Danske Bank A/S (CPH:DANSKE)

AGM 2014

← View all transcripts

Mar 18, 2014

Summary

FY2013 net profit rose 51% and impairments fell 45%, but 5% ROE remained below ambitions. The AGM adopted a DKK 2-per-share dividend and set priorities around customer trust, efficiency, and stronger returns.

Welcome to the annual general meeting in Danske Bank. Like in previous years, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Niels B. Christiansen, and CEO Thomas Borgen and CFO Henrik Ramlau-Hansen are placed up here on the podium together with me. The other members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Board are sitting there on my right. Our auditors are also present and sitting in the front row. As something new, we will be webcasting the entire AGM, which can thus be watched live on our website on www.danskebank.com. I hope that you have all obtained an annual report and found the agenda on your seat. If anyone should have any questions regarding specific customer relationships or the bank's products, it will also this year be possible to talk to the employees at our customer stand in the front lobby. They can definitely answer your questions more specifically and in more detail than I can. In the lobby, you can also get help to download our popular app, MobilePay, which makes it easy to transfer money via your mobile phone. You can also get a demonstration of our netbank, a new and easier version of our e-banking solution, which is designed specifically for customers who are not used to using e-banking. According to the bank's articles of association, the board appoints the chairman of the general meeting. Like last year, the Board of Directors have asked Claus Søgaard, attorney at law, to be chairman of the meeting. I therefore hand over now to Claus Søgaard. Thank you very much. My first duty is to ascertain whether the meeting is duly convened and forms a quorum. I can mention already now that I will reach the conclusion that it has been duly convened, and it forms a quorum. But I would like to mention a few items in that connection. Firstly, it appears from the articles of association that the meeting should be held before the 1st of May. It is easy to see that we have complied with that. It should be held in the greater Copenhagen area. It should be noticed with 3 to 5 weeks of notice on the homepage and at the Danish Business Authority's IT system and via stock exchange release, and also via information to the employees. This all took place on the 18th of February, so that was 4 weeks ago, which is within the applicable rules. I know that a shareholder, Mr. Egon Gjertsen, does not share the view that the meeting has been duly convened. He has made some proposals on the agenda, including a proposal that Ole Andersen should retire from the board. I do not share his view, but he has asked for the floor regarding the formalities. So please, Mr. Egon Gjertsen. Hello, my name is Egon Gjertsen, and I am the chairman of the Association of Shareholders in Danske Bank. I sent a proposal to the AGM, and the chairman of the meeting wrote me, "You will, of course, be given the chance to present your views in connection with the election for the Board of Directors, but your proposal will not be a separate item on the agenda." This is a clear violation of the Section 90 of the Danish Companies Act. I contacted a lawyer who directly told me that he should be ashamed of himself. It is grossly illegal what the chairman of the meeting is doing. I wrote the board secretary that it was against the act in the Companies Act. Everyone can speak here and have an item included on the agenda for the general meeting. Danske Bank recognizes that because they have announced me that the notice convening the meeting has already been sent to NASDAQ OMX and has also been published on the Danish Business Authority's IT system. I protested against this, but the bank has not replied to my request. I checked the legitimacy of their actions, and I have heard that a correction could be necessary to align the proposal with the legislation so as to make it possible to vote for it. A board who intends to edit a proposal will usually ask the proposer about that in advance. I don't think there are any previous cases where the board has changed the proposal or the arguments are undermined, and I suppose that that is the idea. It's only possible to assess the proposal based on what you read. For instance, my proposal concerning the trading price of shares, it may even be decisive for shareholders. This information cannot be left out, but it has been. The notice is not legal because of that fact that it has been left out, and my proposal should be fully included. It's not too long, and it's very clear. They cannot edit your text without your allowance, without your acceptance. I think that the board has a problem in that by editing a proposal, it's no longer my proposal. It's the board's proposal. They have taken it over simply. The bank will have to postpone this general meeting and call a new general meeting with the entire proposal. As regards Section 90, there are no exceptions. This section must be known to Claus Søgaard, and he must then know that he has grossly violated that act. He has forgotten his lawyer's pledge to work professionally. Nobody should assess whether a shareholder's proposal should be included on the agenda or not. Otherwise, a board could say, "Well, this is simply too toxic for us, so we'll leave that out." This type of censorship is not allowed, but it's no surprise that the board of Danske Bank will not face reality. They have a full responsibility, and the act must be followed. If a proposal is not included in the agenda, the agenda does not comply with the Danish Companies Act and is thus illegal. I certainly think that my proposal has relevance. There's nothing to do in terms of leaving it out of the agenda. It has to be fully included so that every shareholder would have the chance to look into the issues raised. I do feel that my proposal is relevant since Ole Andersen seems to be incapable of doing his job properly. Thank you very much. The chairman continues. I'd like to add a few comments to Mr. Egon Gjertsen's view on the legitimacy of the minutes of this meeting. That will not change my view that the meeting has been duly convened. I'd like to say that Egon Gjertsen has written to the business authority and presented the same views, and they have reached the same conclusion as we have. That is, that it's possible to demand that an item be included, but it cannot be demanded that it should be fully included. As I see it, Danske Bank has fully complied with all rules, and also the proposal to have Ole Andersen retire from the board is in connection with a proposal on the voting for the election of officers. That is a later point. We can conclude that the meeting is duly convened, but your comments will be added to the minutes. Let me say a few words about participation. I can tell you that 841 shareholders have taken admission cards, including 15 proxies and 82 others. All in all, 1,138 have registered admission cards, and 5 minutes to the start of the meeting, 473 shareholders and 114 others, or all in all, 587 had appeared. It's possible to vote even though you're not here. You can do that by checking the individual items, either in the form of a proxy, which is sent in or via a postal vote. 182 has voted in advance, and 520 others have used a check-in proxy. That is saying yes, no, do not know for the individual items. 21 have given proxies to the board, and 47% of the total share capital is represented here, which is a very high percentage compared to the levels seen in comparable companies. A further formality is that any shareholder can demand a full statement of the results of the voting. That applies to for and against votes, not to elections of officers. It does mean that a full insight can be demanded. There are many shareholders' proposals here today, so it's very good that we have this electronic voting system so that we can get over it quickly. We will be testing that electronic voting system to make sure that it works. First of all, we'll see a short movie which shows you how we conduct a yes/no vote, and then we'll make a test afterwards. You can use it when you vote. On arrival, it was registered. You can vote when the voting is open. You can see that on the screen of your eVoter. When voting is not open, any entries you make will not be registered, so please wait until the voting opens. When you vote for and against, just use the buttons under the screen. To vote for, press for. If you're against, press IMOD, and if you don't know either way, you press BLK, which is blank. The eVoter will send your vote, and you'll get a receipt on the screen of your eVoter showing what you voted. It's important you make sure you get this receipt. It's your confirmation that your vote has actually been received. It may take up to 20 seconds before you receive your receipt. As long as the voting is open, you can change your vote by pressing a new button. So here you voted in favor. When the voting is over, the results will be presented. If you need any assistance, please contact a representative of the company. Just stay in your seat and put up your hand. It is easy. But we will try- It is easy, but we will test it all the same. We'll have a test question here, whether we believe that Denmark will win the football match against Sweden on the 28th of May this year. You could say that it may be difficult to vote in favor or against, but you can consider it a yes and no vote instead. You'll only be able to vote when your eVoter lights up, as you just heard, and I'll just start the voting as I will do every time we have a voting. Then your keyboard should change color. Mine has done, and you'll be able to vote. If you believe that Denmark will win the match, please press 4. If you believe that Denmark loses the match, press IMOD. If you don't know, then you can abstain from voting by pressing BLK. Only these three buttons are relevant. If you would have liked to vote something else, you can do that because your last keystroke will be the applicable one. If something goes wrong and it doesn't light up in blue, or you cannot find your way around it, you can just raise your hand and get help with it while we get the report in a few minutes. But I think that everyone has tried the eVoter now, and we'll conclude the voting, and it'll just take a few moments, and I'll see the results on the screen. Those are the longest periods while I'm waiting for the results of the voting to be shown on my screen. The voice was- People propose that I should sing a little song while we're waiting, but I will refrain from doing that. The voting should- Now, the voting should be concluded now, and the keypad on the eVoter should, the light on the keypad should go out. Until it goes out, you can keep undoing what you've already voted. So in the meantime Meanwhile, I can tell you that while we are testing the technicalities, they are doing some counting. Once the report has been presented in a while, I will first give the floor to the Chairman of the Board and then the CEO. After that, you will be able to speak up here. I have already been given the names of some speakers. Those who have not registered as speakers already, please come up here where it says "Indskrivning." You can do that best by showing your admission card so that we are sure that we will note your name down properly. I would be grateful if you have any interventions if you make them as brief as you can, while of course delivering your message. Usually, quite a few people want to speak. In addition, we have many proposals from shareholders. We can deal with those in the votings afterwards. But it may be like the entertainer Preben Uglebjerg when the municipality of Copenhagen celebrated its 800th anniversary. He had to sing while they were waiting for the fireworks, and he sang "Yellow Submarine." I think in the end of it, we have now tested that at least the system would switch on, and we have also tested that it could switch off. When we get to the actual voting, we may just have a test vote again. At present, I would like to give the floor to the Chairman of the Board for the board report, and I would like to tell you that the first three items, the annual report, and the distribution of profit will be presented together. Of course, we will be able to discuss them separately. Please, Ole Andersen. The day of the annual general meeting is always a special day. It is a great event, not only when it comes to the number of participants, but also because it is an important event. This is where the Board of Directors reports to the owners on how the year under review has gone and what the plans are for the future. Today is when we are accountable and shareholders can exercise their influence. For Danske Bank, this day is something very special. In many ways, Danske Bank is a special company that holds an important position in the market and in society. This is also because we have more than 300,000 shareholders, so we are one of the largest and most diverse Shareholder bases among Danish companies. So there are, in other words, lots of people who, rightly so, have a great interest and high expectations when it comes to Danske Bank's development, so they monitor our progress closely. We can see that also because there are so many journalists present covering large and small matters. One of the first articles that was written about last year's AGM concerned the shareholders who seemed to have a widespread perception that the cake we served was too sticky. Now, obviously, sticky cake, that's a serious matter. So I'm pleased to announce that this year we've tried to raise the level of what we are offering, and we've tried to make sure that the cake will be less sticky. I hope you will appreciate that. Now, joking aside, obviously it is most satisfying to be the board chairman at a general meeting if you can report progress, and we can this year. We improved our net profit by 51% from DKK 4.7 billion to DKK 7.1 billion. That's really good, sound progress and it means that the board is now proposing that for the first time since 2007, the bank will pay a dividend, DKK 2 per share as a start. But let it be said also that this progress is only one step on our path. We have not reached our objectives in regard to customer satisfaction, financial performance or the bank's reputation. When I was up here at the rostrum last year, I said 2012 was a special year for Danske Bank and that it was a turning point. That was true and still is true. We had implemented comprehensive strategy work and created an entirely new organizational structure. Because of both these things, there were major changes, and they have contributed significantly to beginning to move forward for real now. But still, a unanimous board decided in September that we needed to step up the pace of the implementation of our strategy, and we found that there was a need to replace the CEO. That was not an easy decision, but it was the right decision. The strategy is unchanged. We have adjusted the direction, you could say, but we have increased our pace, and there are signs that we are moving forward. The CEO, Thomas Borgen, will explain after my report, how the implementation of the strategy is progressing. The appointment of Thomas Borgen was not the only change we had on the executive board. On the 1st of November, Glenn Söderholm took over responsibility for the business unit called Corporates & Institutions, and he joined the executive board. On the 21st of April, Jim Ditmore will be taking over as the Chief Operating Officer, so he'll assume responsibility for Danske Bank's IT development and operations, and he will also join the executive board. Robert Endersby, a member of the executive board and Head of Group Risk Management, he wants to return to his home country of England, and he will be leaving the bank at year-end. We are now conducting a search process to find his successor. Danske Bank, like other banks, is in many ways a mirror of the economy in the markets where we operate. The speed of our progress is dependent to some extent on macroeconomic tailwinds. Whenever the economy is characterized by prosperity, growth, and optimism, well, then the demand for financing, advisory service, and other services is high, and obviously that has a positive effect on the bank's results. Similarly, a continuing absence of tailwinds or even worse, obviously, if we have outright headwinds, it means we must tread even harder on the pedals to reach our goals. When we review the results for 2013, it is thus appropriate to take a brief look at the macroeconomic conditions that we experienced. Now, when you look at the markets that matter most to Danske Bank, 2013 generally was a year of weak growth and extremely low interest rates. Both private households and businesses were cautious and were holding back when it comes to consumption and investment, which is not unnatural when you look at the global uncertainty and the crisis mentality that we have seen. There was progress and signs that better times may be ahead, although the recovery is still fragile. The global financial markets saw an overall improvement in 2013. Stock markets rose sharply also because of lower uncertainty related to the European debt crisis and the outlook for growth in the global economy. In the Eurozone, there was a slight improvement. Even the countries in Southern Europe began to show tentative signs of growth in the year under review. In our home market, the Danish economy, which obviously has the biggest influence on Danske Bank, showed slight improvement. There was a disappointing fourth quarter last year, but there are signs that the economic recovery is continuing. With regard to the economies of our other markets, the picture is somewhat mixed. The Norwegian economy began actually to show minor signs of weakness, but obviously Norway is still financially strong. The Swedish economy is also strong after Sweden closed 2013 with surprisingly high growth rates. The Finnish economy, on the other hand, was still contracting, but even in Finland, there are signs of improvement this year. Overall, we are cautiously optimistic for 2013. We do expect that this year will see slow but fragile growth with persistently low interest rates. Altogether, there's a little bit more tailwind, but it's still an uphill struggle. Let me now take you through the main points of our financial statements for 2013. If you don't have the financial statements at hand, you can find them on our website. There's no doubt that we are still far from achieving the results that would meet the ambitions of the board of directors and the executive board. Ambitions that you, as shareholders in Danske Bank, are entitled to expect. We did take a step forward in 2013. No doubt about that. Well, let me first review the broad outline. As I mentioned, the net profit was DKK 7.1 billion, an increase of 51% compared with the year before. Our total income amounted to DKK 40 billion. That was a decline of 12%. This was mainly because trading income was somewhat lower than in 2012, which was an exceptionally good year in that field, and also because income from our insurance business was lower. Our net interest income was largely in line with 2012, while net fee income rose. Unfortunately, that was not enough to offset the decline in other items. Our costs, our expenses were steady, a slight reduction of 1%, while impairment charges fell by a full 45%. All in all, this means that we've been able to deliver a return on equity of 5%. This is an improvement of 1.4 percentage points, and this is driven mainly by the decline in impairment charges. Things are going in the right direction. Obviously, we are pleased with that, but it is still not good enough. 