we can move on to questions from the VEB Association of Shareholders, submitted in advance, and thank you for your questions, VEB. The first question from VEB is whether ABN can say whether the reduction in AML high-risk cases is compatible with the agreements previously reach with the supervisory authority. Robert?

[Interpreted] Well, I can say it'd be very brief here, yes, we have a factual report telling you about that.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Next question is what does ABN AMRO consider as being the main practical risks when scaling down the corporate institutional banking, CIB division?

[Interpreted] Well, any possible risks have been carefully mapped out and are being managed. We've got good momentum for this downscaling, downsizing. The underlying market is developing well. We are on schedule. We report our progress regularly. And recently, we also said that our loan portfolio in TCF have been sold. And this brings us one step closer to the total dismantling of these activities. Now after this transaction, TCF will be 70% of the whole TCF exposure will have been dismantled.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Robert. Next question is from VEB is whether ABN AMRO can shed more light on what risk framework shortcomings have been identified, partly because of the CIB evaluation? What control mechanisms have been tightened up as a result? And what improvements remain to be made? Arjen, could you answer this question?

[Interpreted] Yes, certainly. Now Robert mentioned this a moment ago. The strategic decision to take some corporate and institutional banking noncore activities and to remove them from our growth portfolio, that's had an impact on our risk profile. Secondly, we had a look at the activities we're carrying on with that is our core activities. Here, we've set on individual tightened the limits on sectors and individual loans and geographies and we also looked at ABN AMRO clearing where a number of steps have been taken partly by tightening up on limits for extreme stress situations.

[Interpreted] Next question from the VEB is the mortgage market. How does ABN AMRO think it can compete successfully in the mortgage market with nonbanking parties such as pension funds and insurance companies, which have a different finance mix and can therefore offer lower tariffs. Robert?

[Interpreted] Yes, thank you. Thank you for your question. Well, for some time now, we've been playing a successful role in the mortgage market. And as you know, it's a matter of price. We are very familiar with the market. We know the market segments well. We've got very good distribution system for mortgages. So we are a very strong position to provide a reliable and flexible service to our customers and take necessary steps when addressing our mortgage portfolio.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Another question from the VEB, acquisition policy. ABN AMRO is always proud to announce acquisitions in Private Banking, in particular, as a point of strategic attention. The last takeover in this segment was in mid-2018. What does ABN AMRO consider to be the main obstacles in its path here? Well, we are still open to make further acquisitions. particularly if they fit in with previous strategic choices that we've made in the past. So yes, we are keeping an eye on opportunities in the market. And when we make a decision, of course, we'll let you know. Next question from the VEB. Whether the Board can shed light on why the market risk in calculating economic capital has increased so greatly. While this is not visible in the calculation of market risk regarding the risk-weighted assets. I can refer you here to Page 90 of the annual report. Robert?

[Interpreted] Well, yes, the ABN AMRO risk taxonomy underlies the determination of market risk. In this case, in fact, for RWAs and for economic capital. However, when calculating the RWA market risk, the trading book carries a great turn of weight. So the increase in market risk of the economic capital in the past year has largely been driven by the bank book.

[Interpreted] Thank you. The next question came in from the VEB, but is very similar to our question, also raised by Mr. Van den Bos. So we have combined the 2 questions. Is ABN AMRO willing to recover the cost paid in funds in the settlement is regarding the money laundering scandal on members of the Board? Reply, no, this is the corporate responsibility. Next question from the VEB was also very similar to one raised by PGGM. The European banking sector is characterized by a large number of players at a low level of profitability. And this leads to misgivings regarding it as a earnings model for banking institutions. Why does ABN AMRO take the view that is readjusting strategy is as good answer to these concerns?

[Interpreted] That's a very interesting question. Yes. Very interesting question. Thank you. Yes, this is exactly why we had the strategic review and took time to make clear choices. In ABN AMRO, we want to build on our existing strengths, market segments that we know well, market segments that we've got experience of. So we combined this with a very thorough analysis of how ABN AMRO can interact with its customers. And this led us to the conclusion that the bank's convenience level, the customers' online experience is a very important part to ABN AMRO. We can see that particularly in the COVID-19 circumstances. At the same time, we've got a great deal of expertise and knowledge. And what's interesting in this strategy really is that it's building on what. The bank has shown itself to be good at in the last years, building up more scale and really making ourselves in a position to be effective. So we've got individual segments where we can grow. We look at the market circumstances, but we're also making the bank simpler and more effective. And that has led to the costs that we incur as a result of that, we've seen that the costs go down over time. So by way of conclusion, as I said earlier, you have an ROE of 8% by the end of this period that's currently under plan. So we have no doubt that the choices we have put in place. The geographical focus, Northwest Europe, the choices regarding customer segments that we got at, mortgages, SMEs. Those are the bank strengths. It's where we can provide across-the-board service to all our customers. These are segments that we, as the bank really are good at, and that gives us lots of confidence to face the future.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Robert. Now the last question submitted in advance by the VEB is a question to EY. I'll read it out. E&Y has a key audit matter regarding the current public prosecutor's investigation and said this year that ABN AMRO is now also suspected. of a further of debt laundering. So when did I become aware of this? And in what way have they taken exercises? Wolter, please, EY.

