EGM 2018

Feb 28, 2018

Slides

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It's a bit before 2, but it's basically 2 p. M. So we're going to start. Welcome to this meeting, including those of you who are attending this meeting via the webcast. As you know, we have only one substantive agenda item, which is the intended appointment of Christian Bornfeld as a member of the Executive Board. The purpose of this extraordinary general meeting is exclusively to inform the general meeting about the envisaged appointment of Christian Bornfeld and we will not be presenting any voting items at this meeting. On behalf of Eben Amro, we have present the following members of the Supervisory Board. From your left to right, at the rear, I am Dorland, Jurgen Stechmann, Annemiek Rolbeg. I am also a member of the Supervisory Board as Acting Chairperson. I'm in the front row. The following members of the Executive Board from your left to right on the front row are Jan Van Gaal, Kees van der Kuise, Clifford Abrams and Tanja Kuppen. The secretary for this meeting is Ruud von Altersterrup. I'm pleased to start with some announcements. These are general announcements first. After that, I'll present the substantive announcements. 1st, please switch off your mobile phone and do not make any audio or video recordings. This meeting will be in Dutch and is webcast directly in both English and Dutch on the APN AMRO website. There will be an audio recording of the entire meeting to draft the minutes. The minutes are to be adopted in keeping with the articles of of association and signed by me as acting chair and by the secretary. The shareholders and depository receipt holders have been convened in accordance with the law and the articles of association and the shareholders and depository receipt holders have not submitted any proposals to be addressed at this meeting. Before we proceed to the agenda, I'd like to say a bit about the announcement on 5 February concerning the decision by Olga Zoutendijk not to be eligible for a second term as Supervisory Board member and to hand over her duties as Chair immediately. We respect her decision. This matter has been discussed extensively in the press and covered extensively. The media reports about Olga Sautendijk as a person who until recently was a highly respected Chair of the Supervisory Board is quite compelling and important. This reporting has not done justice to her contribution to our bank and our appreciation for her as a fellow supervisory board member and this is widely shared. This type of publicity does not promote the bank or it does not benefit our customers or our staff. The procedure to find a successor is in progress and as soon as we have news about it, we will issue an announcement. Thanks to our clients and employees, ABN AMRO is doing well and forging ahead in digitization, sustainability and innovation. I'd like to wrap up this topic. On this note, I emphasize once again superfluously that the intended purpose of this meeting is the envisaged appointment of Christian Bornfeld as a member of the Executive Board. Under any other business, you will have the opportunity to ask any other questions. Finally, please note that after this meeting in the lounge in front of this conference auditorium, you'll have an opportunity to have a cup of coffee or tea. I now conclude this agenda item and move on to agenda item 2, which is the envisaged appointment of Christian Bordenfeld as a member of the Executive Board. On 3 September 2017, the supervisory board announced its intention to appoint Mr. Christian Bornfeld as a member of the Executive Board. Pursuant to 162 Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code, the Supervisory Board is hereby informing the ABN AMRA Group of the envisaged appointment. The employee counsel present and represented by the chair has issued a positive advice concerning the appointment. The European Central Bank or ECB is expected to consent to this envisaged deployment in the very near future. The Supervisory Board will therefore appoint Mr. Christian Bornfeldt as a member of the Executive Board as soon as the ECB has issued its approval, which once again we expect in the very near future. The most important elements from the agreement with Christian Bornfeld on the data publishing the convocation have already been posted on ABN AMRO's website. In the next agenda point, we'll elaborate on his role as Chief Innovation Technology Officer and successor to Johan Fung Hall now. Agenda Item 2A, the oral explanation and motivation by Christian Bornfeldt. We will hereby give Christian Bornfeld the opportunity to enlighten your meeting about his main reasons for accepting this envisaged appointment. Mr. Bornfeldt will provide his comments in English. I can tell you that he's already done several stints at first and is making huge progress. Nonetheless, we've decided to give him the opportunity to introduce himself in English. And any questions he's asked in English will be translated any questions he's asked in Dutch will be translated into English form. Christian, you have the floor. Good afternoon, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. Envisioned Chief Innovation and Technology Officer. As Stefan just mentioned, I'm still in the process of learning Dutch. So therefore, I will do this introduction in English. I'll say a couple of words about myself and why I am excited to be joining ABN AMRO. On a personal note, I'm Danish. I grew up in London and Copenhagen. I've been married to my wife Anne for 10 years now and together we have a daughter called Sofia. Since 1st January, I have been a resident of the Netherlands, and I now live in Amsterdam. Looking back on my career, I have worked almost 20 years now in the IT and banking industry through and through the various roles I've held at IBM, Danske Bank and latest Nordea, I've built extensive experience in transforming and also running financial institutions in a digital savvy and international environment. During my time at Nordea, I was, amongst other things, the Head of Digital Banking and also the COO for Retail Banking. In this responsibility, I drove the digitalization of the service model, the advisory model and the sales model for our retail clients and also under or manage significant simplification of our products, our processes and our IT systems across Madea Group. These are some of the experiences that I take from my previous career to ABN AMRO now. During my career, I have built a strong respect of the heritage of the organization that is ABN AMRO as well as the passion of the people that work here and that I've had the opportunity