5% is far too low in relation to the level of our big Nordic competitors and also in relation to our own ambitions. We need to do better and we can do better. Going forward, we will not see the same decline in loan impairment charges because they are now down finally at the level from before the crisis, so they will flatten out. It is crucial that we increase our income and that we reduce our costs. Let us take a closer look at expenses, at our costs. They develop as planned. As I mentioned, they declined by 1% from 2012 to 2013. This included some larger lump sum costs of some one-offs, also in connection with the reduction of staff that we carried out in the fourth quarter, as well as costs related to the winding up of our Irish operations in the personal customer market and in regard to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Both of these initiatives, together with other cutbacks and savings, have been the most important elements in the plan that we announced in the 3Q report, a plan to reduce our expenses by a further 5%, and that is about DKK 1 billion in 2014. There is no doubt that also going forward, costs will be an important focus area if we are to remain competitive and achieve our financial goals. Now let us take a look at the individual business units to see how each of them contributed to the profit for the year under review. Personal banking, which services our private customers, made a profit before tax of DKK 2.7 billion, 64% up from the DKK 1.7 billion we saw in 2012. Our net interest income fell slightly, but at DKK 16.7 billion, the total income was in line with 2012. Our expenses declined 3%, while impairment charges were DKK 1.9 billion, a decline of 30%. That actually was the main reason for the increase in profit. The decrease in impairment charges, which to a great extent took place in Denmark, shows us that the economy and the housing markets have generally stabilized, which is naturally positive for the economy, for customers, and for Danske Bank in general. At business banking, which services the SMEs, there was also progress on several fronts. Our profit increased by 55% to DKK 4.8 billion before tax. Again, the top line was under pressure, mainly because of low demand. Our net interest income fell by 4%, while total income fell by 2%, ending at DKK 12.1 billion. Our expenses in business banking increased by 2%. One of the reasons was restructurings and severance costs. Impairment charges declined by 53% to DKK 1.8 billion. Again, in this area, this was the main reason for the much-improved result. For Corporates & Institutions, which services the largest corporations and institutional clients, 2013 was actually a challenging year. Our net interest income rose by 20% to DKK 2.3 billion. The fee income rose by 9% to DKK 1.2 billion. This is a good sign because it shows that customer-driven income is sound. However, this was not enough to offset a sharp decline of 41% in trading income. One of the reasons was obviously that 2012, which we compare with, was an exceptionally good year. All in all, total income decreased by 26% to DKK 8.4 billion in this area. Expenses at Corporates & Institutions increased by 7%. One of the reasons was that we invested in increasing customer-driven income further. Impairment charges fell 59%. Overall, this meant that the profit before tax declined by 43%, ending at DKK 3.4 billion. If you look at Danske Capital, we saw a very solid increase in profit, 21%, ending at DKK 1.1 billion. At the same time, assets under management rose by 6% to DKK 727 billion. Danske Capital saw increase in sales and market shares, and actually earnings have doubled in just five years. After an exceptionally good performance in 2012, Danske Capital delivered a more normal but still satisfactory return to customers in 2013. In the year under review, Danske Capital generated excess returns over the benchmarks of DKK 8.5 billion. That was good for investors. We met the ambitions, which are to always deliver high returns to customers. These are obviously ambitions and objectives that we in Danske Bank have achieved and met in four out of the last five years. The profit for the year in Danica, we saw earnings falling by 50% to DKK 1.1 billion. Danica's result is volatile and depends partly on developments on the financial markets. The result of the underlying insurance business rose by 4% to DKK 1.5 billion, and premium income rose by 9% to DKK 26.8 billion. Much has been said and written about the market for large business customers. Danica has extended agreements with several major customers, but there is tough competition. As the market has developed, we have unfortunately seen Danica lose some large customers. We are trying to reverse that development, and the board focuses a lot on that. 2013 also saw a big increase in the sale of insurance and pension products to personal customers through the bank. Sales rose by 30% to DKK 3.5 billion. The collaboration with Danske Bank will be expanded further to include also the bank's business customers in 2014. Overall, we can see that the improvement in the profit for the year was caused mainly by a positive trend in loan impairment charges. The large loan losses and impairment charges in recent years have been essential in the financial sector in general and for Danske Bank in particular. All in all, impairment charges fell by 45%. Now they are back to the level before the financial crisis, and obviously that is very positive, not just for the bank, but also because it reflects the fact that both personal customers and businesses have better finances now. You always have to be careful about saying that a crisis is over, and it is clear that the world has not yet fully found its feet and recovered from the economic crisis that followed in the wake of the financial crisis. This also applies to Danske Bank. We still have some way to go before we can deliver results that match our ambitions. But after 2013, I would venture a conclusion. The financial crisis is out of our books. We can see that from impairment charges, but also from a number of other factors. For example, our non-core activities in Ireland. As you know, they have been one of the major challenges in recent years. Here, too, we have made some good progress in 2013. The winding up of this portfolio is going as planned. Our credit exposure is falling steadily, and properties are being divested at an increasing space. Although we are also at the same time careful about protecting their values. When it comes to our capital structure, we are also free of the crisis. We are today a much stronger and more solid bank than before the crisis. Our core tier 1 capital ratio is 14.7%, compared with 8.1% in 2008. The total capital ratio has increased from 13.0% in 2008 to 21.4% now. Danske Bank is a strong, solid, well-capitalized bank. That is confirmed also by the European Banking Authority, EBA, in December 2013. They concluded that Danske Bank is among the best-capitalized banks surveyed in Denmark, and that Danish banks in general are among the best-capitalized banks in Europe. Our strong capital position also makes it possible for us to repay the government loan of DKK 24 billion that we raised from the Danish state in 2009. The board of directors has decided today that we will repay the loan on the 11th of April this year. This is a joyous event. It marks the end of a difficult period, and it also means that going forward, we will have net savings of up to DKK 1 billion per year in funding costs. It has been an expensive loan, but a necessary one. I will take this opportunity here to thank the Danish government for lending us the money and acknowledge the courage and resolution shown by a large majority of Danish politicians during the financial crisis. There is no doubt that their actions contributed to making the crisis less severe than it could have been. Our strong capital position also means that we believe we are justified in paying out a dividend to our shareholders. This is the first time since 2007. As stated in item C on the agenda, the board proposes to pay DKK 2 per share. That represents 28% of the net profit for the year under review. Of course, I am pleased that we are again in a position to be able to pay a dividend. We have a long-term goal of distributing about 40% of the profit we make to shareholders, and I expect we will be able to increase the dividend further in coming years. As regards the allocation of profits in general, please see the proposal on the agenda, which is reproduced here on the slide behind me, says the chairman. But dividends is not the only reason to invest in Danske Bank shares. I am sure you have seen that the share price has gone up in recent years. That is positive. It indicates that investors and analysts are confident that the measures and initiatives we have launched are the right ones for the bank. Our credit ratings are also on track, although they are not quite yet where we want them to be. The bank's ratings were not changed in 2013, but the rating agencies did change the underlying assessment, the so-called outlook, in the year under review. Standard & Poor's changed their outlook for the bank negatively because they went from positive to stable, while both Fitch and Moody's subsequently revised their outlooks in a positive direction, reflecting the growing confidence in the bank. Our ratings are not only important for our funding costs and for our ability to be competitive in the market, they are also crucial when it comes to determining which customers want to do business with us and what type of business they want to do with us. Better ratings are therefore an important focus area. We are still working to improve our ratings by at least one notch as quickly as possible. The rating agencies have paid attention to our ability to reduce the percentage of our short-term FlexKort loans. We have a new product, FlexKort. We are using price differentiation and other measures. We have thus reduced the percentage of F1 and F2 loans sharply in the past two years. At the end of 2011, they made up 31% of total lending. At the end of 2013, that percentage had been reduced to 18%. Overall, good progress on a number of the challenges we have had as a result of the financial crisis that we are now putting behind us. The financial crisis affected not only Danske Bank, but also society in general. In 2013, there was generally still much attention surrounding the financial crisis and its causes. In September, the so-called Rangvid Committee, led by Professor Jesper Rangvid, presented the results of their 18-month investigation into the causes of the financial crisis. I would like to acknowledge the great and thorough work that the committee put into the report and the highly nuanced debate that the committee's work led to. We agree with the committee that the financial crisis occurred because of a combination of many factors and cannot be attributed to one single cause. We also agree with the committee's conclusion that banks should be stronger and better capitalized than we were before the crisis, as we have successfully worked to become ourselves, and we do think that we have managed doing that. It is important that we, as a society and industry, try to understand the causes leading to the crisis and find ways to minimize the risk of new crises. In the wake of the financial crisis, both in Denmark and at the EU level, we have seen initiatives for comprehensive legislation that will tighten rules on everything from the composition of boards to directs to capital buffers to liquidity requirements and increased oversight. It is both natural and understandable that politicians take initiatives to minimize the risk of new crisis and ensure that any future crisis are as limited as possible. But it is, on the other hand, important that we do it in such a way that we do not minimize risk at the expense of the opportunity to create jobs and growth. It is also important that the rules do not contribute to the distortion of competition between banks. If it becomes harder and more expensive to operate as a bank in Denmark than our neighboring countries, it will not only hurt Danish banks, but also weaken Danish businesses and their competitiveness because it becomes more expensive to raise capital. In this regard, I will also acknowledge the efforts of a broad political majority to find the right balance between A, financial stability and B, the financial sector's ability to support growth and employment in the preparation of the so-called SIFI rules, which were the subject of a political agreement in the autumn. These rules impose stricter requirements on seven systemically important financial institutions, including Danske Bank. As the largest of the seven SIFIs, Danske Bank is subject to especially strict requirements. This is quite natural, and we are, of course, satisfied that there is agreement to look at the rules again when the other EU countries have finalized their rules. With the adoption of the new capital and liquidity requirements, some of the important features of the regulatory reforms are in place. A number of questions remain, however, such as how to deal with distressed banks, the establishment of a banking union, and other structural reforms. There are also other important questions about how Danish mortgage bonds are reckoned as part of the bank's liquidity. This is work that we both follow closely and want to contribute to constructively so as to ensure also here that the rules have the desired effect and do not unnecessarily hamper economic growth. All in all, we have a close and constructive collaboration with the authorities. This is also true in the few cases where we do not agree with them. As you know, we have appealed an order from the Danish FSA about the calculation of our risk-weighted assets. This is a highly technical and complex issue that concerns how we calculate the risk on our business customers, which again determines how much capital we need to put aside. We appealed the decision because of a professional disagreement with the FSA and because the case, in our opinion, involves some questions of principle that should be clarified. I'd like to point out, however, that we have already implemented the measures stipulated in the order to increase our risk-weighted assets by 96 billion DKK. Now that the financial crisis is put behind us, it is really time to look forward and focus on how to realize Danske Bank's full potential. Our vision of becoming the most trusted financial partner is firm, as is our mission to set new standards. The strategy that we launched in the autumn of 2012 takes account of the fundamentally altered conditions we're working under in the wake of the crisis and also sets a clear direction for the future. With a strong focus on our customers, through this strategy, we will reestablish the bank and make us once again the most trusted financial partner to our customers, thereby ensuring that once again, we can deliver strong results and a competitive return to our shareholders. We measure our progress on two specific parameters, customer satisfaction and return for the shareholders. More specifically, the objectives are that we want to be in the top 2 in customer satisfaction among our primary customer segments. In terms of return on equity, we want to be in the top half of the six major Nordic banks. Of course, these two objectives are interlinked, for satisfied customers are a prerequisite for creating good results. In terms of customer satisfaction, we are far from the target. But there was observable progress in 2013, not least among the largest corporations and institutional clients, where Danske Bank regained its position as number one in the Nordic region. This is a strong achievement and a result of focused efforts and a lot of hard work. There was also progress among small and medium-sized enterprises, while in personal banking in Denmark in particular, we still have a lot of work to do. Fortunately, however, we have many satisfied customers and we get even more every day, but we need even more than that. In the financial area, our long-term goal is to deliver a return on equity of more than 12%. As you know, we only delivered 5% in 2013, so there's no doubt that it will take a few years of hard work to reach the goal. In the short term, the goal is to deliver 9% in 2015, which in itself will require a big effort. For both customer satisfaction and returns, we have thus set ourselves really ambitious objectives. But the strategy is just as clear, and we have the will to carry it out, a strong will, both among employees and management. I strongly believe that we will reach them. Our mission, as we have said, is to set new standards in three areas: advisory services, digitalization, transparency and openness. Running a bank is mainly about having the competencies needed to give customers the advice they need. Danske Bank has a unique combination of skills, products, and knowledgeable staff that gives us a strong position in the market. We must develop these things further and take advantage of them. Technological developments are progressing quickly and constantly provide new opportunities to do things better, faster, and cheaper, and also make it possible to do entirely new things. Danske Bank is already a leader in the development of digital platforms, and we must continue to be so. The entire financial sector, not least Danske Bank, has over the past five years lost the trust of customers, shareholders, and society. We must regain that trust every day by creating value for all stakeholders, and not least by being open and honest. That is why we took direct action when internal controls led to the suspicion that four employees had violated the bank's internal rules in connection with some bond transactions in 2009. We referred the case to the Danish FSA, and we are cooperating fully with the authorities in their investigation. The strategy thus provides a clear direction for our future work, and in a moment, Thomas Borgen will give you some examples of how the work to implement the strategy is progressing in practice. The year 2013 has been another busy period for the board of directors. Since last year's AGM, we've held 20 meetings, and another 20 meetings were held by the four board committees. I will therefore also take this opportunity to thank the entire board for their cooperation in the past year, and special thanks go to Vice Chairman Niels B. Christiansen, who has chosen not to seek re-election. Niels has made a significant contribution to the bank's restructuring process. Also, many thanks to the employee representatives Susanne Arboe, Helle Brøndum, and Pia Lind Tovbro, who are resigning after this general meeting. To replace Niels B. Christiansen, the board is proposing Rolv Erik Ryssdal as new board member. We will get back to this when we are ready to elect the directors. According to law, the employee representatives are elected for four-year periods. The previous election took place in March 2010, so a new election was held on the 12th of March this year. Besides Charlotte Hoffmann and Carsten Eilertsen, who will continue on the board, the employees have elected Kirsten Ebbe Brich and Steen Lund Olsen as new members. Welcome to the board. I look forward to working with you. Under agenda item H, the board has proposed a number of changes to the remuneration policy. The changes reflect a number of changes in the financial legislation, which are currently being finalized. At the same time, we have brought the policy in line with best practice. Overall, the bank's ambition is that the policy should support sustained long-term value creation for shareholders. At the same time, the policy must ensure that we are able to offer competitive and market-aligned remuneration so that we can attract and retain the right expertise. Finally, the policy must ensure that remuneration does not encourage unacceptable risk-taking. In January, the board adopted a new structure for performance-based remuneration based on these principles to ensure that there is a clear and direct correlation between the amount of performance-based pay and the long-term results created by the bank's employees. Last year, the board decided to keep the executive board members' salaries unchanged. In this context, let me refer you to note 7 of the annual report, which describes in detail the executive board's remuneration in the past year. Again, this year, we have not found it appropriate to adjust the executive management salaries, but for 2014, we will provide the opportunity for larger bonuses if the executive board delivers results that exceed our expectations. While the executive board's remuneration is primarily a matter for the board of directors, it is the general meeting that sets the remuneration of the board of directors itself. As stated under agenda item H, a slight redistribution has been proposed. In order to bring the bank more closely in line with the other major Nordic banks, it is proposed to increase the basic fee slightly, while the fee for the vice chairman is reduced. Overall, the proposal implies a marginal reduction of the total remuneration of the board in 2014. This is the first time that the board fees have been changed since 2011. In the coming year, the board of directors will continue its good and close collaboration with the executive board, with a focus on implementing the strategy, and we will evaluate the need to adjust the strategy on an ongoing basis. We will focus on three areas in particular. First, customer satisfaction. Our customers are the reason for our existence. Our ability to attract new customers and retain the ones we have by meeting their needs and their expectations is a prerequisite for our future success. It is therefore essential that the slightly positive trend we see in this area continues, and we will have a strong focus on this area in the coming year. We have a big job ahead of us, not least in the personal customer market and especially in Denmark in this area. Our ratings. The objective is to improve our rating by at least one notch as quickly as possible through continued improved earnings, solid capital position, and continued improvements of our liquidity. Furthermore, the gradual winding up of our Irish operations for personal customers and the small and medium-sized enterprises will also contribute to improved ratings. Thirdly, the aim of providing a return on equity of 9% in 2015. As I said before, we have made good progress in improving the return on equity, and this work will continue in 2014. On the income side, we must work towards a more stable trading and insurance income and also work on new income sources, for instance, by optimizing our pricing structure and investing in new areas, especially in Corporates & Institutions. On the cost side, the plans already announced will make significant contributions, as will lower funding costs as a result of the repayment of the state loan. Together with the executive board, we will review the various business units on an ongoing basis to identify and implement measures to increase income and reduce costs further and thus bring us closer to a return of 9% in 2015 and more than 12% in the longer term. Looking at our expectations for 2014, we expect a continued slow and fragile macroeconomic growth and low interest rates in our core markets. For 2014, we expect a net profit of between DKK 9 billion and DKK 12 billion. We base this on the assumption of an increase in income compared with 2013 and a reduction of expenses to around DKK 23 billion and impairment charges at the same stable low level as in 2013. As I said at the start, 2013 was a year of difficult conditions, but it was also a year in which we took large, decisive steps towards becoming a better, stronger, and more competitive bank, not least thanks to our employees' hard work and dedication, for which I would like to thank them. We must be a bank that delivers long-term value for our customers, our shareholders, and the society we're so much a part of. That is where our task lies. There are still challenges ahead, but we have set our course and we have come much further than when we last met here, and I have no doubts that I will be able to say the same thing next year. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Ole Andersen, for what he said. It is a great pleasure for me to be here today. It is my first time at the AGM as CEO, so I thought I would take the opportunity to say a bit about what the executive management has been doing and what our focus areas are. I will be spending the next 10 minutes or so. Well, as you can hear, I have a clear dialect when I try and speak Danish as the Norwegian speaker. I will be trying to be clear and avoid words that I know could be a problem. I hope you will be okay and that normally it is okay. Danske Bank, as you know, is a big Nordic enterprise. We have thousands of employees. We have about 3.3 million private customers, thousands of business customers, and enterprises. We have enterprises in 15 countries. We service lots of different customers, families in Finland, small Swedish enterprises, Danish pension funds, and some of the world's biggest international corporations. That calls for many different competencies, and it calls for a number of initiatives to ensure that Danske Bank can maintain and expand its position. There is no time for me today to explain all the initiatives and how our implementation is going in detail, but I will give you some overall ideas and some specific examples of what we are doing. As the Chairman of the Board started by saying, Danske Bank is a special company with a special position in the market and in society. With this special position comes a special responsibility. We are responsible for operating a sound, solid bank that can create value for customers, shareholders, and society in general, and also a company that is a good working place for our employees. This responsibility is something that I and the other members of the Executive Board are very much aware of and respect. I have been with the Danske Bank group for just under 17 years now, and I have worked both with private customers and business customers. I believe that I know the bank very well, and where we are at and what our customers expect. Still, it has been very important for me as the new CEO to talk to all sorts of people, to spend time with customers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders. There is one thing I have noticed, really, and that is the spirit, the will that our employees have, and the pride that lots of people in our company feel about being an employee of Danske Bank. It is positive to feel the commitment. In particular, the commitment put into giving customers solid advice and good service, and the desire that our employees have to make Danske Bank a great success. That gives me and the other members of the Executive Board every belief that we will succeed. Our task is clear. We must restore Danske Bank. What that means is that Danske Bank must once again become a bank that has broad trust and respect from people, and a bank that delivers the results that are to be expected from us. In the more than 140 years of Danske Bank, there have always been many different attitudes and high expectations from us. But there has always been respect of our competencies, our ability to provide solid advice, and to run a profitable business to deliver good returns to our shareholders. We must regain that respect. The goal is not, obviously, to go back to the good old days or for Danske Bank to be the same bank it used to be. That is not desirable and is not possible. You see, the terms and conditions of running a bank have changed fundamentally in a number of areas. One of the clearest signs of that is the digital revolution that is going on in society and clearly in the financial sector. It has already meant, and will mean in the future, that major changes will occur. I find that Danske Bank has a strong, good position in this field. It is not a position that has come from nothing. It is the result of focused work. Developments are quick and fast in this area. There is no time to rest on our laurels. It is important to continue our targeted efforts to utilize the technological opportunities that exist. It is not just a question of optimizing processes, but also a question of creating new value, new revenue, new services, and not least, better customer experiences. This also applies to many of the other changes we see in our market. We must develop all the time in order to maintain and expand our position. We measure our success on customer satisfaction and solid financial results. As the Chairman of the Board mentioned, the strategy is clear. Over the last six months or so, we have speeded up our implementation based on three clear priorities, customer focus, simplification, and efficiency. The primary point is to create a bank that focuses strongly on customers and their needs, but also on creating a bank that is run efficiently, where all unnecessary tasks have been removed, and where processes and work procedures are so simple that employees have to spend as little time as possible on administration and as much time as possible on customers. Last, but not least, the point of the matter is to create a bank that is so flexible and agile that it is able to adapt and adjust to changes in the market or among customers on an ongoing basis. This is not an easy task. There are no easy solutions. On the contrary, there is a lot of hard work here, and it will be taking time before we reach our goals. We have only just started. However, we can benefit from the unique combination of experience and competencies we have built up over the more than 140 years that we have been a leading bank, first in Denmark and then in the Nordic area. It is these experiences and competencies that always have and also will in the future be the cornerstone of our business. In recent years, we have taken a number of initiatives, big and small, that will contribute to strengthening our position in the market, and make us an even more attractive and competitive associate and partner, no matter if we are working with a Danish family, a Finnish municipality, or a big international company. As regards to private customers, we want to give two specific promises. Firstly, we want to make our customers make sensible financial decisions by providing competent, proactive advice and tailored solutions. Secondly, we want to make it as simple and easy as possible at all to use the bank and to have access to our competencies. We are working very intensively to do that. This work has now been fleshed out in a number of specific measures. Let me mention just a few of the more important ones here. in January 2013, we launched our customer program. There was skepticism at first, but we can see that there is broad backing for the program. More than 1.2 million customers have registered for it. With the launch of the customer program, we have made it attractive for customers to gather their bank affairs with us. We can offer them a number of advantages at a fair, transparent price. We are planning to develop our customer program on an ongoing basis. Most recently, we have expanded in the sense that company pensions with Danica Pension, they also count when we calculate the scope of business. In 2013, we also launched a number of digital solutions, and our customers have really welcomed those. One of them is MobilePay and not least, online consulting. More than 1.1 million Danes have now downloaded MobilePay, and I think it is fair to say that MobilePay has opened up new opportunities and has changed the habits of the Danes. Less than 2 weeks ago, for example, MobilePay was used, that was a first, in a nationwide house-to-house collection when DanChurchAid made a collection. Recently, we launched Danske Letbank, so Danish Letbank, if you like. A simple, more user-friendly version of the Danish internet banking system, intended for customers who are not that experienced with the use of computers. We have also done more with the young customers. We have now expanded the number of advisors that are dedicated to young people and have special knowledge about young people's finances. That is not it. We are reviewing the whole business at 360-degree check of our accessibility and service levels with the purpose of clarifying where there is room for improvement. We have seen, for instance, that in Denmark, we have now far many cash registers open around the end of the month, and we have longer opening hours so that when people come to the branches, they do not have to wait that long. As regards to the SMEs, we have 3 clear focus areas. We want to provide specialized advice. We must be leading in terms of digital solutions, and we must be more consistent and quicker when we process credit applications. In 2013, we have opened new specialist centers in the Nordic main seats that we have. So there we have competencies in cash management, trade finance, risk management, capital markets transactions, and real estate to ensure that customers always have access to the best advisors. Decisions on the granting of credit, those decisions are now made closer to customers. So we have faster, better, more consistent processing, and the applications will be seen by those who know the customers the best. Also, in the field of mobile and tablet solutions for businesses, we are at the front of the pack. In 2013, we gave our business customers easy access to the finances of their businesses by launching mobile and tablet business app. A short time ago, we launched MobilePay Business in Denmark, thereby giving our business customers the possibility to receive payments from customers via MobilePay. MobilePay is not just an app, it's a new infrastructure, a new field of business for Danske Bank. The improved offerings to enterprises, our leading mobile solutions, quicker, more consistent processing of credit applications, they have helped to create clearly a more positive customer satisfaction among large customers and medium-sized customers. In our work with the biggest companies and institutional customers, 2013 was a good year. Here, our strategic focus is to create clear value for customers through solid, competent consulting. In 2013, we strengthened the products and services that were already strong. We strengthened them in what's called transaction banking by increasing our investments in trade finance, cash management, and our leading IT platform. Together with many other initiatives, this contributed to strengthening our market position and customer satisfaction. The clearest result was the fact that we won the award as the best bank in the Nordic area by business customers, the large business customers, and institutional customers. We work hard for this result, and we are very proud about it. In addition, we have made a targeted effort to improve customer experiences. We are trying to make it simple and easy for big international business customers to have access to the right competencies and tailored solutions accommodating their complex needs. Most recently, we have thus opened an entirely new international banking unit that will contribute towards this end. As the Chairman of the Board mentioned in his report, the many big and small initiatives we have launched are now beginning to show the first results. Customers are more satisfied and financial results have improved. Obviously, we're very pleased with that, not least because it gives us confirmation that we are on the right track, because it shows us that if we put in every effort and we have our entire organization support these efforts, we will actually succeed. Even if, in terms of financial results and customer satisfaction, we still have quite a long way to go. The task of restoring Danske Bank is a big task. It's an important task. But I'm convinced that we will succeed, not least because I know that among the bank's employees, there is the will and a deep felt wish to make Danske Bank into a bank that you can again be proud of, and a bank that delivers a good return to you shareholders. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. While we've been listening to the report, I've been told they have concluded the fine counting of our test voting, and I'm pleased to say that the system actually works if and when we need it. Perhaps, I thought that there was national coach who had ensured that he would get an hour additional training to. Anyway, let's see the result and see the expectations. It looks fairly positive. 52 million votes. Believe that we'll win the match, but 64% do not know what to expect, but only 0.23 bet on a Swedish. Fortunately, they'll be able to speak. There's a speaker over here at the flag. We also mentioned, as was said before, that it will all be webcasted what happens in here. If you've got any particular reasons for not wanting to be filmed, you can tell it to the people when you register, then we'll turn off the camera when you're up here. Otherwise, expect that people will be able to see you also outside this room. A number of speakers have already registered. First of all, I'd like to give the floor to Claus Wiinblad, who's the stock manager from ATP, and then will be calling Jesper Schou Rønge from the Association of Danish Shareholders. Please. Thank you. My name is Claus Wiinblad, and I represent ATP. I'd like to thank and the CEO for their reports on fiscal year 2013. Even though the year's profit was progress, a return on equity of 5% is still far from satisfactory. In connection with the 3Q report, the financial goals were adjusted to a more realistic realistic level with the objective of a return on equity of 9% and even 12, where Danske Bank are challenged, and I'd like to emphasize four areas where I would like to see some clearer objectives or KPIs, which will show how Danske Bank expects to increase its earnings and reach its financial objectives. The first such area is the earnings from personal banking. With the cost income ratio, the ratio between income and costs of 72%, we only see a very limited improvement in 2013. With the high market share that Danske Bank has in the Danish market, there should be potential for a significantly lower level. One explanation could be that the earnings on the markets outside of Denmark pull down on the KPIs. With the information level provided by Danske Bank, it's unfortunately not possible to see whether it's true that improvements are needed, especially outside Denmark. But all in all, there should be a considerable potential for improving the earnings in personal banking. The other area is earnings within Corporates & Institutions. In the strategy plan, which was launched at the Capital Market Day in 2012, about the improvement of earnings within this area was essential. It's difficult to see that now where the pressure on the trading income, we want to bring them back up to the previous level of 80 billion. Does Danske Bank still see potential for improving the earnings in C&I? The third area is non-allocated capital. Even though a significant proportion of Danske Bank's capital has been allocated to the individual business areas, there are still some DKK 13 billion which haven't been distributed or allocated to the business areas, which all in all generate a loss. What are the possibilities of limiting the dilution of the return on equity caused by other areas? If this dilution is a persistent phenomenon, will it not require higher return in the other areas of business? The fourth area I'd like to ask about is the size of Danske Bank's balance sheet. All in all, Danske Bank has a balance sheet are the pot sheet, including by improving the return on equity. My four questions are to be perceived in this way. As I see it, in many areas, Danske Bank has made a lot of progress in terms of turning the development in the bank and improving the earnings. On the other hand, we still have a huge task in front of us in ensuring a strong and well-earning Danske Bank on the longer term. My fifth relate that we will be discussing later at this general meeting. My first comment is that I think it is important that the general meeting is used only for what it's intended for, i.e. Danske Bank's supreme leadership body. I will not comment on the individual proposal, but will only say that I think it's important that proposals focus on overall strategically important matters for Danske Bank. Other types of topics and questions, the dialogue between shareholders or between the company and the individual shareholder. But of course, we should have room for a good debate on any good general meeting. Thank you. The next speaker from the Association of Danish Shareholders, Anne Marie Skov Rinkile. Thank you. Dear Danske Bank, thank you for good reports from the Chairman of the Board and the CEO. Another moving Danske Bank year has passed, and once again, I represent the Association of Danish Shareholders. I sense a great willingness to finally meet the customers where they are and not where Danske Bank used to think they were. It's a positive step on the way because a banking success will be based on a demonstration of respect for customers, the employees, and the products offered. Danske Bank's vision, according to the annual report, is to become the most trusted financial partner to the customers. I've assumed that we are talking mainly about Danish customers. But at the same time, I'd like to point out that it would be appropriate for the Danish customer to continue to receive the annual report in Danish. After all, we are talking about the annual report of Danske Bank Danish. To desist bureaucracy is welcomed, and if you actually manage to implement it's a very good initiative for the customers and also saves costs. The Association of Danish Shareholders also found that the initial recognition that satisfied customers are the way to persistent profitability is positive. The return on equity is still a bit low with 5%, but the aim of 12% is fairly ambitious, and they have even reduced the objective from 15%. Now, who will bear the brunt when we are reaching that? Only two parties are strained, or by increased interest spread or interest fees. We know that especially in the agricultural sector, it will be difficult to handle higher fees. Customers in difficulties will not be better off by having to pay the bill for Danske Bank's unfortunate investments over the years. So the risks for certain groups of customers increase. A third possibility to increase the-- which has been halved actually in 2013. We see a decline of DKK 5 billion compared to 2012. It would seem that the trading income are based on the economic climate. So I'd like to hear what sort of bonuses were paid in Danske Bank and what other consequences does that decline have? After five years without dividends paid, we get a modest dividend of DKK 2 per share. 28% of the profit for the year. However, it is positive that we're on the way. When do you think that we'll reach the objective of 40% of the profit? Can you be a bit more precise in reporting the time horizon than just by saying eventually? Perhaps we could have a development in dividends, which would match the development in pay within the sector. Now, something completely different. The very extended product assortment to personal customers is a unique one, both for personal customers who want personal advice and for customers who want digital solutions. I would like Danske Bank's this year to the bank initiative is a good initiative. But it's no secret that customer satisfaction in Danske Bank is still low and customer retention could be good as well. Thomas Borgen talks about openness, transparency, and dialogue with the customers, which we consider very positive. Danske Bank could start with transparency in the fees for business customers. It's important for the shareholders that these things are implemented in action and not just nice words. Danske Bank's image seems fragile, so it's even more required that there's no deviation from the communication. A 5% fee increase for the board is a bit of a red cloth in the face of the shareholders. It is almost indecent when we look at Danske Bank's ability to make money and ability to generate return on the equity. It would be nice if the board would show some pay restraint until the results materialize. Finally, I'd like to quote Jan Corsten for an intervention in 2013. When we look at many executives' high pay, we must remember that they haven't founded the company or own the company, and none of them have made any great ideas or created exceptional results for shareholders. They have only, like many other wage earners, done their job ensuring that the company that they're responsible for has been nursed according to the instructions of the board. But as long as they deliver disappointing results, even though things are improving and if customers are leaving the shop, should we then give pay increases to the executive boards and board of directors? We want to see Danske Bank get a tailwind. So I'd like to thank you for your attention and wishing Danske Bank a good wind ahead. Over to the chairman of the board who's got these two. We will hear from Karl Swebon of the board. First, thank you. First, thank you, Claus Wiinblad, for your intervention and for your questions. I noted four questions. First one had to do with personal banking. Claus Wiinblad said that our cost-income ratio was too high. I can only say that we agree, and we are working hard to improve our cost-income ratio. As regards Corporates & Institutions, we have launched a process, taken a number of initiatives to develop products and generate more income. There was also a question concerning other areas. DKK 13 billion that we haven't allocated. We are looking at that at the moment, and we are allocating all capital. Today, we've discussed capital allocation actually on the board. Naturally, all capital should be allocated to the individual business units. The size of our balance sheet. Well, repo plays a certain role here, but the structure there is also another element. We need to look at capital efficiency also in relation to the regulatory requirements concerning capital. So we need to be more effective and efficient on that one too. Thank you also to Anne Marie Skov Ring for your question. How can we reach the return on equity? Should customers or employees bear the brunt, if you like? You can't really put it like that. Satisfied customers are a precondition if we are to be successful. So the point is that we need to develop products that customers want. Naturally, we cannot charge a higher price than what customers are prepared to pay for these products. So we're working to create more income, new income, and more stability in our income, including trading income. I'll come back to that one. We are operating in a competitive market, so naturally we need all the time to look at the costs spent on producing the services and products that we are offering. We need to make sure that we do not consume more costs than necessary. We are also going some. Naturally, we need to gear ourselves to that situation. I think I skipped one question, didn't I? I think your first comment was about the annual report, and you said Danske Bank is a Danish bank, right? Let me say that we will continue to publish the annual report in Danish. It will, however, be a condensed version where we will be able to focus on the main points, while leave some of the notes that are very extensive. The target group for the annual report. We have to realize that target group does not consist of Danish shareholders anymore. If we disregard our biggest shareholder, A.P. Møller and Maersk, Danish working language of the board of directors is English. It's more convenient if the annual report that we formally approve is actually the one that is the formal version in the market. We are very attentive to it. We do have many Danish shareholders. I can assure you that going forward, there will be an annual report available that hopefully lives up to everybody's expectations. The trading income, by definition, is uncertain. We are making a focused effort to increase our trading income. 