[Interpreted] Yes, we were informed in the -- when looking at the end of 2020. So that's the beginning of 2021, it actually happened. And this had an impact on our order operation. Now the -- it was -- the problem identified was already a key audit matter. So we already looked into it a great deal. But we looked at the legal people in ABN AMRO and talked to lawyers in the bank in order to map out what was happening. We also had talked with our own legal specialist. We made sure we had all the relevant documentation. And we can see that satisfactory attention was paid to it in the financial statements. So we talked about this, and we talked about this to the Executive Board of the Supervisory Board. And finally, we built them out into our key audit matter in our annual audit statement.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Wolter. Well, this brings us now to questions put forward by the VBDO, the Association of Investors for Sustainable Development. Thank you very much for your questions. This takes up a lot of time, but these are important issues. So I'm happy to read them through. What steps exactly is ABN going to take -- ABN AMRO going to take in order to foster biodiversity? And can the bank report in the future on how it lives up to its finance for biodiversity pledge, which is signed? ABN AMRO says that in the second quarter of 2021, it will publish a science-based target, referring to its investments in the energy sector, mortgages, commercial, real estate and the investment portfolio. And this is a quote from the annual report, Page 145. What climate scenario that has to say the maximum global warming is this target being set for? Will ABN AMRO look at the 1.5 degrees scenario as advised by the science-based target initiative for financial institutions. And when can the VBDO expect to hear about interim objectives being set? And finally, the VBDO is aware of ABN AMRO's diversity policy and its active approach to its own staff regarding diversity and inclusion. ABN AMRO's ethical principles should largely be reflected in its investment strategy. VBDO, however, You can see that diversity is not taken on board in ABN AMRO's sustainable policy on investments, matters such as engagement and voting policy. Is ABN AMRO prepared to make diversity a more explicit part of its investment portfolio and communicate on the subject in the coming year? Robert, can I give you the floor on this?

[Interpreted] Thank you, Tom. And my thanks for the questions. I'll try and answer them as fully as I can. Well, ABN AMRO is fully aware of the great importance of by diversity as we made clear increases in recent years. And we can see the financial sector has a role to play and a responsibility to assume in this. And we do report on that and very extensively. In order to give you an even better overview of the actions to be taken as a result of the dialogue with stakeholders, which we have on this topic. We have among other things who agreed that a biodiversity statement will be development. And that we will work further on integrating biodiversity into our sectoral policy. Then the second question, climate. Our target eventually is for our loan portfolio and investments for our customers to be in line with the scenario wherein global warming is restricted to comfortably under 2 degrees Celsius. Climate scenarios which we follow, come from the international energy agency, those in line with that target, and we have no plans to tighten up on this matter. We deal with our progress on science-based targets in our recent publication called guiding the bank's portfolio to Paris. At the same time, we're not only looking at long-term objectives. Now the only way in which you can put things into practice is by specifically saying what you're going to be doing in the coming year. For that reason, therefore, we have set out interim targets, for example, the energy portfolio and the commercial real estate and mortgage portfolio. In ABN AMRO, we are very much involved in further developing science-based targets for the financial sector, and we are always watching where we can improve our policy further in order to help our customers transition to sustainability. Diversity has always been an important topic for me personally and for the bank as well. It is a topic for the whole bank in the future, and it's part of a broader approach for investing on our clients' behalf. In the past year, we specifically investigated the bank through a gender lens. Here, we found gaps in opportunities across the whole range of the bank, including our customers' investment portfolios, plugging these gaps. And availing ourselves of opportunities are part of diversity. We've already carried out a great million NGOs, trade unions and also with many of our larger customers in order to get a clearer view of how our policy across the bank can be more specific to do with better such as [indiscernible]. We also had a word with [indiscernible] to engage -- further engage in the companies that our clients invest in. So domestic is an integrated part of all these talks.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Robert. Now we have questions from Mr. Van Den Bos On the subject of the annual report. Firstly, Mr. Van Den Bos is asking what has happened to the growth in client numbers and asking about the cloud customer experience, find words. But where is the action is Mr. Van Den Bos. And he would like here to hear more about the operating result of 9%. Robert, could you deal with that?