to meet so far. This includes the bank's strong commitment to environmental sustainability and an understanding of the broader role of banks in society. This broader purpose of ABN AMRO is a key element in why I chose to join ABN AMRO. As the Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, I will focus on ensuring the future competitiveness of ABN AMRO in the face of our clients, in the eyes of our clients. At the foundational level, that means ensuring a high level of operational stability, regulatory compliance and protecting our bank and our clients from evolving threats like cybersecurity. Competitiveness for ABN AMRO will also mean continuous increases to productivity as this will allow us to continue to build capital to deliver returns to shareholders and also to invest in creating a future proof bank. Lastly, I will make sure that we evolve our value proposition towards clients at an increasing speed and with more agility. I think on this point, ABN AMRO has already made big steps the last couple of years. But as the banking industry undergoes more and more structural change driven by digitalization, artificial intelligence, open banking and other things, we will need to continue to innovate at an increasing level of speed. With that, I would say I look very much forward to working with a great team to evolve the bank for the benefit of its clients, shareholders, society and staff. Thank you. Thank you, Christian, for this clear and extensive introduction. Perhaps you could remain at the lecture in case there are any questions. On your behalf, do you have any questions following this introduction by Mr. Bornefelt? Mr. And there are no questions. In any case, not at this time. Now I'm pleased to wrap up this section of the agenda item and we'll continue after thanking you with agenda item 2B, which is the announcement concerning the appointment. The intention is to appoint Christian Bornfeld as a member of the Executive Board and Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, CITO. The moment the approval of the ECB has been obtained as stated, we expect this approval any moment. Mr. Christian Bornfeld will be appointed for a 3 year term. The term of appointment will consequently conclude in keeping with the Avian Amaro articles of association the moment the first general meeting in 2021 concludes after the end of the 3 year period. Recently, because of the absence of questions, this may illustrate it, Christian has clearly introduced himself and described his curriculum vitae. I have a wonderful list of his track record and experience. I won't read it out because I think his account was complete. As the Supervisory Board, we're convinced that Christian, with his extensive knowledge and experience in IT operations and implementation and support of strategic programs. We'll provide a major contribution to the ABN AMRO Executive Board and we'll provide inspiring guidance in the ongoing digital transformation of the bank. For additional information, please see the convening notice with the explanatory notes and Christian Bornefeld's curriculum vitae among the meeting documents. We're happy to welcome Christian, but this also means that we'll be bidding farewell to somebody, Jan Van Hal. 1982 was the year that you joined us, entered I would almost say and you've never been away literally and metaphorically. At a different opportunity, we'll continue exchanging ideas about your significance for the Bank. In this setting, I'd like to say a few words to you as well. And even though I prefer speaking directly from the heart because we know each other well enough for that. I will nonetheless read out a text because this is the text from our supervisory board that we thought about seriously and I want every word to be well chosen and I don't want to withhold these words from you. So if you approve, I'll read this out. Johann, in the past 35 years, you've dedicated your all to our ABN AMRO Bank. The supervisory board is particularly grateful for what you've done for the bank. You've been modest and pleased to be of service often behind the scenes, but clearly visible at the forefront of what you have done and you've contributed substantially to our bank's progress. Your leadership has been essential both the great leadership and the quiet leadership, the modest attention to people at the right moments. You're characterized by your sense and eye for the human factor and that is an important role model and I hope that will be emulated in the near and distant future of this bank. You led the bank through one of the most difficult periods in our history. Particularly noteworthy is your valuable contribution to integrating the 2 organizations and their 2 IT platforms, but that's not all you did. In addition, you were very significant in preparing the IPO, which you brought it back together with your team. In 2 successive terms on the Executive Board, you contribute substantially to digitizing the bank and innovating the IT platforms. You have rightly and with good reason been elected Vice Chairman of the Executive Board and subsequently the Executive Board and Executive Committee. Johan, we're very grateful on behalf of the Supervisory Board and the other stakeholders in this bank and we wish you, your wife and your family all the very best. As I just said, Johan was not only what I just mentioned, I also highlighted his position as Vice Chairman, a vital position that will be succeeded well by Clifford Abrams, who will be taking over this position as of 1 March 2018. Having said this and thanking you once again, I'd like to wrap up on this note. And are there any questions or comments about the intention of the Supervisory Board to appoint Mr. Clifford Abrams as a member of the Executive Board. If there are no questions, I now wrap up this agenda item. Now on to agenda item 3, any other business and close. Sometimes we take a break first, but I propose moving on to this item. I would like to give you shareholders and depository receipt holders present at this meeting the opportunity to ask questions. If you want to ask a question, please approach the microphone. And each time it comes up, please ask one question. Who would like the floor? Then I it looks like there are no questions from you. And we'll wrap this up. We're pleased to offer you a cup of coffee or tea in the lobby outside this conference auditorium and we'll be happy to chat with you informally. And after that, we wish you a safe journey home and hope that the public transport is functioning and the roads passable. Thank you for coming and all the best. Please join us for coffee or tea. Thank you.