2012 was at a very high level. 2013 was low. 2012 was an unusually good year. We are working to have more trading, and we do believe increase compared to 2013. Most recently, we have combined our activities in transaction banking and international banking across the business areas, business banking and C&I. We have the best team available, competences available for individual customer. There's also a question concerning dividend. It's the first time since 2007 that we are allocating a dividend. It's not just up to 40%. We are starting kind of slowly, 2 DKK per share. That's 28%. Naturally, I'd expect any closer than that to say when we expect to be able to pay out 40% as dividend. I can't put up a formula for that. That has to be decided at the end of the year. We look at our capital situation, we look at the future prospects ahead of us when we come to that juncture. As I said in my report, I do expect that we will be able to increase our dividend payments in the coming years. I don't think I can be more specific than that or stronger than that. You had something also about customer satisfaction and openness, transparency. We've taken note of your comments, and we are working constantly to improve also in that field. Finally, there was something about the remuneration of the board members. Let me say, first of all, the total remuneration for 2014, there's no proposal to increase the total, the combined remuneration. There is a small kind of reshuffling. We are increasing a little bit here, decreasing a little bit there. Marginally, actually, there is a small reduction in the combined remuneration for the board members, and we have not seen an increase in board remuneration since 2011. I do not think my colleagues or myself on the executive board or the board of directors, we are not claiming that we invented the wheel or reinvented it or whatever. But the fact of it is that no matter what happened in the past, I think what serves shareholders best is that we try and put up a competent team. When we recruit and retain key staff members or board members, we need to pay a reasonably competitive remuneration. You can say what you want about the levels, but I do believe that we have been reluctant about increasing. The executive board, we are not increasing their salaries this year. We did not do it last year. And the board of directors is unchanged since 2011. Thank you. The next intervention, as I said before, Carl Valentin. Could you please come up here? And after this speaker, we will hear Bjorn Hansen. Dear shareholders, my name is Carl Valentin Lehrmann, and I am the chairman of the youth organization of the Danish Socialist People's Party. As you will probably imagine, I am not the type to have shares in a whole lot of companies. Also not the type who usually carry suit, as I am going to talk about today, is in my organization, we have an appeal to Denmark's largest bank. We think that you should actively distance yourself from the use of tax havens. And we feel that way because the Danish state coffers are missing DKK 14 billion from multinational companies who use tax havens. And time and time again, we have seen Danes do not like tax. Jyske Bank has been facing severe headwind after documentation on Danish radio on tax havens. If we adopt this idea, we can both make sure that the use of tax havens is paying our custody tribute to the community. We have also made a similar proposal at the general meeting of Jyske Bank. And believe it or not, but their board have actually recommended that it be adopted. So I hope that you will consider voting in favor of our proposal, both for the sake of Denmark. Thank you for your intervention. We will return to that when we have the separate item on the agenda. I will give the floor now to Mr. Bjorn Hansen, and after Bjorn Hansen, it is AG Bjorn Petersen who has asked for the floor. And after these three speakers, I will ask the chairman to come up here and comment on them. Thank you for giving me the floor. I would like to thank the chairman and our new managing director or CEO. You did quite well. You can say 80 and 70 in Danish, and actually, that is a point where Danish and Norwegian is interlinked. So thank you for translation on B&H. Last year, I had the first question in these digital times. We wish to receive email addresses for people in the above departments and the second customers in Danske Bank who wish to check their account and see the items. It is troublesome for them, e-Boks, era and Danske Bank. It has been referred to by other shareholders. I have written down a date and a question mark. I would like to hear a date for the correction of these things. My third question is that we have been receiving emails from Warren Buffett's company saying that shares can be bought at the broker bank. Who can tell me who can sell Warren Buffett's solar cell 3 packages in South Africa? You have a different concern. Speak both English and American, and also Norwegian and Danish. For Danske Bank, For Danske Bank have very fine printouts and account statements. Actually, you're quite good in your service branches when you ask about things. It can be a bit difficult. For instance, on the 8th of November, 2013, they wrote section 59 point 1959. Miscellaneous on the 12th of November, DKK 812. And again, DKK 48 and EUR 30 payment for tax. Says now, first payment again, 123, and is that text that Danske Bank wrote is. You see, when 1,000 Danish kroner according to an EU verdict about return systems, environment. And pawned on pledges on bottles. Now, when will you address this properly in Danske Bank? The EU court about VAT and capital management in EU, Norway, and a third country. Norway has, as you know, both the financial and a trading agreement with the EU. The agreement dates back to the 1950s. They use it very cleverly. Pension made to ensure repayments for customers going forward, because you won't see tax coming on and knocking on your door. How many customers have you lost over the past 3 years? And when will you close down your operations in Ireland, especially Northern Ireland, and open instead for cash and checks in the remaining Danish, Swedish, Norwegian branches owned by Danske Bank? Some places I have seen abroad, there are places where you can just withdraw money, and there are other places where you can just put money into a hole. It will be counted, and you immediately get the result. So it works very well for both deposits and withdrawals. If you did something like that, you would get a lot of customers growing big. In Jutland. In Jutland at a big Nordic food and non-food fair ending today. There are customers who asked if the bank should also be paid AMBI money, VAT, and interest. Who can we in Danske Bank- Another decision that tax authorities owe to business. This is also a lot of money. It has been dealt with before. What I would like to say is that many of you shareholders, including the bank perhaps, could get some money back from tax, which would make the dividend look a lot better for shareholders. Thank you very much for your attention. As mentioned before- Well, Eric J. Petersen, would you please intervention. The Chairman of the Board will reply, and then Holger Bech Nielsen will come after that. Yes, I am Eric Petersen. I just represent myself as a small private investor. I have two questions. Ole Andersen has actually touched upon both of them, so I could be rather brief. The first one is the government hybrid capital, EUR 24 billion, because I understood that the interest rate was just over 9%. That is a high rate of interest. So just a supplementary question. What will take the place of that capital? Will the hybrid and equity capital be reduced, or will there be other capital coming in, hopefully at a low interest rate, replacing the loan that is now being repaid? That was my first question. The other one is more complex, but it concerns the future, which is very imp- Important to me, because I'm going to spend the rest of my time in it. It has to do with the coming banking. I know it hasn't, because it's not been decided, but no matter if Denmark will or not, it will affect Danske Bank, because you do have branches in EUR countries that will be obliged to be a member. Banks must have better capitalization. Ole Andersen mentioned that. Capital rig before, but they have a lot of mortgage banking in Realkredit Danmark. What is going to be the status of these mortgage bonds going forward? If they are not given the highest rating in terms of liquidity, they will be less attractive to banks because they will decline. Decline in demand often leads to a decline in prices. That's important for us as private investors to know whether our bonds are threatened. In that sense, it also must mean something to the bank's share price, because if the bank is going to tie up, they'd have to expect a lower share price if things go in the worst situation. I know it's not certain, but could you give us some scenarios, some assessment? What do you expect might happen? Best case or worst case, maybe. Thank you. Over to the Chairman of the Board to comment on the, and then we will hear Simon Vallent. Simon Vallent, thank you for your intervention concerning tax havens. First, let me stress that Danske Bank does not wish to have anything to do with businesses that involve tax evasion, that have that as a purpose. We comply with legislation. The market, and we advise products and services that we offer. If we have complex issues, we always refer our customers to their auditor or attorney. You can read more about our attitude concerning tax evasion in our CSR report. I think we'll come back to that in connection with the people that will be voting on questions. I think questions could be answered by our customer people outside, but I think Thomas is going to make an attempt in a little while. I will take the liberty of moving on to Erik Petersen's comments. First one, just a comment concerning our DKK 24 billion hybrid loan from the nearest few. What will take the place of that loan? We have already raised capital that will take the place of that. Most recently, we issued Tier 1 bonds of 750 million euros just a few weeks ago. It was an issue where we ended at 5.75% interest. As I said in my report, repayment of the government hybrid loans means that we expect net to save interest to the tune of almost DKK 1 billion. So we're refunding. Another question concerning the possibility of Danish banks. Can you include mortgage bonds as extremely liquid assets? What it will mean if that is not the case going forward. Naturally, it's important not just for Danske Bank and for our colleagues in the industry, but also for the Danish mortgage bonds, that they will be liquid. Therefore, it can be more expensive for house owners to raise mortgage loans. Nobody wants that. There is quite a lot of work going on at European level to ensure that Danish mortgage bonds do count as the Danish government. That does really make it difficult for us to support growth and increase employment. Thank you. Thomas? Thank you. You can just study your Danish, you said, but I will try to do my best to respond to your question. I think the first question was if you ask Danske Bank about an error, and if you were to get a response, you would, of course, due page, or you can talk to Thomas Mitchell, who is our manager in Denmark. There are many alternatives for you. Then you asked a question about what you call troublesome. You said it was meant difficult. I suppose that generally we get very good feedback on our digital solutions and our eBank solution. But of course, we must always try to become even better. One of the things that we've launched, which I also pointed out in my short report, was that about 20 days ago, we launched the Letbank, which makes everything even easier to get the answers to your questions, for instance. You also had a fairly detailed question about where we could buy one of Warren Buffett's latest investments. I know that we've got some advisors who can give you advice on most investment details. The fourth question was fairly complex. It was more tax question and actually directed more at the Danish state. You also asked about the calculation of inter- customer advisors who are in the lobby, so you can explain to us what we can help you with. You also had a question about the pension sector. That is, again, not something that will affect us in Danica function, but we will have to see if this decision, which took place five days ago, will affect us. You point out something relevant about also we will have after all and deposit money. So we're looking at that already. About how many customers we have lost in the past years, I think we have indicated that we have lost about 150,000 customers over the past three years. We are very sorry about that. Has reduced significantly over the most recent period. We will make sure that we'll soon have no more reduction in the number of customers. I think that was all your questions apart from one, which I would like you to take up with the tax authorities. But if I have misunderstood you, I regret. The next speaker is Holger Bech Nielsen, followed by who can please approach the rostrum. We'll hear Anders Fanggum. Also at this AGM, and dear Ole Andersen, you told me that the rostrum was free, and even if somebody presented an intervention which was less about the bank and its economy and more about political statements, you had a right to express your opinion here. The chairman fought him in the line of speakers, and he has quite a different view on why we're here at the general meeting. Anyway, I attended last year's AGM in order to get a sense about what sort of people were dealing with the part of my assets which I have placed in Danske Bank. I had also made some considerations about some accounting items that I presented then. Even though something had happened under the previous leadership which were not the best for us owners, I went home with a good feeling afterwards. Later in 2013, they showed resolved. Resolve as well, and I thank you for that. What I asked about was, of course, the assessment of certain assets, where I asked about. We will no longer be agreed with you on that. However, in 2013, there has been a lot of debate on the bank's customer policy and the loss of personal customers. Here, our new CEO has been very clear in his statement. You are only living on the customers. However, all branch managers have seen this slide. Personally, I have experienced how unpleasant it is when a branch manager of yours has not found out about your new strategy. But fortunately, these things were corrected in the end, and on my own initiative, I moved my business to another branch, and I have not complained because I am now getting a really good service. There is nothing positive about a complaint. But a branch manager like that whose understanding is if the managers who are just below the top level need to be given the insight into your strategies. I hope that everything is now in order, and I have not asked about it because I do not want to spend the time on such a negative question. Then I would rather find another bank. But the question about to the level where being a customer in Danske Bank was something that you could be proud of. Only when that is in place, the bank will be fully back on track, and our shares will again be worth what they should be, which would restore my assets. About one item in the financial statement, I have a question, the shadow account item. It is not described adequately as I see it. I have checked Danica's accounts for 2013 and to see what it would. It has of 800 at the end of 1.2 billion DKK have been allocated, and for 2014, some of it may be recognized as income. There are no comments or disclosures about, and this item does not have a special item or line under provisions. To me, 800 million DKK and 1.2 billion DKK is a lot of money and insignificant in Danske Bank's consolidated accounts. I am sure it has been audited by and checked by the Danish FSA, per se, but still, it looks like something that I do not really want to say here. I hope that it is not out of old habit. Sometimes you bad habit from Frank Aaen. After that, it will be Mikael Torpe. In the report, the board briefly touched upon a very embarrassing matter, the fact that some of the bank's employees are being accused of price. They just said just four people. But actually, this matter goes all the way up to the top management. Both the bank and Realkredit Danmark are being charged with it. As I see it, you have not been careful enough when you just say that, just are responsible when it is the culture that goes up into the very highest levels of the bank. Price manipulation, in all simplicity, is about benefiting the earnings of the bank to the detriment of customers. That I think is probably more serious than just 10 or 15 words in a report. Secondly, what high personal motives for bank employees to go over the edge? I think you should consider that as well. Personally, I have no doubt that what drives people to do something which they obviously know is wrong. In the world of finances, its programs that you go to, these people who have so far been charged, they have a hefty bonus program. There's no doubt that is the drive of it. I think it's strange that they do not address this problem. Just tell this general meeting, well, that they want more bonus programs when we know that the entire financial crisis was caused by these programs to. Clearly, they haven't learned the lesson about the ill effects of price manipulation, which is very concerning. Another thing which wasn't mentioned at all is the sale of Nets. Nets, the Dankort payment, the OP-ED, and e-Boks, is on the way to being sold to two American private equity funds, and also ATP is involved in that too. One of the private equity funds called Bain Capital is considered to be a worse private firm than Goldman. Strip company and the other investors will lose money. They are called company rubbers in the U.S. Is it a good idea to sell our Dankort and the infrastructure related to it to people like this, to a company which includes Bain Capital? That's a good question. That it's true. I hope that you will tell me that it's not correct what I've heard, because it seems like one of the worst buyers that you could imagine. The final question is also about the Dankort. The company which looks set to take over Dankort and the rest of Nets is an American company. We know from experts, from people who've been studying this, from responses from the Ministry of Justice, that as soon as you talk about being, it will be subject to American law. American law has very wide powers to demand information from a company which they want without any judge intervening. They can just withdraw, pull out the information that they want. I think that's another issue. We're talking about Danske Bank having the responsibility, sensitive services, and Nets is responsible for the sensitive data. Even if Nets is sold, still this bank will have the responsibility. If the bank takes part in selling the Dankort to an American company, which brings the company under American law, then the bank obviously will no longer be able to control the responsibility. Then the Danish authorities will not have any chance to verify that the stipulations of data protection later will be provided to them. Shouldn't you of selling to a private equity fund like Bain Capital and an American company where the potential consequence that it has on data protection. Shouldn't you put, emphasize the customer's data security more than what has been presented in the proposal for? Again, from the chairman of the board, after him, Lars H. Nielsen. I'm