[Interpreted] Yes, certainly. Firstly, The question about the operating result in Commercial Banking. Well, that is a result of the low interest income. That's just the situation. That's the way it is at the moment. Then your question about customers. Well, we are working hard to improve our customer experience. And as we said in our investor update, we want to be a personal bank in a digital age. But what that means is, well, we recognize, we fully recognize that an online service provision must be developed further and taken further. But it up to us to make that personal. So we might be like nowadays, we have a lot of banking work done on video. 95% of our conversations are on video link these days. But it means that in those interactions, we need to express the bank's personal commitment to our customers as we have shown when the COVID crisis erupted and still are showing. It also means that once something happens in a customer relation, we are there to deal with it. Now you might think when we talk about computerization, you say, well, how can computerization be personal. But no, we say that's exactly what we have shown in the last few months. We are there for our customers, and we can be there in the digital world, too. Finally, are we all successful in this? No, not always. Of course, there are times when our service to the customers is not up to the clients' wishes. And that means that we have to spend a great deal of attention at the moment, evaluating our complaint management to make sure that we always take steps within our organization to see what's happening. We want to be the personal bank in the digital age.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Robert. And Mr. Van den Bos then asks when there's going to be a big large-scale reorganization from senior management and board level down to middle management. Well, Mr. Van Den Bos, I think that in past years, we've had a great many senior management positions and the middle management positions, which have been changed. And last year, when we publish the second quarter figures, we announced the reorganization of CIB and in late November, we had the strategic refresh. And it seems to me by way of answer to your question, that we are constantly looking to see whether the bank's organizational structure is fit for purpose. On the basis of the strategy that we've told you about. And as you hear, first, we have to get the strategy in place, and that is the basis on which we can then address our structure and look at our senior management. And I think in the past years, we have amply performed that task. Then Mr. Van Den Bos has a question about auxiliary matters, and I'll give Robert the floor to be yours. Why are the different discrepancies in lease car experiences because an electric bike is good enough? Mr. Van Den Bos also as a number of suggestions regarding an alternative head office. Robert, please?

[Interpreted] Yes. Thank you very much for your question, once again, Mr. Van Den Bos. I'll start with your last point. As you know, ABN AMRO will be selling the headquarters of the Gustav Mahlerlaan, Amsterdam and then rent some of it back again. And I said the property on the popping or drive address is going to be completely rebuilt and it's going to be a wonderful, sustainable building. Regarding mobility, well, A few years ago, we did make some very conscious choices to travel responsibly. Arjen said this a moment ago, when she was speaking, teleworking from home is something that people have done a great job of in recent months. And we can see that teleworking is going to be more and more of the norm. And this can be combined with a sustainable method of traveling. We've been dealing with that for many years now already. So ABN AMRO, you can get a public transport card, and we encourage them to buy bikes at e-bikes. I'm very happy to tell you that there's a new position, a new situation whereby members of staff and ABN AMRO can lease a bike or electric bike.

[Interpreted] Yes. And just -- if I could add something on there Mr. Van Den Bos. For many years now, I have been taking my e-bike to work daily, and I haven't leased for the bank. Then Mr. Van Den Bos has a number of questions on the auditor's report. The questions are as follows. What are the main issues I had find with E&Y? In the priority list of points for attention, I'll have some things already been dealt with. And are there any new items of importance added to the list? Have you as EY found the ABN AMRO and staff were satisfactory cooperative? And finally, is it true that in the past, shareholders meeting, you sound so that internal auditing is not up to scratch. Wolter, could you respond to this, please?

[Interpreted] Well, I'll try. I'll start with your last one. Now I know that Mr. Van Den Bos is a very critical shareholder. And over the last 5 years, he's raised very -- a large number of questions at shareholders' meetings. I can't recite them all from memory. But I certainly remember him. Regarding the management letter, well, at least we've got these important topics that we raised in the management letter, we talk about what we've come up with, and we make recommendations regarding the bank's internal audit as part of our auditing activities on the financial statements. And in 2020, we identified a number of topics in our management letter, but the bank is certainly making progress. We're looking at completion matters, models, a risk control framework. These are items we discussed. Now did we in EY find the bank itself were cooperative enough? Yes, I can reply yes to that. Our relationship with management is open and frank. Management certainly is willing to listen to our criticisms, and responds to what we say. And we've got an open friendly relationship with the Supervisory Board.

Thank you, Walter. Well, that's the questions that we received in advance. And now I'll give the floor to the moderator. Have we had any questions submitted on the live chat? No questions yet? Okay, thank you very much. And now then I'll give the floor to people who submitted questions in advance, and said they want to ask their questions in-person. I understand that this is the VEB and the VBDO. They said in advance that we should do that. So I'll give the VEB the floor first to ask their follow-up questions in-person. VEB, please. Do we have the VEB on the line?

[Interpreted] Do we have the VEB on the line? [Operator Instructions] And hopefully, Mr. Koster, you were able to ask your question now. Perhaps the connection has been severed. Now I'll give the floor to Mr. Laskovich from the VBDO.

[Interpreted] I am Mrs. Laskovich form VBDO. Dear Executive Board and Supervisory Board, thank you for this opportunity to ask additional questions. The VBDO would like to congratulate the ABN AMRO. Speaker is unfortunately inaudible. We read both documents with tremendous interest. This concerns responsible investing. Apparently, there was -- been sustainable investment. The VBDO is delighted at the conversion by the bank.

[Interpreted] Connection is very poor, speaker is inaudible, interpreter apologizes. Mrs. Laskovich, may I interrupt you, asked the Chair becaus eit sounds like a horse is galloping through your room because we have the greatest difficulty hearing you.

[Interpreted] I'll repeat this, say's Mrs. Laskovich. The customers of ABN AMRO already invest over EUR 26 million sustainably, and the VBDO is delighted with this change by the bank in 2018, so that customers are typically offered a sustainable investment format. And the ABN MRO has ranked 5 sustainability categories from poor to excellent. If not entirely clear what share sustainable investment is of the total invested assets or the distribution as to the extent of sustainability among the different investments. And could ABN AMRO communicate the extent of sustainability and its progress toward objectives, and whether this may be influenced by European regulations, especially the SFTR?

[Interpreted] Yes, now we could hear you, explains the Chair. Thank you. Thank you for your questions and your observations, explains Robert Swaak. I'd like to talk to you about our objectives in the area of sustainable investment at ABN AMRO. We agreed that the total sustainable investment book for ABN AMRO would account for about 1/3 of the total book in -- by 2024. So we're explicitly aiming to track the developments in that investment book. And we've divided it into different categories, as we've indicated in our annual report, And it appears in other reports as well, so sustainable financing at the corporate institutional bank would be about 25% of the total. And we said that in 2024, renewable energy should account for 45% of that book, which is also our own target. As for the Commercial Bank, we're very active in circular. And we've said that the ultimate objective should be 27% by 2024 in terms of circular sustainable financing we do. And objective for circular loans were also set. So they're all consistent with how we have addressed this in previous years to define objectives within the bank for sustainable loans and investments. So there are certain targets that you identified for us, which I won't elaborate on, but that does enable us, with respect to those criteria, to continue to focus throughout the bank on something that we consider to be exceptionally important.

[Interpreted] Perhaps you could tell us the ratio of what is sustainably invested with respect to the total invested assets?

[Interpreted] Well, what I can tell you, answers Robert Swaak, is that we have amply exceeded our objectives. I can't tell you the total, but I can tell you more about that later on.

[Interpreted] That's fine. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Thank you for your additional questions, explains Tom de Swaan. Has Mr. Koster arrived at the phone?

[Interpreted] No. Mr. Koster will now take in.

[Interpreted] Okay. Then we'll wait a moment.

[Interpreted] Well, if you hear me, it's all been resolved.

[Interpreted] We can hear you perfectly now. Earlier, we couldn't hear your system. So now, we can.

[Interpreted] Okay, excellent, says Mr. Koster. My question -- thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for all the explanation so far. What I'd still like some answers about that concerns threats and new emerging markets and how ABN AMRO considers all of this in light of the strategy. And when I say threats, I also mean discussions about new market operators. How will ABN AMRO respond? And I don't really see much about that in the annual report either.

[Interpreted] Thank you for your question. I'm glad you're asking that question because basically, ABN AMRO has been dealing with new operators on the financial markets for years. We work extensively with what are known as fintechs. What's interesting is that we're learning from that. And based on working with fintechs, we're able to adapt our own operations. And we're investing in fintechs, so we do not see the new market operators as threats. We see them as encouragement to review our own digital agendas and our infrastructure and accelerate implementation. You'll see that in our strategy. At the same time, we are explicitly examining how quickly and in which fields new operators are becoming active. We spoke about the mortgage book earlier, and you'll see a new -- some new operators there, too. That means that we're also adjusting our offers on those markets, too. We're adjusting our supplies. So in addition to accounting for what ABN AMRO held is a very natural position for years, and improving there. We're trying to examine the dynamics on the market. And thanks to working together and investing and then integrating within the ABN AMRO model, we believe that we can accommodate that competition or "those threats."

[Interpreted] The Supervisory Board has this topic very high on the agenda. We regularly exchange ideas with the bank executives about this as well as with external experts, and ask them to advise as to their view on the developments, on the one hand, relating to consolidation in the financial sector. And on the other hand, how they view the influence of new operators in this field. So this is very high on our agenda, Mr. Koster.

[Interpreted] That's excellent to hear. Thank you very much for your reply. It would be nice if this is flushed out more in the coming annual report because this seems to be happening behind the scenes, and I certainly understand that, but it's important that we can sense that ABN AMRO is keeping up with changing times. And it turns out from your answer that you are devoting considerable attention to this. Mr. Chairman, may I ask 2 additional questions?

[Interpreted] Please go ahead.

[Interpreted] One question that comes to mind is in what measure -- what is the idea behind Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets? A lot is happening there. Major operators, also on behalf of U.S. banks, are taking all kinds of steps now. How does the ABN feel about that?

[Interpreted] Okay. Robert?