Michael Turgussen. Many years as a shareholder in the bank. You seem to be discriminating against and against other Israeli companies, too. I've tried to find out what this means in terms of the earnings of the bank. I haven't been able to get any information. You must know the financial consequences before you launch on activities like that. What are the financial consequences of your activity? Discrimination against other banks. Human rights are being violated all over the country. I can't believe that the bank would find that violations infringement of human rights in relations between Israelis and Palestinians. You asked a question about that. When I saw your list of your ethical policy, I could see there was an American company you decided not to invest in because it had infringed international law rules on workers' rights. But I was looking in vain for any Chinese companies you decided not to invest in. If you were first right, you could certainly boycott all free. How are you going to do, Gustafsson? I'd like to have a specific reply in money terms. As a shareholder, I expect the bank to do its best to make money. I cannot believe that the bank has any anti-Semitic sympathies, but you should either discriminate against nobody or you should discriminate against everybody. The latter, obviously in the context, not be possible to assess. Right, back to the chairman of the board. After that, we will hear from Lars H. Nielsen and Nicole Andersson. Over to the chairman of the board. Thank you for your positive words concerning action and non-core and the things you mentioned. A few comments concerning customers. Customers, that's what we live from. Let there be no doubt that we wish to focus on customers and we wish to develop our products and give customers a positive experience. We are working very hard to do better. Let me summarize. We are fully aware that our road to success goes via ensuring that customers are more satisfied than they have been so far. There was a question concerning shadow account, has to do with the Danica Pension. I'm going to skip that one. Henrik Ramlau-Hansen, the CFO, used to be the CEO of Danica, so he knows about shadow accounts there. He'll be addressing that one after me, just briefly to explain what a shadow account is. Let me say to Frank Aaen, let me address first the question of share price. I have no basis for commenting on. You were indicating that it was a bonus that was the driver for these infringements, and you were indicating that there might be further charges. We don't know anything about that, so maybe you know things we don't. Let me tell you. Manipulation. LIBOR case. Internal review. What this means is that we are actually tapping thousands of telephone conversations. We ascertained in 2009 that there were four employees in manipulation in the business mortgage credit market and some specific transactions. It's not related to the LIBOR case. But it was discovered in that connection. And in order to stress the fact that we are serious about openness and transparency, we have chosen. If we do not know. Case. To share the case to the Danish FSA, and they have handed over the case to the national prosecutor for international and economic crime, and that is where the case is at the moment for investigation. The police have charged the four employees and the two managers they had, and they have charged Danske Mortgage Credit. Four employees have sent with the authorities in connection with the ongoing investigations. Let there be no doubt that obviously we take this case very seriously. You said, I did not say much about it in my report. Maybe that is because there are limits to what goes. Processes are ongoing. All the examinations we have carried out, there is nothing to indicate that anyone else, apart from these four people, have been involved, or that there have been any other cases that look like this particular case. It is important. Is being demanded by a few major institutional customers. It has had no influence on the regular mortgage credit market and no consequences for private individual customers. It is now up to the police to assess this particular case. It is much too early to say whether, and if so, to which extent any current. As a result of the. It is also much too early about from Mr. Franco, and for anybody to be able to conclude anything about motives. The police are carrying out investigations, but there is nothing in our internal examinations to indicate that these employees have been involved in this for their own financial gain. I would ask the AGM to respect that since there is a police investigation going on right now, I cannot and will not say more. Case in any other light than what I have expressed here. There was a question or let me rather say comment concerning Nets, the automatic debiting company, and whatever else they do. There is a case going on there about Nets at the moment on that end. 16.7% holders of Nets to ensure. We want to ensure that the new owner will continue the development of Nets and the payment infrastructure that we banks benefit from. It would not be very wise of us if we cut off the branch that we sit on. Let me stress that is already Danish owned, 10%, and the other 90% is held by private banks. This is an ongoing process with Nets, so it is too early to assess where it is going to end. All I can say is that this is a regulated enterprise, and as regards Danske Bank's commitments to our customers, we will live up to those commitments. You had a question concerning Hapoalim, the Israeli bank. I cannot give you the reply that you would like concerning specific consequences in money terms. Well, there is a bit of a. So I will try to throw a bit of light on the whole matter. It is true that Danske Bank, just like a number of other major financial institutions, has chosen to put an Israeli bank on the list of enterprises that we do not invest in. This is a list that has more than 30 enterprises from all over the world on it. Like most other financial institutions, we have adopted some guidelines, and these are guidelines that our customers want. They want us to have guidelines like that. The guidelines we use must ensure that customers' funds are placed in companies' principles and the guiding principles. We are not to be the judges of this, that, and the other company. These are very complex matters, so we use external recognized experts for an assessment of whether those enterprises design compliance with these principles. In this specific case, experts have said this particular bank financed settlements that both Danish international authorities fringes. We cannot customer funds in that enterprise. It is important to stress it is not a boycott of the bank. We have an excellent cooperation with that bank in a number of areas. It is not a question of us deciding, taking sides in a conflict in the Middle East. We have a set of guidelines. Customers want that. We just like other big international institutional investors do. Going back to the question of shadow accounts. Henrik, thank you. My name is Henrik Ramlau. I am the CFO in the bank. It appears from the fact sheet consists mainly of insurance profit from traditional insurance business and profit from the unit-link business, and there is a smaller contribution. This is some of traditional business guaranteed products which have been sold for many years where the customers are guaranteed a return, and then there is the from unit-link. The result from the traditional businesses is that you try to make 0.5% to 1% of the savings, provided the return on the investment is satisfactory to give the customers their guaranteed returns. In the years where the investment return is not sufficient to allocate money to what the customer has been guaranteed, then the difference to what you expect to earn can be placed in a shadow account. We put 2014. Now the shadow account amounts to DKK 1.2 billion. It is quite true as the speaker says that we do not include these figures among the assets and liabilities, the official assets and liabilities, but it is an amount that the state again, the bank may earn when the return on investments increase so that we will be able to earn a higher return compared to what has been guaranteed to the customers. It is a shadow account because it is not a part of the actual account, but it is in line with the. Thank you. The next speaker, Lars H. Nielsen. Please come up here. Then next is Nicole Andersson. Danske Bank must make products to make customers be proud of being a customer and make the shareholders proud of being a co-owner bank. The bank's positive difference product gives all the customers the freedom to manage their economy and enriches the society. I've got a question today regarding the quality of your customer advice service in Danske Bank. Danske Bank was the Treasury Minister's advisor in the sale of 19% of the share in DONG, and your role was to prepare solutions and advice debate. Danske Bank advised the Social Democratic minister compared to a Liberal minister. The customer, Bjarne Corydon, has acted on the basis of your advice and the solutions provided by the bank. But it seems as if Danske Bank has advised as if it was the Liberal Claus Hjort Frederiksen who was the Treasury Minister and not a Social Democrat. Was the management happy with the bank's work as an advisor when the good advice led to the problems in the government and the loss of public confidence? Was that really good advice? The next intervention is Nicole Andersson, and then Lars Wismann, and then I'll give the floor to the chairman to comment on the decisions. I'm sorry. I hope I can retain your attention. I know that the list of speakers has been very long, not least to me. My name is Nicole Andersson, and I speak on behalf of the shareholders association, Best Women. It was formed for the women. This gives us the right to speak at the general meetings of these meetings. We have bought shares in Danske Bank, and that is the reason why I'm here today. Before I start my intervention, I'd like to wish to congratulate the employees, the executive board, and the board of directors on the true result for shareholders shares in Danske Bank. It's not a coincidence. There's only one woman and seven men in Danske Bank's board of directors. In the top management, there are six men and no women. Unfortunately, that is not something unique in Danish business industry. The proportion of Danish is when we're district for top management. It's shockingly low, that proportion. The low proportion helps place Denmark at the bottom of the EU statistics. To us in Best Women, this is a huge loss for society. It hampers competition and development in the Danish society when Danish business industry does not choose to utilize women's talent, experience. Danish is an advantage to a broad, diverse board of directors. A projection of Danish economy shows that in 2020 we'll be missing more than 100,000 persons. With further education, we'll also be lacking good leaders if we are not using all resources in our society manner. Board look when we're choosing the new leaders of business and industry. We have to act today. On that background, the government launched an act on more women in board in 2012, which imposed on Danish companies to set down objectives for the number of women in top management and boards. In Best Women, we call upon all companies, including Danske Bank, to back the act and work towards accomplishing this task. It shouldn't be too heavy a task. Today, Danish women educate themselves more than ever before, and in November 2011, a survey made by Berlingske showed that today we have a pool of around 100 appropriate candidates who are ready to join the biggest company's board of directors. Also, a few C20 companies like Trold, Carlsberg, and Pandora, they have already adopted an ambitious strategy for having more women in their management and are seriously working to implement the strategy in their operations. Women, according to law, an integrated part of their CSR strategies, which are expected to strengthen the companies and, on the longer term, create better results. For the majority of the C20 companies, this is far from being the case, and that applies also to Danske Bank. Danske Bank has announced that the bank's objective before 2007 is increase the number of women on the board by another woman and increase the number of from zero by 2%. In Best Women, we think that these figures are far too unambitious. I am tempted to say that they are unserious. Out of all companies, Denmark should really be leading in backing the state's little prioritization. When you were in financial trouble caused by a risk management which had gone berserk, you had no consideration before you accepted a most generous loan from the Danish government. Don't you think that it's now the time for you to give something back? Hasn't the time come to demonstrate more societal responsibility and contribute to the development of our society? Why not take the lead in financial Denmark and do as one of the U.K.'s biggest banks, Lloyds Bank, which last week introduced a 40% quota for the proportion of women in their leadership. If Lloyds Bank can do it, so can Danske. It's a question of will and visionary leadership. I'd like to end with the following questions to the Chairman of the Board, Ole Andersen. In connection with the recruitment of the new member of the board, the nominating committee has been assisted by a professional headhunter company. If that is the case, could you please tell us which company? Has it ever been a prioritization for the nominating committee to find a woman among the selection of suitable candidates, including candidates from abroad? Why has the board of Danske Bank not set a portion of women in the board of directors and the executive board? What will it take to increase the number of women in Danske Bank's top leadership and board? Thank you very much for your attention. Thank, our next speaker, Lars Wismann. Frank Aaen has asked to have the floor a second time, and then back to the Chair of the Board, Lars Wismann. [Foreign language] I'm Lars Wismann and I'm a Manager. I'm Lars Wismann. I'm the Manager of a consulting company that I run and operate. What gets me up here today is my wish to ensure that Danske Bank, in an open competition, can become the most attractive bank. A competition calls for openness and also the right management. There was something missing in the report by the Chair of the Board. How did you find Thomas Borgen? How did you pick him? Ole Andersen? He talked on October 8 to the Danish Shareholders Association, and Thomas Borgen came out on September 16 and said, "I'm not going to say anything the first couple of weeks." It was because of Eivind Kolding through a CEO had been made without a management company, without looking in the industry to find the best suitable candidate. It was all a hasty thing, and all 13 Board members that are here on September 16 said that all 13 of them agreed that the engagement, as he was told, he didn't have right choice. I mean, come on. How can you make people believe in that? We moved on, February 13, 2014. I'm a member of Børsen Executive Club, and there was a meeting with Thomas Borgen. Eivind Kolding was there in the spring of 2012. Thomas Borgen was there, and he said, I don't know what's happening here, says the speaker. He said four times. I don't know if the restroom, if you can increase the height. There we go. He said four times to the members of Børsen Executive Club. Now, Danske Bank, I think the sound disappeared, must have new openness, transparency. The dialogue, well that's precisely what all of my clients want. There are investment property customers, for instance. Another speaker talked about investment in commercial properties. I asked three very specific detailed questions to Thomas Borgen that he should have been able to answer. I did not get an answer. I wrote to him the same day. Something happening with the microphone, it would seem. Jeg tænkte, man kunne få den lidt op, fordi jeg får den i ryggen. De styrer den derop. Ja, godt. Ikke så tæt på mikrofonen. Godt. Du kan holde den. Tak. Så tænkte jeg, så skriver jeg til Thomas F. Borgen. I thought I would write him a letter. I did that the same afternoon, and I asked him six specific detailed questions. I thought, he's probably going to reply immediately. This is a new guy, and he's probably going to show that we answer all questions immediately, as I do in my company. It took 10 days, nothing happened. I sent a reminder. Then another 10 days later, got a letter, EA Kim Larsen, who said that he would questions, but there were different reasons why Thomas Borgen and Danske Bank could not reply to questions when they were specific and detailed. Then I thought, that's really interesting. If I had asked some diffuse and confused questions, I could have received another detailed specific. I received a letter, my documentation of the correspondence, and they got a book that I written, 39 essays about the world of finance. I got a letter from Frederik Bach, who is a deputy executive of a kind. He said to me I could find the replies in corporate on the website. Have they received my letters, my 13 sealed letters? I sent by messenger to the head office. No. When a shareholder and a customer in a bank approaches the board of directors, I decide tract of the letter. This very interested person like me has sent to the board of directors with the best of intentions. It took a while, and then Frederik Bach said, "You must write to Carsten Nøddebo in Realkredit Danmark, the mortgage institute. He can answer." I got the reply this morning. It was a bit longer, but he might as well have written, "Dear Lars Wismann, thank you for your questions. We're not going to reply to them." What did I ask? I asked, if it's so important for Danske Bank to know your credit, how you can. What is it that makes Danske Bank believe that our customers do not want to know about a credit rating? He said Danske Bank is not going to advise its customers on how to become more creditworthy. The more creditworthy bank is less of a risk to the bank. Come on. I want Danske Bank and the board of Danske Bank, going forward, as the first bank in Denmark, to say to our customers, "You've got. Depends on what the loan, where's the property, what kind of property. Is it a store? Is it an office property somewhere else? There are different prices. You can see them on our website. 85% of all loans would simply be a matter of just handling things very quickly. It was not so, but they doubled their contribution fee to DKK 800,000 a year. We asked specific questions, but they were specific and detailed, the things we asked so we did not give any replies. So I am asking Ole Andersen, Thomas Borgen, and if I have said something here that is wrong, would you tell the shareholders what was wrong? But we will tell a customer his credit or her credit rating so that we can see what is the price. Thank you for your attention, Mr. Speaker. The next speaker is Frank Aaen, who has asked for the floor. Saying more about the board should have said more in the report. We will see what happens in that case. I am up here to say that you did not give me any reply concerning data security. Danske Bank is responsible for customer data, that they are not abused, do not fall into the wrong hands. What can happen today, the company takes over Nets. American law will then regulate. There will be a conflict between Danish law and American law. I thought before you sell your shares, Danske Bank's terms of data security, if you sell to an American company, I hope you had done that, or that you will do that before you sign. Thank you. Peter Espersen has asked for the floor, and then Thomas Borgen and Ole Andersen will be able to reply. Peter Espersen has asked for the floor. I am Peter Espersen. About your customer program. As I said last year, I think it is a rotten one. You said one perhaps chosen not to use it because they have to pay too many fees. You should call your bank the Fee Bank with all the fees you are charging. As I said last year, and the fees are then the thing that will save you. If you want to get your customers back, remove these fees. It cannot be right you have to pay to get your own money. It is absolutely ludicrous. I have for now to have one called Budget Account. No, they are all called Danske Account. That is a mess that you have done. There was a TV program last year. What about, it was cold. It said that Danske Bank had received money from ATP. How much was that? Received from ATP. You want the annual report to be in English? This is a Danish company at the end of the day, is it not? You said that there were 300,000 shareholders. I think the majority are just normal people. They do not have any knowledge of the I think this book is very good. You can read a lot of stuff in it. This is what the representative from the Danish Oil Association said also. Is it not weird? Danes. Now there are five foreigners out of the eight. The other are employee representatives. They are Danes. Five of the others are from other countries. Only three of them are Danes. That is a shame. Could you have more Danes on the board? Then your remuneration of the board members. Three years ago, you received an increase from DKK 325,000 up to DKK 450,000. DKK 125,000 up, 38.5% up. Now it has been three years. Now you want another 5% and your argument, Ole Andersen. You said that combined is the same thing. That is not a very good argument. It's a poor argument. Getting more than your basic. Now you're going to get 67,000 more. You're also the Chairman of the Board in three other companies. Perhaps you also have received more money there now. It's terrible with you tough guys. Now you want 5% more. I wonder what you would say if your employees come and tell you they want 5% more salary. You would say, "We can't." You just want more and more, don't