[Interpreted] I'll be -- I can understand your enthusiasm in giving me the floor about this. Thank you for the question. It aligns perfectly with what I just mentioned. As for cryptocurrency and Bitcoins, I am keeping abreast of all developments meticulously. You'll undoubtedly have noticed how quickly they're forging ahead. It's not a regulated system yet. So it's particularly important for financial institutions to track how they regulations in the field they're progressing. But nonetheless, we need to continue keeping track of it to ensure that we can keep abreast of this in time. So we're certainly scrutinizing that and keeping track of it.

[Interpreted] Is that something that will be disclosed at a certain point? I think it's important that we know not only that you're keeping track of it, but also that you'll be commenting on this. I think it's useful if we understand how an important bank views this new market.

[Interpreted] Well, there was some comment about one area via the Dutch Association of Banks, which recently published a report responding to ideas that exist within some central banks as to issuing cryptocurrencies of their own exchanges, and in Europe, that would be of the euro. The NVB, the Dutch Association of Banks, drafted a report in response to -- I think it's a blue paper, it's not a white paper, in any case by the ECB addressing cryptocurrencies.

[Interpreted] Thank you. I'll certainly read that. My final question. I know that this will be a sensitive question. Recently, you made announcements to the public that negative interest will be assessed on deposits exceeding EUR 150,000. Fortunately, that's a somewhat higher threshold than with other banks after this COVID period, in which many people tried to save and deposits have increased. My question is, aren't you heading toward the most traditional and essential function of a bank towards society, which is that you should be able to deposit your bank safely? You should be able to deposit your money safely with the bank without it costing you money. And they're undeniably short-term fees because that 0.5% used to be paid to the ECB. Doesn't that mean that one of the traditional pillars of banks in the Netherlands is being obstructed here? And in my view, that's negative, that's a drawback. And shouldn't you take a different view of the negative interest rate, which hopefully will not endure for years and years. And isn't this something that the NVB, the Dutch Association of Banks could address, so that it would be -- could be abolished on retail private deposits at the -- because this is a driving force behind getting people to invest given the interesting proposals in your business model? And of course, this shouldn't mean that investors operate too quickly and carelessly in investing their money because in the past, depositing money with the bank was the safest possible approach.

[Interpreted] Of course, you understand, just found that we're not -- we don't enjoy assessing negative interest rates, but this is the consequence of market circumstances. Since the ECB charges us for having money. So we need to maintain the earnings model of the bank, and that's why we're forced to charge negative interest rates.

[Interpreted] Well, that's the core of the answer. Let me tell you, we're very well aware, and I'm glad that you told us about our own social responsibility in this respect. So your suggestion to mentioned the broader social consequences of such measures, which indeed are necessary, and to relate them to the fundamental role of banks and to discuss this within the NVB, the Dutch Association of Banks, I'll certainly take that onboard.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Mr. Koster for your questions. Are there additional questions via the live chat on the phone?

[Interpreted] Yes, Mr. Chairman. PGGM is waiting. So I'd like to give the floor to Mr. Verma.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me start with the point of order. I just wanted to mention that there's a huge time difference between the webcast and the phone, the webcast is considerably behind. That means that I'm talking with you over the phone and your gestures on the webcast become visible only much later. That is an aside note. Then I have another point, if you allow me. Because you started by mentioning that agenda items for A and B have been deleted from the agenda, and basically, we welcome that and we requested that last Monday in our questions submitted in writing, so it's a very good thing that you did that, but I believe that enables me to ask questions about that here. Is that correct?

[Interpreted] Yes, it is, is the answer. At least, I assume that your questions relate to the reasons why we discussed to remove 4 (a) and (b) from the agenda.That's correct is the reply.

[Interpreted] I am specifically referring to your indication that the settlement proposal resulted in penalties being covered by the NV company, if I'm correct. And if that's the case, how does that relate to removing the discharge from liability items from the agenda, which concerns supervision of the NV and being able to hold the Board members accountable. So can you explain how this -- in the settlement proposal, it was agreed that the corporate entity will cover that, even though It's been discharged -- it's been decided to remove the discharge item from the agenda.

[Interpreted] Now just to clarify, and I should have told you relating to 4 (a) and 4 (b) . The reason that we deleted them from the agenda is because we believe that the course of time between the announcement of the settlement and today was too short to enable shareholders and depositary receipt holders to modify any voting instructions that you had already given. We certainly don't plan not to request a discharge, but it won't be today. That will happen at a more opportune moment. For example, if during the course of the year, for whatever reason we convene an Extraordinary General Meeting or at the Annual General Meeting next year, so we're not going to skip requesting that discharge.

[Interpreted] That's clear. thank you.

[Interpreted] No additional questions at this time. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Are there any additional questions?

[Interpreted] No, there are no other questions over the phone, Mr. de Swaan.

[Interpreted] Okay, that covers this agenda item. And we will move on to the next one, which is agenda item 3, and that's -- concerns the reservation dividend policy, and I'll hand you over to Robert Swaak for that.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The dividend policy of ABN AMRO has -- takes into account the current and expected capital requirements, the risk profile and growth in market factors in determining the percentage of profit distribution. We considered the moderate risk profile of ABN AMRO and statutory charges, so the dividend payments can be maintained in the future. This year, we were not able to put a proposal to distribute a dividend on the agenda. We are reconsidering a dividend proposal in accordance with the recommendations of the ECB. And in any case, we'll not do so before the end of September 2020. As soon as we have done such a reconsideration, we will notify you.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Robert. We did not receive any questions in advance about this agenda item. And I'll ask the moderator, whether any questions have arrived by the live chat.

[Interpreted] No questions about this topic via the live chat either.

[Interpreted] Thank you for this announcement. Then I propose that we move on to the next agenda item, which is exactly the item 4 (a) and (b) that Mr. [indiscernible] was asking questions about. As I mentioned at the start of this meeting, agenda items 4 (a) and (b), respectively, discharging individual members of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board members. These items have been emitted from the agenda. The reason is that most shareholders and depositary receipt holders had already issued their voting instructions before last Monday, so before the important new information concerning the public prosecution service was disclosed. As a result, they were unable to include this information in deciding how to vote. So that's why we chose to withdraw this agenda item at this specific meeting. Then I'd like to give the floor to the moderator to see whether any questions have been asked by the live chat about this item.

[Interpreted] No questions about this item.

[Interpreted] Then we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the report on the performance of the external auditor. And I'd like to give Tjalling Tiemstra the floor. Is see him already, the Chairman of the Audit Committee, and he'll elaborate on the main findings arising from the annual evaluation of the performance by the external auditor. Tjalling?

[Interpreted] Thank you. Can you hear me? Just a sound check. Excellent. Yes, we do this every year. Especially this year, it's very important because we're going to propose that you shareholders reappoint EY for 2 more years. Once again, this year, we evaluated the external auditor and the result of this evaluation, as you can see in this presentation, was once again very positive, especially on important items such as independence, objectivity, knowledge and professional confidence. And also, the areas for improvement that rose from last year's evaluation were taken onboard well by EY, especially relating to communication about the management letter. And I'll leave it at that, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Then I propose that we move on to Item 5 (b) , which is the reappointment of Ernst & Young as the external auditor for the financial years 2022 and 2023. We did not receive any questions in advance about agenda Items 5 (a) or 5 (b). This is a voting item on the agenda, and as stated, with respect to all voting items, the results will be disclosed at the end of the meeting. So I'm asking the moderator, have any questions been asked via live chat?