you? People do call you bandits in nice suits. Then in the committees, 150,000 and so on. Everybody else has to cut back, and you're saying the same to your people, your employees. But yourselves, you're not cutting back. It would be if you could do that. I forgot something. Oh, yes. Somebody sent me a letter. He was a treasurer in some sort of association. A wrestling club sent me a letter. That club, and now it's not going to be a business account anymore. It's a club account, and we'll have to pay DKK 50 a month to have the account because we are no longer considered a business. We are now a club. I don't want to mix it up with my own finances. It seems it's your operation. I think you should drop that proposal. Over to the Chairman of the Board, and then Thomas Borgen to reply to the interventions from the last four speakers. Ole Andersen, also to the last intervention from Peter Espersen. As regards women on the Board of Directors, let me start by saying that I sympathize a lot with many of the things that Nicole Andersson talked about. However, it is the AGM that decides here be minimum 25% in 2017. There's nothing to keep us from possibly exceeding that goal. You can have many views concerning the level of ambition and what have you. But if we have a well-functioning board, we have the competencies that we need, I would question very much whether we should replace members of the board with the only purpose of promoting the number of women on the board. Let there be no doubt that we see diversity as strength. It would be stupid to exclude half the population on competencies or ambition. We have an action plan for how to reach the number of 25% in 2017. Competencies always have precedence over gender. This time, we felt that the best qualified person to recommend was Rolf. He was the one who best met the profile that we had indicated in our process. There were some specific questions concerning the involvement of a professional headhunting company, and did we have criteria saying that we preferred a woman? Let me say that our discussion and of Danske Bank's profile on our website. Well, obviously, we match that against the competencies we already have on the board. Last year, we were told, I can't remember if it was at the AGM or in that connection that were competencies we were short on in the private customer communication. So we prepare a profile of the candidate for the board that we are looking for. In this case, we cooperated with an international professional searching company. I don't want to give the name. There's no need to advertise that. We cooperate with many different companies, also in that industry. We cooperated with a professional international company, and we said to them that we would prefer female candidates. Then when we came up to the goal line, we had to give priority to our competence profile rather than gender. We will continue to do that, but we will endeavor to be proactive when it comes to ensuring that we have as many women in this election process as ever possible. The question was then also, what do we do to increase the number of women that we could look at for these posts? We do a lot. It is very difficult to find women for the profile that we were looking for here, in connection with the recommendation of Rolf Erik Ryssdal. The most important thing we can do is to make sure that the recruitment base is expanded. If you look at the, when just one come, it is true that we only have one woman as a member elected by the AGM, but we do have three women as employee representatives on the board of Danske Bank. They've not been elected by the AGM, but it does mean something, a dynamic approach in the boardroom. There was another comment. "Isn't it time to give something back?" somebody says. Related to the loan that I've already thanked for, the one that we raised from the Danish government in 2009. Yeah, it is time to give something back, and we're endeavoring to do that. Your comments are welcome. We'd like to see if we can do even more. But as regards giving to our responsibility to society, and we are as sensitive to promoting the number of women in managerial positions and also on the board. We're not doing that to satisfy Nicole Andersson or others. Finally, just to comment to Frank Aaen. I think I touched upon it in my first reply. The rules concerning data security, they apply no matter who owns Nets. Nets is a regulated company, and there are rules concerning data security. I think Frank Aaen got the same reply from the ministry, and they were very clear about that. Over to Wismann. First, you had some comments concerning the replacement of the CEO in September last year. I don't think you were paying attention because what happened was that the replacement of the CEO was implemented within a short period. This involved external specialists, and I can guarantee that there was benchmarking also vis-à-vis any external candidates. We are quite confident that we found the right CEO in Thomas Borgen, and I do believe that it's worth noting that the board of directors and executive board are unanimous in their support for Thomas Borgen. So I have very little else to say about that. You mentioned something about DKK 45 million to Eivind Kolding. I don't know where you got that number. There's a comment without a microphone. We can talk about the numbers. I can only tell you that the figure is completely wrong. Those hand out our credit ratings to customers. Can you imagine how many cases we would have if people felt their credit rating was a little bit wrong one way or the other? This is one tool in a credit assessment policy. Obviously, we'll always do that to a specific customer, but not to everybody else. And about consulting. How can you improve your credit rating? I am sure that you can get a bit of good advice in that regard as well. Thomas, over to you. Mr. Nielsen. Your words about XN Solutions. You referred to the new Letbank, the light version of the e-banking system. You had a problem, or you had a question concerning DONG. We do not provide political advice. We provide financial advice. It is the response. Who was the last speaker? It is true the way you understood it. We have more than 1.2 million customers who have joined our customer program. That is 95% of the volume. There is about 200,000 customers who have not signed up for it for many reasons. For all customers, and we are striving to do that each and every day. You also had some views concerning names of accounts. Come on, you can go in and call it whatever you want. In your internet banking, you can go in and change the name of your account. You can be very creative and choose whatever name you want. You said, which is Pakistans Pension customer, and they are a good customer of our bank and have been so for a long time, and I hope they will continue to be that going forward. There is one more person who has asked for the floor, Mr. Keld Kristiansen. And would think the speakers come and register right now. Keld Kristiansen. Run OAP. I used to work at the bank, but now I am a shareholder. We had Eivind Kolding as the CEO, and there were things that he did that were not good. What have you done to remove those things that he introduced? Closing down cash registers in a number of branches. You are up or the railways are building. In Østerbro, in that district of Copenhagen, there is no branch that has any cash. Why not? Why does it have to be that difficult to get hold of some cash? And why are you maintaining your classification of customers that do accounts with you? You can see now the Coop, the cooperative society and stores, they have now introduced their own bank. Whatever you pay for in Danske Bank, you can get for free with the Coop Bank. Why should people then go to Danske Bank when they can go to the Coop Bank and get things for free? I think I have said more than enough, says the speaker. Meanwhile, more people have asked for the floor. Next one is Peter Espersen, who was coming back, and then Jens Sorensen. I am not going to say that people cannot ask for, but please do. There was no reply. There was this program on television last year, What a Party it was called, that said you got a lot of money or borrow from ATP. That is true. This thing about the. And to continue the way it was. Composition of the board of directors. I said there are five foreigners and only three Danes. Why? Aren't there any qualified Danes? Good. Do we have to get people from other. This thing of. Touch upon that. 45.4% increase. I think you should withdraw that motion. Thank you. I believe there was one more person on the list. Not there on my screen anymore, but this gentleman seems to be the next speaker. I am Ulf Kragers Andersen. Concerning loans to cooperative societies. You should establish a separate company to get your money concerning the rule, because of the rules concerning cooperative housing. If the customer cannot pay, there's only an enforced sale. The rule concerning cooperative dwellings means that these dwellings can only be sold for half or a quarter of the market price. Furthermore, the buyer has. How the bank goes and will fall to one quarter of the value. The solution should mean that the resident, the person borrowing, should stay in the dwelling. The company that should save this sector, all these owners of cooperative dwellings, I think it hasn't been fully developed. This is a serious matter, so the bank should find a way out, particularly for the bank's own case. The borrowers are losing their dwelling. They've been outmaneuvered. Buyers in for sales benefit market value is much higher if it were to be an owner-occupied flat instead of a cooperative flat. That's all from me. Thank you. Thank you. Over to Thomas Borgen. Over to Thomas Borgen, who will comment on that. After him, we will hear Jens Sørensen. We have certainly 59 branches in Denmark. About 55 of them have a cash function, have a cash register. In addition, there are 200 places where the post office can offer to handle simple matters. For instance, this question of withdrawing money or making simple payments. In addition, we have more than 600 ATMs, cash points. It's a difficult balance to strike. Customer behavior is changing dramatically. You use branches very differently. Many transactions are not carried out in the branch anymore. People are using their eBank or their site version of the eBank or the phone. But it's got balance, just as there should be. Branches in 2013. Perhaps it went too quickly. We have reversed a few of them. We are simply trying to follow the trend and see how customers act. I certainly respect that. If there are specific things we can do to help you, the speaker, we are certainly available out here in the lobby to discuss your specific needs. Peter Espersen, hopefully, that will continue to be the case. Again, concerning the annual report, I can refer to what has been said a number of times by the chairman of the board. The last question, that was a difficult one. I think that was very specific, this thing about cooperative apartments and that one. I do not think the lobby to see. We must not forget any questions from Peter Espersen. At least there was one more question concerning the board remuneration that I talked about, obviously. Let me point out to you that when you do a comparison with 2010 and then compare with 2014, the fact of the matter is that there was an increase of the board remuneration in 2010 before I became the chairman of the board, before any of the people over here on my right had entered the board of directors. From 2011 to 2014, there has been no increase of board remuneration. Thank you. Next speakers, Jens Sorensen, then Egon Gjertsen, and then Leif Ron. I would encourage you to be as brief as possible. If there is anyone else who wish to speak, you must. If you, yeah. I have nothing very critical to say about Danske Bank. We have worked with Danske Bank for 14 years. It has been satisfactory. Every year, we see our advice. I did it this morning. I must say that the replies I get are good. Fees that we pay have actually declined. Unfortunately, last year, I had to leave. I could not stay for the duration of the AGM, but I am very pleased that I have been calling. He is not there anymore. He cost his former employer a couple of billion. The Irish advance. Also what you said. You talked about 5.75% interest still, and I think that is quite a high level of interest, 5.75%. Other than that, I am very satisfied with. Next speaker, Egon Gjertsen, and then Leif Rump. It might be difficult to see from down there, but if you want to get up here, go right, because the steps are not so tall if you go over to the right, like this gentleman does. Working with IT. I have seen how it is possible to manipulate figures and make things look very nice. How is Danske Bank doing compared with other Nordic big banks? Miserably. DNB 38%, Nordea 13%, Swedbank minus 12%, SEB minus 23%, Danske Bank minus 50%. I will be saying to the people with as little hair as me, we have been losing money because the share price has gone down. We have lost a lot of money. We have been losing a lot of money, have we not? Svenska Handelsbanken, if we had invested in that, we would have had twice as much money to shareholders. Where does that come from? I am also a shareholder of Maersk, and I know that we have lost more on Danske Bank than the buildings. I mean, lost on Danske Bank. Thomas Borgen talked about customer satisfaction, but it is worse now than it was under Eivind Kolding. Why is that? A chain is no stronger than the weakest link. It would seem Danske Bank is losing out. It is not advantageous to Danske Bank. Recently, the other Nordic banks are outpacing Danske Bank for a number of years, but the bank has been a dilettante in what it has done. I believe most people, it's just nothing to benefit the shareholders. That's just what you can read from the numbers. At the AGM in 2009, the chairman of the board said that without Bank Package I, Danske Bank would have won. Last speaker for now is Leif Rump. Yeah, it's not so easy to find your way up here. I'll be very brief, says the speaker, and refer to the letter the board article associated prepared in English. If this is adopted, and if the annual report is only prepared in English, the board also intends to have a condensed Danish version prepared of the English language report. It's not decent. Danske Bank should issue a full annual report in Danish. Let me add that, as you normally do in situations like that, let me add that if there's any dispute or any difference between the two versions, the English and Danish language versions, the Danish language version should prevail. Thank you. Peter Espersen, did you want to have the floor one more time? No. To the floor. Well, I do believe that Mr. Peter Espersen would like to come back again. Yeah, I still didn't get a reply. The composition of the board. Why do you have that many foreigners and not so many Danes? That's what I was asking about. I don't know if you can't be bothered to reply. No one else has asked for the floor. The chair of the board will have the floor to reply. Nobody else wants to have the floor? Okay. Over to the chairman of the board. We had all in all 20 interventions. I'll start with it. I was very happy customers after 14 years of work, full satisfaction with our products and our services. Thank you. We're pleased to hear that. But let there be no doubt that our goal, perhaps too ambitious, but our goal is obviously for all our customers to be satisfied about being a customer of Danske Bank. So hopefully, there'll be more like Erik Sandsen going forward. There was a specific question concerning the refinancing or refunding of the hybrid loan from the Danish government. I mentioned 5.75% as the nominal interest rate. That is true. We have not issued EUR 24 billion, but EUR 750 million. That's just over DKK 5 billion in subordinate capital, and the interest rate there was 5.75%, the lowest interest rate in connection with the issuance of Tier 1 bond. Thomas Borgen will address Egon Gjertsen, Leif Rump and the last speaker. Let me say that obviously we will take note of your comments, but the annual report is quite a big volume. We are certainly going to continue preparing an annual report in depth to ring whether with easier to grasp, and I do believe we can cut it in such a way that the information required is needed. If there's an individual shareholder who needs very detailed information about this, that or the other, you can take a look in the English version. Now we'll try it, and we'll see how it works, and we'll then hear from you whether there's any information you is missing in version, and then we'll try and correct in the following year. There's a question concerning the composition of the board. Why are there so many foreigners and why are there no more Danes? Danske Bank is a very big bank in Denmark, but we are operating also in the other Nordic countries, and we also operate in Ireland and in Northern Ireland. Here, too, we believe in diversity. It's not a criterion to be a foreigner, but what's important for us is that we compose a board of directors which, all in all, has the competencies that we believe are the best for Danske Bank. Because of that, we, like most other big Danish companies and foreign companies, are looking beyond the borders, not just in Denmark. For instance, let me give you an example. Carol Sergeant is the only member of the board who's been elected by the AGM. She used to work for Bank of England, which is more than working 20 years. She was also a Chief Risk Officer in Lloyds Bank, a big U.K. bank, for seven years. That is a unique set of competencies. We certainly doubt that we could have found that in Scandinavia. If we could find that set of competencies, I'm sure we already had them, or they would be working somewhere else. That's also why we are proposing that the annual report that the board has to approve is then the official version in English. We will, of course, ensure that there is full concordance between the condensed Danish version and the official English language version of the annual report. How customer satisfaction has developed in the different divisions and the different countries. I think it's true to say we have developed positively, but we are not there yet. There's still work to be done. We fully agree. I do not hope, I do not believe that after today that this is going to be a topic that the Board of Directors takes on board. The way to get growth is by having satisfied customers. You also talked about the return. As the Chairman said, there is still work to be done to reach 9% and then 12%. As I said in my own report, I think we will get there. Thank you. Thank you. The list of speakers has been exhausted, which means that we have completed item A on the agenda. There are 32 items left. Some of them will be quicker, I think. First item, that's the Board of Directors report, is not something to be voted on. It's something to register. There are no more interventions, so I hereby conclude that the report has been- That note has been taken of the report. Then there's the submission of the annual report for adoption. This is B. We re-read it, the NSD annual C, we're doing better now. That was item two or B. C, proposal for allocation of profits or the cover of losses. As we have heard, there will be a dividend. The AGM may reduce the dividend proposed by the board. A bit provocatively, I could say whether anybody wishes to reduce the dividend. If not. Nobody wants a vote on this one, so this has been duly adopted. That was C. That brings us to D. We have had some comments concerning that. That's the question of the election of members to the Board of Directors. All board members resign every year. You can see that in Article 15. Those elected by the AGM, those elected by the employees are elected for four years at a time. The articles say minimum 16, maximum 10 members. At the moment, there are eight members elected by the AGM, plus the employee representative. So one member is resigning, as mentioned, Niels B. Christiansen. He doesn't seek re-election. The board is proposing to re-elect a board of eight members. So we have here the seven to be re-elected, Ole Andersen, Urban Bäckström, Jørn P. Jensen, Lars Förberg, Carol Sergeant, Jim Hagemann Snabe, and Trond Westlie. Before I ask questions if there are any other nominations concerning also the size of the Board of Directors, I'll say that we'll be coming back obviously to Mr. Egon Gjertsen's separate proposal for Ole Andersen to have to resign. It comes later on the agenda. First over to the Chairman of the Board, who will explain about the recommendation of the Board of Directors concerning election of members. The selection is made on the basis of the board member competence profiles. As you can see on our website, the competence profile has been supplemented most recently by a specific knowledge concerning the needs of private customers as a field of competence required. We also have an action plan for the future composition of the board. We focus on diversity in terms of competences, experience, nationality, and gender. As mentioned, our ambition is to have at least 25% of the board members as women in 2017. But as I mentioned also, competence over gender. Who best competing a woman, but he is not. So there you go. Rolv Erik Ryssdal, he is present here at the AGM. He is the CEO of Schibsted Media Group. He spent most of his career there. He's a Norwegian. He's an economist and has an MBA. In addition to his experience with banking, he has a lot of experience with the consumer market and has detailed knowledge of private customers. Rolv Erik Ryssdal is independent in accordance with what has been set out by the Committee on Corporate Governance. Any other nominations for the board? Other interventions? I promise, Egon Gjertsen, we will be coming back to a vote on your specific item later on. If not There's no