[Interpreted] No, no questions via the live chat.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Then I will move on to agenda Item 6 about the composition of the Executive Board. Agenda item 6 comprises three subordinate points. I propose that we cover 6 (a), (b) and (c) all in one go. And after that, of course, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions about all of these items. The appointment term of Executive Board members, Tanja Cuppen, our Chief Risk Officer; and Christian Bornfeld, our CI and TO, Chief Information and Technology Officer, will end at the close of this meeting. We intend to reappoint both Tanja and Christian as members of the Executive Board for terms of 3 and 4 years, respectively. And we opted for these distributed terms of appointment to ensure that when these terms end, Executive Board members do not need to be reappointed simultaneously. In addition, because of the departure of Clifford Abrahams, the Supervisory Board went in search of a new CFO, and that search resulted in the nomination of Lars Kramer. And we're delighted to tell you that the Employees Council has issued a positive advice about the intended reappointments and the intended appointment. At Agenda item 6 (a), the intended reappointment of Tanja Cuppen appears. The Supervisory Board is notifying the General Meeting about the intended reappointment of Tanja Cuppen as member of the Executive Board for a 3-year term. Tanja has been Chief Risk Officer at ABN AMRO since 1 October 2017. As such, she is responsible for risk management and compliance. She has a very strong track record in risk management in both domestic and international banking, and has more than 22 years of experience in senior management positions. At Agenda Item 2 (b) (sic) [ 6 (b) ], the intended reappointment of Christian Bornfeld has been included for information purposes. So we are informing the General Meeting of the intended reappointment of Christian Bornfeld as member of the Executive Board for a 4-year term. On 1 March 2018, Chris Bornfeld became Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, and at ABN AMRO, is responsible for innovation, IT, corporate information, security and business services. As the title suggests, Christian Bornfeld has a strong track record and has acquired broad IT knowledge and experience in different positions at financial institutions, and previously at IBM. In addition, the Supervisory Board intends to appoint Christian Bornfeld the vacancy that rose as a result of Clifford Abrahams' departure as Vice Chairman of the Executive Board and the Executive Committee. The Deputy Chairman replaces the CEO as needed, or if the CEO is unable to attend or absent or if the position of the CEO was vacant. At Agenda Item 6 (c), the intended appointment of Lars Kramer as CFO has been included for notification purposes. On 10 February this year, the Supervisory Board announced the intended appointment of Lars Kramer as the Chief Financial Officer and member of the ABN AMRO Executive Board. The highlights from the agreement with Mr. Kramer have been published on the ABN AMRO website. The intended appointment is subject to the approval of the ECB. And as soon as this approval has been obtained, he will be appointed by the Supervisory Board to a 4-year term, and his term of appointment ends upon the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2025. Lars Kramer has over 25 years of international and banking experience in finance controlling and financial management. He is presently Group CFO of the Hellenic Bank in Cyprus. Before that, he worked for over 20 years in various positions at, for example, ING Wholesale Banking and ING Direct. He is also highly experienced in managing strategic projects and change projects in aforementioned positions. Lars is present online, and will be pleased to introduce himself. Lars, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [Interpreted] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. [indiscernible] to be here today to introduce myself. I'm Lars Kramer, born in Germany 53 years ago, where I lived for 6 years, but I grew up in South Africa where my family comes from. I went to school and university in Cape Town, and married my wife, Kim over there. I've got 2 kids, who are both born in Hong Kong, and our both now at a university in London. So the relocation this time around will be a lot easier than the last time. I've spent the last 25 years in the banking industry at various institutions in many different geographies, and livid through many times of turmoil in the sector. My career has taken me to many amazing parts of the world like London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and most recently, Cyprus, where I've worked for ING, Crédit Suisse, SBC Warburg, Hambros and Hellenic Bank. As a family, we're really looking forward to coming back to Amsterdam as we have many happy memories from our previous time here, and it feels a bit like a homecoming. It will also give me the opportunity to improve my Dutch and to convert what is a rudimentary of [indiscernible], German, Dutch mix dialect to something more proficient. I've been working as a CFO since the early 2000s, and at last count, have partnered 9 different CEOs in my life. So it will be a real privilege working as part of Robert's leadership team. I've operated at -- I've worked on the restructuring side and the reorganization side, as well as on the growth side in various malls. I've also participated in multiple inorganic acquisition and disposal transactions over the years. Additionally, over the last 4 years, I've had the pleasure of running strategy, leveraged finance, marketing and communications alongside the more traditional CFO roles. As the global divisional CFO at ING Wholesale Banking and earlier at ING Retail Banking International, I was part of the team running divisions operating in more than 30 countries, with over 10,000 employees and total assets of around EUR 370 billion. The finance departments were up to 500 employees worldwide. During this time, the team was responsible for introducing changes and at improving the client channels, country footprints, product offerings, systems and processes with a goal of better customer service, a lower cost base, more efficient balance sheet and capital usage and better profits as well as focusing on nurturing the franchises back to health after the last great financial crisis. For the past 4 years, I've been the Group CFO of Hellenic Bank, where the main emphasis has been on reducing NPLs, remediating AML issues and consolidating the industry in Cyprus. My main achievements have been regaining the U.S. dollar correspondent relationships with JPMorgan and Bank of New York, signaling the concerted effort taken by the bank, the industry and the country to tackle the issue of AML at a root and branch level, and taking what was the #4 bank in the country to market leadership, doubling its size and quadrupling its customer base by acquiring and integrating in record time the local cooperative bank. This was a complex multibillion euro transaction involving 2 systemic banks, which required the alignment of many stakeholder groups, including governments, parliament, unions, the SRB, the ECB, the Central Bank of Cyprus and the local SEC as well as existing and new shareholders and investors. I've always been wanting to push my boundaries and go beyond my comfort zone. I gained my motivation from working in the finance area where the past, present and future come together, where you are always working as part of a multitalented team, where you are instrumental in strategic direction setting, where you're prioritizing resource for day-to-day delivery, and where you're held to account by the investors and the main stakeholders. The nature of the industry also means that you have to be nimble and adaptable. And there are always unforeseen events that have to be dealt with that will knock your best laid plans off track. I've already spoken with many people at ABN AMRO. These meetings have made me even more eager to join this great bank as I see a lot of motivated people with a clear vision, and that really inspires me. My past experience, my goal focus, my leadership qualities and strategic skills will hopefully complement the team and provide some added capacity to deliver on a very ambitious set of plans over the coming few years, to you, the shareholders and the broader stakeholder community. Being CFO of ABN AMRO is a great opportunity and an honor for me. I really look forward to the challenge. Thank you. And with that, I hand back to the Chair.

Thank you very much, Lars. [Interpreted] Thank you very much. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you'll understand that we are delighted to see Lars Kramer joining our top team in ABN AMRO succeeding Clifford, and we look forward to a very productive and enjoyable cooperation with him. At this point, I would just like to thank his predecessor, Clifford, for his input to ABN AMRO. I wish him all the best as CFO in Virgin Money over in the U.K. He's already made a start there, in fact. I was talking to him yesterday, and he's got off to a good start. And if you don't object, I will send your best wishes to him on behalf of all of us. Well, we didn't receive any questions on this agenda item. Has any -- have any questions come in by the chat, moderator?

[Interpreted] No, no live chat questions.