fight over the nominations. So I'd like to congratulate the seven existing members, and I'd like to congratulate also the eighth new member. That was D. Over to E. That's the appointment of external auditors. Over to the Chairman of the Board to give the reason for the board's recommendation. As most people have noted, there's been a bit of a stir in the auditing business in 2013 and 2014. So the board has considered very much this year the question of the appointment of auditors. KPMG in 2014 will change, and they'll be important that the people who audited the bank in recent years, who know about the bank, that they should continue being our auditors, not least in order to ensure there is continuity. In this connection, we have considered the fact that two years ago, we moved from having two auditors to having one auditor. The bank has a big internal auditing section. Most of the audit mainly has to do with activities in Denmark. The effect of the existing KPMG changing partners at a global level doesn't really affect Danske Bank materially, and that is the reason why we propose to maintain KPMG. Other motions, Mr. Kjeld Beyer. I'm Kjeld Beyer, and I have submitted a motion to appoint the new KPMG because the company culture I have seen in Ernst & Young is not satisfactory for us as shareholders. Ernst & Young last summer were fined DKK 100 million compensation in a case where Danske Bank, I think, was also involved. I haven't yet been told how much Danske Bank's total loss is. Compensation claim. There was some sort of problem, I'm sure. So Ernst & Young is not what we want. In addition to memory card, they've also been the auditors of Roskilde Bank. We don't know what will come out of that case. But once again, Ernst & Young, they haven't done anything good. That the assets were worth millions. So there's something here that we cannot really trust. It's you, it's the AGM that appoint the auditors. You can't access all the books. You need some people to check. The board of directors and the executive board. So I would like to see some other auditor prepare recommendation now is to look into the possibility of next year having the new KPMG 2014. KPMG 2014, I think you should start negotiating with them to become the auditors for Danske Bank next year. Withdraw motion. Thank you, Kjeld Beyer. The chairman has said that these comments will form part of the deliberations of the board for next year. It's difficult to appoint new auditors at an AGM without having an agreement with them. So it's natural that there are no other candidates today, but obviously that can form part of the assessment for next year. So at this point, on motion, unless there are any objections. No. Congratulations to the auditors. You get one more year. That was item E on the agenda. Next one is item F, proposals from the board of directors to amend the articles of association. There are six different motions. I think there's only one of them that's relevant to us a little bit. But from technical little motions that I can come back to. Let me give the floor to the chairman, who will address the question of the annual report being written in English. The topic we have already talked quite a lot about. I think we've heard most of the arguments. But it's important. However, we have to realize that the target group for annual reports, they have English as their mother tongue to an increasing extent. Two-thirds, as I mentioned, of the bank shareholders are English speaking. If we dis- The foreign- Good sense. Official annual report should be presented in English. The working language of the board is also English, so there'll be concordance between the annual report that we approve and then the one that's published as the official report. It's going to be the English version. We'll continue also presenting an annual report in Danish, a condensed version. Going forward, the annual report will contain all significant information, but will leave out many of the extensive notes that only few shareholders look at anyway. I would also like to say that in addition to half a number of items, for instance, the risk report. Risk and credit, it has a lot of details in those areas. There is also the CR report explaining how we look at tax evasion, diversity on the board, diversity management, and so on and so forth. So there is a lot of information available. If it becomes a problem, if it is too condensed, we will consider. The motion here from the board is to say that the official document that will be handed in to the Danish Business Authority will be in English. It is not a question of whether it is also available in Danish. There will be a separate buyer and a little. I cannot understand. I cannot understand that this is a problem. I mean, to have the complete annual report in Danish, why should that be a problem? Elsewhere, Canada, for instance, specifically Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal, probably also Bank of Toronto, have their reports. Requirement. The languages, obviously, the complete annual report should also be available in Danish. Whether the legally valid document is going to be the English version, I could wonder about that, but that is not so essential. Does anyone else wish to speak on this item? Kjeld Beyer. Danish flag, just presented in English, should be refused. Danske Bank. Come on. Is this a funeral? What is it? There we go. That is the funeral for the Danish language then. Okay. Or is it time to take action here? The big foreign private equity funds and pension funds, they do not care about the Danish language. Why should they? It is troubling that Danish decision-makers fail the Danish population and Danish shareholders. Most people do not have a degree in English, so that is a lot of technical language that we cannot understand, and lots of phrases that we do not. So taking into account the Danish population in the Nets and NemID case, and we are being alienated in our own country here. Things will be more expensive, it will be more difficult to be a Dane going forward. Is that worth the price? Foreigners who buy Danske Bank shares, they have accepted to invest in a company registered in Denmark. One that is on the Danish Stock Exchange. The Danish shareholders have bought the shares trusting that the company and the Danish people protect our interest law on this entity. So it is up to the company's management and leadership, their ethics. Are you going to fail your fatherland, your Danish country? Are you not going to communicate in Danish? What we're voting on here is whether the Danish flag should be hoisted all the way up or be halfway down. There we are. It's a bit prettier up here, isn't it? Before we vote, I would like to hear whether ATP, the wage earners' pension fund, is going to fail the Danes and Danish customers. Have you asked your Danish pension customers whether you can say no to the Danish language? I don't think so. I'm afraid Denmark has a big democratic deficiency here, and in regard to the Nets system and the NemID system. I've written here that before we vote, I wanted to hear if you're going to withdraw your motion. Probably you're not, but I do hope that you will think twice and say, "No, this is not okay. We're a Danish company in Denmark. We must continue to present financial statements in Danish, annual report." Whichever other languages you have it translated into is up to you. But maybe it's 10 DKK per shareholder to have a translation of this whole thing into Danish, but the symbolic value is much bigger. You're losing a lot by having only another language. Please think twice. Obviously, it's possible to give more comment. It's a simple question. We can have a vote. Does anybody else wish to have the floor? Yes. Just like it says here, the annual report will be prepared and presented in English. What about here at the AGM? Is that going to be in English? That's going to be crazy. The annual report, it cannot be a big problem to have both a Danish and an English version. I can't understand, you just can't continue the way it's been before. We should vote against this particular motion. The board's motion is that the formal document, that one that gets registered, is presented in English. The comments have been listened to. Some people want a Danish translation. The board has talked about a slimmer version in Danish. That's where we are. We have the electronic system. Why don't we vote? Unless anybody else wish to have the floor. If not, I would like to have the topic up here. Annual reports in English. That's what it says here, annual report. It doesn't mean that English will be spoken here at the AGM. But you can vote now. Those in favor, you press 4. If you're in favor of the board's motion saying that the primary document can be in English. If you're against, you press the I-M-O-D, which means against. If you have no opinion, press B-L-K. I have a dummy up here. I can say the result that I have sent has been received. Any problems with anyone? We have some people standing by if you need help. It's quite late, so I will move on then to say that we have ended the vote. Hopefully, a little bit quicker than it did when we tested the system. Meanwhile, as we wait for the results, let me say that there are some more technical motions that I'm just going to mention. One of them is that it's a possibility of speaking Norwegian and Swedish. It's already in the act from Parliament that we can, but it was a motion from shareholders. It would be strange to recommend saying no, seeing that the CEO speaks Norwegian. The board has proposed to vote in favor of that. Next one is an old provision that was in for about automatic registration by name. It is not relevant anymore. Next one, deletion of a specific sentence in Article 10 saying that a member of the board could demand a ballot. That is a bit silly now that we have eVoters, and shareholders can always ask for a complete explanation of votes. Five, that is a deletion of Article 12, the last sentence about proxy requirements. The legislation has changed. The legislation on proxies for the board, it is no longer restricted in time to 12 months. The last question under F is to adopt a new secondary name, Danske Invest A/S. Meanwhile, I believe we have the result of the vote. You can see it here behind me. 50% is required to have it adopted. As you can see, that has certainly been reached. The motion to have the official version in English going forward has been duly adopted, and the board has listened to the ideas about what else should be available in Danish. G has to do with proposal to renew and prolong the board of directors' existing authority to acquire own shares. All big companies are asking for this, typically up to 10%, and typically in such a way that is asked for a period up to five years. What the board is asking for is the same that has been on the agenda for years. Any comments? Not the case. I will then move quickly and say that has been duly adopted. Next one is the remuneration to the board of directors. The board's proposal to sort of redistribute, we have heard about that, the remuneration for the individual items or individual members. No further comments. Is anybody requesting a vote on this one, the remuneration of the board members? No. Yes, somebody is requesting a vote, so this is then H. We have heard about the motion from the board, so please be ready to vote. This is H. We can start the voting now. Those in favor of the board's motion on the slight redistribution of the remuneration, press 4. If you are against, press IMOD, and obviously you can still vote BLK, which means that you abstain. It has been sent and received. I can see on my version. Any problems for anyone? No. Everyone has voted, so we have finished the vote, and we are just waiting for the result. Meanwhile, as we wait for the result, let me just briefly mention what the next item on the agenda is. The board of directors' proposal for the remuneration policy. It was also touched upon in the report by the chairman. As soon as we have had the result of the last vote, I will give the floor to the chairman who can then explain what the changes are. We have the result. We can have it up here. Duly adopted. Over to the chairman to explain the remuneration policy. In addition to the changes that have already been explained, the proposal here concerns some new elements concerning the policy adopted by the AGM in 2012. First of all, the policy as a new thing makes it possible for people who have a controlling function that they can obtain a bonus. Although they cannot obtain a bonus on the basis of the results obtained within the field that they control and check. This motion just brings our policy in line with legislation. We've also strengthened the governance and approval procedures for the allocation of profit-related pay. We've put in a new section concerning remuneration that is comprised by special rules of law. This has come about from the so-called MiFID rules. These are EU rules aiming to protect investors in regard to the trading in financial instruments. Alternative investment fund manager rules, these rules have also been adopted by the Danish parliament. That was in June 2013. They apply, for instance, to Danske Private Equity, these rules. Last change, linguistic adjustments. We've tried to make this thing as understandable as possible. Any comments concerning this item? Does anybody request a vote? If not, we consider it duly adopted. Next proposal on the agenda is four motions from shareholder Kjeld Beyer. I'll just mention them briefly. You can see them in the letter convening the AGM under J. He is proposing to have financial information available in connection with the letter convening the AGM. Two talks about these documents being available in Danish for five years. Three, accessibility on the website, and four, that's the refreshments in connection with the general meeting. Kjeld Beyer, would you like to present your motions? Yeah. I thought it was necessary to send this motion. I sent a letter to the board two years ago and asked for better information. You haven't really complied with that as I had hoped. What has happened meanwhile is you have moved from everything to nothing. You moved from giving the full accounts, and now you don't even want to make it in Danish. Now it's going to be in English only. Of course, I cannot accept that. However, I will try to present a compromise to make it cheaper for the bank. You don't have to send out all of this. I still want you to have the full accounts available on the internet. Maybe you could do a picture version, an easier to read version, send things out to shareholders, the most important things, so that people can see the financial statements. You need a five-year overview with good key figures. You need the income statement, the balance sheet, and an explanation of the equity. On the basis of that, you can then go on the website and find whatever information you need. My motion is also that you have to be at the top of things. You want to set new standards. You have every opportunity here. You go to your website and look at the financial statements. What I want to see is that if you have a text that says that the operating accounts are on page 47, you should be able to click on that and go to page 47, see the information, read it, and then come back to the list of contents. Or to click on a note, and then you would be taken to the note that this concerns, and you can see what it says. You save a lot of money by not having the Danish version, so you can do that instead. It should still be available on the internet in Danish. If somebody wants it printed out, they should be able to say to the bank, "I'd like to have these full financial statements. Please send them to me in Danish." I've also proposed some better key figures in the five-year overview. I am in charge of our own pension funds, so I analyze the different companies. You always need some important key figures. It's like people never want to give a 5-year overview of what is the equity capital and how many shares are there, and what is the size per share. It sounds banal, perhaps. You can just check it out. Yeah, but things are rounded numbers. You have to be very precise when you do these calculations and you calculate your own numbers. I also use the intrinsic value to check that I've actually understood these numbers correctly. I would ask you, going forward, to also include the intrinsic value so you people can check their own calculations. You can see then whether that matches the price of the share of the bank. Whatever is required for people to be able to do their own calculations should be available from the 5-year overview. This thing about publication, how long you're going to store things. I've said as a minimum, you should store things in an easy way for 5 years. An easy way means you only use two or three clicks, and then you're at where you have the full overview of things. If you want some inspiration, I can refer you to a company called Ambu. It's very easy to find their financial statements and their quarterly accounts. You can take a look at that. Just two or three clicks. I'm an OAP. My eyes are not what they used to be, and many of your shareholders are a bit long in the tooth. Please make sure that your texts are easy to read. When you print something, please make sure that the font size is big enough. Then this thing about refreshments after the AGM, a bit of a joke maybe, but there was a time when people said different companies said they were going to stop giving refreshments. That's not reasonable. We spend a lot of time coming here, coming to the AGM of Danske Bank, so the bank should show respect and serve some decent grub. What we got today was very nice. Thank you, and I hope that's going to be the same going forward. It's a competent group of people. You people here in the room should have the same hourly pay as the executives because you're also decision-makers. More respect for shareholders going forward, that is my message. I withdraw this particular one about the refreshments. The other ones are, well, it's an illusion. We don't need to vote. I know that, but I'm just appealing to the company. Please make sure that we get some good key figures so we can navigate quickly through the company without having to look all over and be detectives. It should be easy to be a shareholder. Thank you. Dr. Kjellbjørg. Thank you, Kjellbjørg. Over to the chairman of the board. These were sort of more recommendations and good advice for the board. I will come back to that. Dr. Kjellbjørg. Thank you, Kjellbjørg. The board obviously appreciates constructive motions. We fully support what you said about openness and transparency. We want to make relevant information easily accessible. I think we are doing quite well on that one. Still, we cannot support your proposal to add specific accounting information to the letter convening the AGM. It is not because we do not think the information is relevant, but the information is already available on the website together with a lot of other information, and also available in the annual report. Accessibility, languages, all the annual reports, quarterly statements already available for a minimum of five years. We are not planning to change that. But to shift over to the English language report, we have already adopted that. Because of that, we cannot support your motion saying that the annual reports should be in Danish. I said we will still make the version we talked about, and we will take the comments made here as we go forward. The report for 2013 is already on the website, so we are in compliance with the intention. How many clicks did you need to move around in documents? I think we should leave that to the data management. That should not be a matter here for the AGM. There is no doubt that they will do whatever they can to make reports as accessible as ever possible. Then the refreshments, you withdrew that one, but let me point out that this year we did choose to have two different cakes to choose between, compared with last year's sticky cake. I do not know if the cakes are available still. Kjellbjørg, you are not requesting a vote. Okay. We can move on to K then. Before we do that, let me say that with the technical changes, I reviewed them, and it was my view that nobody had any questions, but I did not ask whether anybody wanted a written vote or electronic vote. Erik Petersen again. No, I am not saying we should have a vote, just a question here. It is said you wanted to have Danske Invest A/S as a secondary name. I have Danske Invest. I have some securities there. Now you are talking about Danske Invest A/S. Is not there a confusion? Are these two different enterprises? I do not know if anybody can answer this one. For a company, you can only register a name legally. You cannot register an association as a secondary name when you are a company. That is my guesstimate. Any reply to that? No, but still, the bank, it has to be an A/S, right? A limited company, right? That is my legal response. Does anybody else have any questions concerning the items that I went over quickly? If not, let us move on to the next one on our agenda. That is K, a Swedish shareholder, Tommy Jonasson. He is proposing that the board should take steps to set up an institute to work on the integration of Copenhagen and Landskrona. You have the floor if you would like to give the reason for your proposal. Thank you so much. The reason for this proposal, obviously, when you come over from the Swedish side, from Landskrona, you now have the Euro zone region, and everything that has meant. At first, the increase in traffic was not so speedy. Now new visions have been presented. One such vision has to do with the position of Landskrona, the Swedish town that I come from. There is a vision where they are looking 50 years into the future. That is a long time, obviously. 