[Interpreted] Okay. Thank you very much. That means then that we can -- we have now completed this agenda item. I can't really welcome Lars yet because we're waiting for the European Central Bank to give us a green light, but nevertheless, I can welcome you a bit to our midst, Lars. Now we move on to agenda item 7 of the agenda, issuing and withdrawal of shares. Now the Annual General Meeting is entitled to empower the Executive Board to issue shares and rights of shares to exclude the preemptive right and the purchase of ABN AMRO shares and depositary receipts for shares. The Executive Board proposes, with the approval of the Supervisory Board, to take the authorization granted at the end of our meeting on the 22nd of April 2020 for an 18-month period to replace with a new authorization given under agenda Item 7 (a), 7 (b) and 7 (c) today. Now my proposal is that we go through all 3 agenda items together, 7 (a), 7 (b) and 7 (c). After that, you will have the opportunity to ask questions on all agenda item 7. Now you won't be surprised to hear we start with 7 (a). The proposal is for the Executive Board to authorized from today for an 18-month period to: one, issue ordinary shares, and to make it quite clear, this is not ordinary shares B; and secondly, to grant rights to take up such shares -- ordinary shares after a maxim of 10% of issued capital at ABN AMRO on today's date. The Executive Board will only be able to make use of this authorization with the authorization of the Supervisory Board. Now agenda Item 7 (b). The proposal is to restrict or exclude proactive rights. And here again, the Executive Board can only act on this matter with the approval of the Supervisory Board. Agenda Item 7 (c), the proposal to grant authorization to acquire shares in depositary receipts for shares in ABN AMRO's own capital. The proposal is for the Executive Board to be authorized for an 18-month period from today to acquire shares in ABN AMRO's own capital or depositary receipts for shares via the Stock Exchange or in some other way. The Executive Board, again, can only take this action with the approval of the Supervisory Board. And purchase of shares or depositary receipts for shares in ABN AMRO's capital could happen, for example, as part of a restructuring or capital reduction, including returning capital to shareholders and depositary receipt holders. This will only happen in full respect of the future and current solvency rules as imposed by the supervisory authorities. The purchase price of shares and depositary receipts for shares in ABN AMRO must be at least of nominal value of the ordinary shares and maximum 110% of the highest rate at which the receipts were traded on the previous trading day in Euronext Amsterdam. We've received no questions on this agent item in advance, but maybe there are some questions on the chat. Moderator, please?

[Interpreted] No questions on the live chat.

[Interpreted] Okay. So there are no questions. Thank you, moderator. This brings us to agenda item 8, the cancellation of shares or depositary receipts for shares in the issued share capital of ABN AMRO. The General Meeting of Shareholders is invited on the proposal of the Executive Board and subject to approval of the Supervisory Board and the ECB and other relevant supervisory authorities to decide to cancel the shares acquired by ABN AMRO via -- on the Stock Exchange or purchase of its own shares or depositary receipts for shares on the basis of the authorization granted under agenda item 7 (c). The cancellation of these purchased own shares will be restricted to 10% of the total capital issued in ABN AMRO on the date of the General Meeting, and is authorized for a period of 18 months from the date of today's meeting. No questions on this issue were submitted in advance. Moderator?

[Interpreted] No questions submitted during the meeting.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Well, that then is the last item available for voting. So in a few moments, we will stop voting So you can cast your vote now, please do so, and we will give you the voting results at the end of the meeting after we've had the open discussion. [Voting]

Thank you all very much for your voting. And now, we'll move on to agenda item 9. Here again, we had no questions submitted for the general discussion in advance. Moderator, have you had any questions submitted on the chat?

[Interpreted] No. Once again, no questions from the chat.

[Interpreted] Okay. That brings us then to the end of that agenda item. And before we go on to display the voting results, I'd just like to come back to what our external auditor will say. [indiscernible], here's the last time he'll be with us. So I would just like to avail my sense of this opportunity now that he genuinely has stopped working for us, he can have a great sigh of relief for I can see a grin on his face, leaning back smiling to himself. But I would like to thank Mr. Smith most sincerely for all the work he's done for ABN AMRO. This is the last time he will be with us to meeting on behalf of E&Y. This is because it's compulsory rotation of auditors. It's not meant to be cognitive. We've got to change him. So Walter, thank you very much. And I greatly enjoyed working with you. I know that goes for all of us, especially the Chair of the Audit Committee, greatly enjoyed working with you. My warmest thanks. Now it's time to show you the voting results. You can now see on the screen results of 2(e), 2(g) and 5(b), and you can see that all 3 issues were approved with a very comfortable majority from 99.95% to 100%. So all of those have been approved. Perhaps you could have the next slide, please? Again, we can see that all issues were approved by generous majority. The lowest one is 7(b), that's 93.57%, and all the others are very much above 99%. And this means that all voting issues have been approved by you by -- with a comfortable majority. So my thanks to you for that, and the meeting is therefore now closed. Thank you all for joining us and for contributing to our meeting. The meeting is closed. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]