2063, they are talking about development from now until 2063, and actually, they talk about a fixed link between Landskrona and Copenhagen. This thought materialized four or five years ago, and this is the thought that I am now presenting here. Landskrona really requires this sort of initiative. An initiative from a heavy financial player could help a bit to promote the integration of Copenhagen and Landskrona. That is why I am here to say that hopefully, the board of directors could do something to promote this. It is not a question of money initially, it is more a sense of proximity, getting closer. We have Øresund. Those of us who were there in the '60s can certainly remember when we came to Copenhagen. Thank you so much for allowing me to present my views. I would then pass my motion over to the chairman of the board in a copy here. Just saying thank you for today. I have brought the book about Landskrona in English as a small present. Thank you. Thank you. We were able to actually implement the decision we just made that people can speak Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and English here at the AGM. That was a case in point. Over to the chairman of the board for a comment. Thank you for the motion. Danske Bank is a Nordic bank, so in our daily work, we already help promote integration across the Nordic countries, including integration across Øresund. The establishment of a special institute is certainly beyond what the board considers to be a matter for the bank. Even if we sympathize with the background for your motion, unfortunately, we cannot support it. We can have a vote. Would you like a vote on this motion? Not required. Okay. It's more of a recommendation to the board about a positive dialogue. Let us move on then to the next item on the agenda. These are, well, it's not one motion, but nine motions from shareholder Jørgen Dahlberg. First, over to Jørgen Dahlberg, who can give us the reason for his nine motions. Is he present? He's not present. That's a bit unusual. If you have nine motions and you've requested a written vote in advance, unfortunately, that is possible to do that. In the old days, three years ago, you would say if the person submitting the motion was not present, the AGM doesn't have to deal with him. Under the new rules, you can vote by letter. So there are people who've sent in their vote expecting this to be on the agenda. So I apologize. We do have to vote, but we'll do it quickly. Out of the nine, does the chairman want to comment? No. We have the nine motions. Out of the nine motions, there's one that is lost, number 6, because we already voted on that one. This thing about Norwegian and Swedish in addition to the other languages. First motion, I hope you all have the agenda in front of you. That had to do with the prices on eBank, the Board is approaching to vote against, so we need to vote on this one first. If you're in favor of Dahlberg, please vote 4. Information about the last price quoted on a regulated market. If you are against, you press IMOD, or you can abstain by pressing BLK. I have confirmation. Does anybody need help? We're done, and we'll see if we can soon see the result of the vote. It takes a little while. Counting is going on. Meanwhile, let me say the next motion on the agenda from Mr. Dahlberg is the bank can never set the trading price of its own shares. No press yet, but I'm going to say that the board is not in favor. So again, if you support Dahlberg, press 4. We have the result of the first vote. Has not been adopted, 99.96% against. We now need to vote on number 2, the one I just presented, the one about trading prices for the bank's own shares. If you support Dahlberg, press 4. Voting is open, and you can see then for, against, and abstentions. If you're in favor of Dahlberg, press 4. To support the board, press IMOD. Abstention is BLK. Does anybody need help? No. We'll finish the voting. We'll have results in a little while. Third item on this list is charges, fees that should be in the bank's list of charges. The board is approaching to vote against. Not because fees are not to be stated, but that this is simply too much detail for an AGM. We have the result from vote 2. You can see here marginally few people in favor of this one, 0.05%, against 99.88%. Let's move on to the third one, the one I just presented. Charges to be put in the bank's list of charges. If you want the floor, please ask for it, but I think people want to move forward. Voting is open. If you're in favor of Dahlberg's motion, press 4. If you're against, press IMOD. You should get a receipt that you have voted, as it happened in mine. Anybody need help? No. System is working. Voting is over. Let's wait for a little while, and then we'll have quite soon probably the results. Meanwhile, let me say that the next motion, number 4, says that customers' transactions are always to be executed at the lowest possible price. The board doesn't mind that, but the board does not find it is a matter for the AGM to decide on such a specific motion. We have result from vote 3. We have it here. Marginally a few people supporting it, 0.03% in favor, 99.95% against. There's 0.01 people who have pressed the abstention button. 4, let's vote on 4. Again, voting is open. It's blue. Those in favor, press 4. Those against, press IMOD. Sending. I get a receipt. Does anybody need help? No. Voting is over. We have the results in a little while. Meanwhile, I can tell you that 5 says you should also be able to use Norwegian and Swedish as a corporate language. That's different. You should be able to speak Norwegian and Swedish at board meetings, but the board has said that they use English at the actual board meetings, so there's no need to have more than the two corporate languages that exist. We have now the result of vote 4. You have it here. In favor, 0.03%, 99.93% against. We can move on to what I just presented. That was number 5, the corporate languages. Let us vote. Blue. If you support Dahlberg's motion, press 4. If you support the board, press IMOD, and abstentions, press BLK. Sending. I got my receipt. Okay. Let us see what the result was. Number 6, we are going to skip. We already dealt with that one. The board took that in. We had approval under F that you can speak Norwegian and Swedish. It's also under Danish law, actually, already that you can do it, but it's okay to put it into the articles. We have the result of vote 5. Corporate language, 0.04% supported the motion, 99.95% were against. Next one is then 7, that's the hybrid core capital. The motion has been overtaken by events, because the Chairman has said that it's just about to be repaid, so there should be no need to vote on that one. Dahlberg is proposing to instruct the board, but still we need to vote because it's here. So, you can press 4 if you're in favor of Dahlberg's proposal, and against if you support the board. And as always, you can press BLK to say that you abstain. Any e-vote is not working? Doesn't seem to be the case. We can finish the vote. We are waiting for the numbers. Next one, item 8. It says that proposals from shareholders cannot be rejected. Had to do with the debate we had previously. The board says that this has already been regulated adequately in the Danish Companies Act. Now we got the result of the vote for number 7, 0.01% in favor, 99.94% against. Let's move on to 8 that I just introduced, the question of proposals from shareholders. Dahlberg is proposing that it should be in the articles that you cannot say no to discussing proposals from the shareholders, but the board says that it's not required because of the Companies Act. If you're in favor of Dahlberg's proposal, press 4. If you support the board, press IMOD against. And we'll see. Has everyone received the receipt? Voting is over on this one. Leaves us one, that's number 9. You cannot reject a request for voting by ballot. You shouldn't put anything about the ballot anymore, because over the last three years, it's been an electronic vote that's been used. I think most people appreciate that because if we had to do all of this in paper format, it would have taken much, much longer. It's really up to the individual shareholder, not just those who put forward motions to insist on a complete explanation of votes. Anyway, we have the result here, the 0.01% in favor of the motion. That was 8, concerning Article 94 of the articles, 99.98% against. Only 9 is missing. I presented it, the ballot thing. Voting is open. Number 9, concerning a ballot. Those in favor, press 4. If you're against, press IMOD. So everyone received their receipt. Let's finish this vote and then we'll just wait for a moment for the result. As we wait for the result, I would say the next item is proposal from shareholder Carl Valentin Lehrmann. We heard from him previously. There are two motions. One of them will be presented by Theis Vaestorp and the other one by Katrine Caspersen in a little while. First, we need to see the result. 0.1% supported this one, 99.89% were against. So that brings us to item M, over to Theis Vaestorp and Katrine Caspersen. Dear board and dear executive board, dear fellow shareholders. Today, we've heard about a vision and a mission to restore the respect and trust as far as Danske Bank is concerned. If I am to give a good, simple piece of advice, how can we regain that trust and respect? What you can do is to vote in favor of Carl's motion. Send a clear signal that we don't want anyone to cheat and not contribute, and we don't want the bank to contribute to others cheating. We should actively say no to the use of tax havens, and we should actively say no to giving advice on the use of tax havens. I'm talking on behalf of a joint European generation of young people who were sort of lost during the financial crisis. In Denmark, 200,000 people lost their jobs. And what was the consequence for Danske Bank? Your eagerness for profit perhaps made you ignore the responsibility that a big bank should take vis-a-vis society. At the same time, you are making money advising people and companies on how to cheat the tax system and pay as little tax as possible. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing, though. Society showed that by supporting you in the crisis, and then we thought you would change your behavior, but that is not what has been happening. If you advise in how to use tax havens, you are cheating society. You are cheating hospitals. If you help a rich IT investor hide his money in a tax haven, you are cheating kindergartens. If you advise big companies in how they can have a company in Malta that is not a real company, just one in a drawer, and if you have a credit card without a name on it, you are cheating because nobody can see what transactions you are doing. You can restore. You can support me and my generation. You can say you are sorry, and you can say that you are not going to cheat society. You can say no to the use of tax havens, and you can say you will not advise people on how to use tax havens. That is the signal that you will be sending by supporting our motion. Thank you. I would think we should have both presentations. Over to you, Katrine Caspersen. Thank you. I would like to say a bit about the interaction between value and values. I disagree with what the board has said. They say that they want to reject this motion. The AGM, the highest authority in Denmark's biggest bank, should be the forum where we, as shareholders, can meet and discuss the values that we want. What should govern the bank in how they handle our financial values? It should also be here at the AGM that we should say no if we fear that value is generated in a way that is in conflict with our basic values. We should say no to tax havens. We should support the handing out of tax information, also from countries with secrets in terms of banking. We should just support it. That is not illegal, the handing out of information. Secret bank accounts can help rich people in Denmark cheating society for 5.7 billion DKK. That would be enough for Danish visit to the dentist for all people in Denmark. I am not saying Danske Bank is contributing. We do not want to raise any suspicions against executive board or employees. No. We would just like the AGM to say that Danske Bank is too good to use that kind of business model as we have seen that Jyske Bank have been using. If you vote in favor of our statement, we, as shareholders, are saying it is legitimate to have a discussion of the basis on which we want the bank to be run. We send a clear signal to our competitors and to society so that we can be proud of that. I believe that this statement will inspire trust and respect from the Danish population, and we have heard that that is a clear objective for Danske Bank. Thank you. Over to the chair of the board to comment on the two motions. Thank you for these motions. As regards the value base, our values, I do not think we are seeing things that differently. As you can see from the letter convening the AGM, the board cannot support your motions. They are political motions, and I do not believe they should be dealt with at an AGM of Danske Bank. It's not Danske Bank's assignment or job to adopt political statements or to instruct Danske Bank to promote specific views, political views. We leave that to politicians. What's important for us is to comply with the laws and rules that apply to our activities wherever we work, wherever we do our business. That also applies to the rules that have to do with customer information. Some of our customers, tax-wise, belong to countries that have more lenient taxation than Denmark. We don't want to say that they cannot do business with us for the only reason that they live in another country that has lower taxes than we do. There are some types of business that we do not want to be involved in. For instance, the bank does not want to be part in tax evasion or to help with tax evasion. I mentioned it before, and it states it clearly in our CR report from 2013 what our values are. I do believe that thereby we have sent the clear message that the first speaker asked for. Thank you. I think we should be able to have a vote. Does anybody else wish to speak? Yes. I'm Eric Petersen. Again, I'll be very brief. I'm 100% against tax evasion. When you use the designation tax haven, if I make a pension arrangement, if I buy shares where 27% has to be paid on the dividend, is that a tax haven instead of 45%? Are we talking about illegal or legal or both? Thank you. Any other comments? Do you want to say something extra or can we have the vote? Let's have the vote. There are two motions. First one has to do with tax havens as we heard it. We can start the vote now. If you're in favor of the motion, press four. If you agree with the board, please press against. I am OD. I've received my receipt. Does anybody still needs to vote? Okay, we'll wait for the results, and then we'll move on with the second one. This thing about a statement that we heard about concerning the handout or disclosure of bank information. As we have some sort of symphony playing in the background. We have the result, 0.02% in favor, 99.97% against. Let us move on to the second motion, the statement concerning support for the disclosure of bank information. Let's start the vote. Those in favor, as explained by Katrine Caspersen, please vote four. If you agree with the board, please press against. I am OD. I've received my receipt. Anybody who still needs a receipt. Nobody needs help. The system seems to be working very well. It's only when we talked about football that we had a problem. Voting is over. We'll probably have the result coming up quite soon. Meanwhile, I'd ask Egon Gjertsen to approach because the last motion we have on the agenda is his motion for Ole Andersen to resign. We have the result here. Let's have a look. 0.03% were in favor, 99.97% were against. Last item, that's item N, Egon Gjertsen's proposal. I'd like to say, though, you put in the language of Southern Jutland here at the AGM. That would be nice for me, says the speaker. I've received a letter from employees in Danske Bank, including some managers. They write to me. You can help us, you from the association. What is our problem in Danske Bank? Often, the top managers become stubborn, so they do not make rational decisions, and they cost billions of DKK. One example is Danske Bank, Roskilde Bank, EAC, Lauritzen and Nordisk Fjer that were among the biggest companies in the country. They lost space that went down the drain because of top management who thought they could walk on water. It is scary to see these people of power. I cannot understand that these big egos cannot see that they are going in the right direction. Alf Duch-Pedersen, the former Chairman of the Board, said in 2009 that Danske Bank would have gone down the drain without the Bank Package I from the government. I cannot understand why auditors and shareholders are passive. The more a top manager is under pressure, the more risky decisions he will take, and the more powerful he is, the less of a counterbalance you have from others. Ole Andersen, there is nobody balancing him out. Nobody dares because they will be guillotined if they talk against him. Top managers believe that they are invincible. This is not anonymous. Somebody was shouting, "Do not read out something that is anonymous." Yeah, I can put my name on it if you want. Nobody dares to contradict them. Stubbornness wins. The board and members of the executive board, they know that the blood-dripping guillotine is ready. Why are they doing that? Just for money. They are trapped. If you leave the company, you are lost. If you stay, you are an accomplice. The working environment is terrible. We are talking down about our own situation. There is going to be more competition from Coop Bank, and then Santander. They are now a big bank now entering Denmark. Ikano Bank. Could you finish that rubbish? Said, shouted someone. How long is this letter? Says the Chairman of the meeting. We have been here for five hours, says the Chair of the meeting, so let us do the last bit also. I can skip a little bit of it. Ole Andersen was proud to show reporters around the bank, and he was talking about how he had sacked people. That was distasteful. Finally, they are saying that most top managers in the bank have had nicknames, Black, Knuth, Cold Ivan, and what have you. Ole Andersen, there were many Ice Cold Ole, somebody said, and other names. Here, I am coming to a meeting that I had with Ole Andersen. I will be brief, says the speaker. A meeting with Ole Andersen. He had convened me in January 2013. I said to him, before 2015, you will have to sack Kolding, and he said that was embarrassing, and if Kolding had to go, he would go, too. That would be a scandal because Eivind Kolding and I have known each other for a number of years. He is a great banking capacity. He has been many years on the board of Danske Bank. I fully trust him. Eight months later, he was sacked because he did not have enough capacity. Ole Andersen said that. I do not care about customers and shareholders. Business must just be running, but we cannot do without those. Ole Andersen did not seem to be concentrated. I will be skipping this thing about what Danske Bank has changed in my emotions. I still think that was illegal. The board does not wish to comment, so let us have the vote, unless anybody else wishes to speak. Kildebjerre. I will just defend Danske Bank, if I may. The thing is that if one bank has a problem, it is because it has bad management. But if many banks have problems, it's politicians that are to blame. It's the politicians that are to blame. Don't knock that one off on Danske Bank. I mean, thank you. The politicians were the cause of the financial crisis. Let us have a vote, unless anybody else wishes to have the floor. So the motion from Egon Gjertsen is that Ole Andersen should resign from the board. We can have the vote. Those in favor of Egon Gjertsen, press four. Those against, press IMOD. Please do it now, one of the two. Or you can abstain. It's the first time that I've ever taken part in voting about the same candidate twice at the same AGM. Does anybody else wish to vote? No. Voting is over. We'll have the result in a minute. As we wait for the result, let me say that what we're doing after this is we'll move to any other business. Here, we will not require the eVoter. You can say whatever you want, within reason, but there can be no decisions made, no voting taken under any other business. We have the result. Let's have it up here. 0.02% in favor and 99.93% support the board. So Ole Andersen can remain as a member of the board. Does anybody else wish to speak under any other business? Please be very brief. Thank you. I think it's sad that, well, you can hear how it's being done. All the motions from the board are voted by almost 100%. There's nobody voting against. And when people vote against, do you have proxies, or how can you have so much power compared with us regular shareholders? I think it's a bit of a scandal that remuneration almost got 100%. That's terrible that nobody else would vote against that. Thank you. Well, about the voting, with these votes, it's very precise the results that we have, and they're very quick. You can't ask for anything better than that. It worked very well when we came to the votes. Nobody else has asked for the floor, day of the business. So over to the chair of the board to finalize the AGM. Thank you for the support received. It's also the first time that I've been voted twice at the same AGM. Elected twice also. Thank you to the chair of the meeting. It was a long AGM. Thank you to the shareholders. Thank you for coming. Thank you for the interventions. I wish you all a good evening. Thank you

Data Source: Quartr Last updated: Mar 18, 2014

Earnings call transcripts are provided by Quartr and are published within hours after each earnings call.

Update frequency:

Quarterly

Data Sources Report a data error

• Slides