[Foreign language]. Dear shareholders and distinguished guests, I'm pleased to welcome you to the Eighth Annual General Meeting of Bank of Cyprus Holding Public Limited Company, marking the hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the Bank of Cyprus Group. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank you for joining us today, and we ask you for your cooperation in transacting the business of this general meeting. The group's CEO, CFO, other board members, and our internal and external legal counsel are at your disposal to address any questions.
[Foreign language]. As required by the Bank's Articles of Association, I ask the Company Secretary, Mrs. Katia Santis, to confirm quorum and to announce the participation figures.
I'm just waiting for the figures to come through. Okay, I can now announce that 22 shareholders attend today's meeting, either in person or via proxies. This corresponds to 47.51%. I beg your pardon. 42 registered attendees attend today's meeting, representing 47.51% of the shareholding capital of the company. This corresponds to 211,825,248 shares. So before we proceed with today's business, we would like you to watch a short video celebrating the 125th anniversary of the group.
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I'd like to invite both the Chairman and the CEO to address in turns the shareholders. I also note that both their speeches can be found on the company's website.
Dear shareholders, 2023 was a milestone year for Bank of Cyprus, as it re-established itself as a well-capitalized, diversified, and sustainably profitable financial services group. The year was characterized by the Bank's strong operational and financial performance, on which I'll come back later. As if COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine were not enough to dramatically destabilize peace and the world order, 2023 saw the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war, which added to the world's continued military conflicts and to the severe humanitarian and economic challenges. In Cyprus, as we all reflect on fifty years since the Turkish invasion and the start of the illegal occupation of the north of the island, we know only too well the devastating and long-lasting consequences of war.
At the same time, global inflationary pressures following years of very accommodative recovery policies by central banks the world over, and stoked by war-driven high energy prices in 2021 and 2022, as well as the breaking up of global supply chains, continue to persist in 2023, forcing central banks to maintain interest rates at higher levels, although they are now considered to have peaked. With growth and inflation starting to show signs of a slowdown in key economies, markets expect interest rates to begin a gradual decline, although not necessarily in tandem globally. Europe is more likely to lead the way, starting from later in 2024, with the United States following later due to continued resilient inflationary pressures in the wages and consumer prices fronts.
The global economy looks like it needs more time than we thought to absorb the years of QE and to deal with the current geopolitical shocks. In this turbulent global environment, with broad negative socioeconomic impact, the Cyprus economy once again demonstrated resilience and posted a higher than average economic growth rate of 2.5% in 2023. Although yesterday we heard that the first quarter of the year, this year, is running at 3.4%. With inflation reducing to 2% and a debt-to-equity ratio well below 100%, enabling the country to continue to maintain comfortably its investment grade rating. For Bank of Cyprus, 2023 was a year during which we fully reaped the benefits of the bank's transformation into a well-capitalized group with a strong, very diversified business model after many years of severe restructuring.
We have improved our operating models and processes, focused on compliance and governance, and reinforced our ESG initiatives, while continuing to deliver our digital transformation program, benefiting our customers and the bank's operational efficiencies. Our record financial results in 2023 were clearly boosted by the prevailing higher interest rates. However, this should not detract from the tremendous progress made in lowering costs, increasing net interest income, non-interest income, disciplined risk management, and effective controls. It is for these reasons that we believe that Bank of Cyprus can continue to maintain sustainable profitability even after interest rates reach a lower, more normalized levels. Continuous constructive communication with our regulators has had the great benefit of enhancing compliance and governance standards to a much higher level.
At the same time, our focus in communicating regularly with our shareholders has broadened the market's awareness of and appreciation for our outstanding operational performance, which resulted in a steadily increasing interest for our shares by a broader range of investors. I'm proud that in 2024, as we celebrate 125 years for the bank, the group is well positioned to continue delivering shareholder value while supporting its customers, the Cypriot society, and the growth of the Cypriot economy. As the leading financial institution in the country, Bank of Cyprus is the bank of all Cypriots, as per the ancient bronze coin with inscription, "Koinon Kyprion ," which is the bank's emblem.
On behalf of all the members of our board of directors, I wish to congratulate once again our CEO, Panicos Nicolaou, his executive team, and all the employees of the group for their unprecedented commitment and successful execution of our strategy. The board has now put in place, in line with relevant regulatory guidance, a full long-term incentive plan for eligible employees and a short-term incentive plan open to all employees, allocated to those who qualify on the basis of the rules of the scheme to express tangibly our recognition and acknowledgment of their superior efforts over many years, and to ensure that these will continue.
These rewards recognize our solid financial results, but more importantly, I think they recognize the success in developing a strong corporate culture, combining ethical behavior, teamwork, best-in-class customer service, and pride in working for Bank of Cyprus, the largest employer, and truly the employer of choice on the island. Lastly, I wish to thank all my fellow board members for their insightfulness, positive attitude, and valuable contribution to the elaborate board and committee work that every year, I'm afraid, becomes more complex, more demanding, and more time-consuming. Their contribution during 2023, once again, proved to be invaluable. We will continue to enrich our board with very high quality, resourceful, and diverse individuals to broaden and strengthen the board's collective suitability and control capacity. Dear shareholders, we are committed to delivering sustainable returns.
Our strong performance and capital ratios allow us to propose this year an increased payout ratio of 30% of our profits, more than twice last year's payout ratio. This will be in form of $0.25 per share in cash, on which we will seek your approval at the AGM, and approximately $0.05 per share via share buyback program, which has started already. As for our distribution policy, we have built prudently and progressively to comfortably maintain a target payout ratio of 30% to 50% of our profits, which remains our target range for the coming years. Thank you all for your continued support, and thank you again for being with us today. Thank you. Group, Panicos Nicolaou , to take the floor.
[Foreign language] Good morning, everyone. Dear shareholders, thank you for joining us today in today's AGM. It is an important moment in the life of the group. It is particularly today, as we present the group's performance for 2023, which I consider to be a milestone year. It is also an opportunity to review the group's medium-term outlook and to reflect on the bank's 125th anniversary. I will explain briefly what I mean a milestone year before discussing the geopolitical and macroeconomic environment and the group's performance in this context. 2023 was a milestone year for the bank, as we have been the first bank in Cyprus and Greece to secure approval from the ECB to restart the payment of dividends after twelve years. The dividend was EUR 22.3 million, and it was equivalent to a 14% payout ratio.
It confirmed the bank's transformation into a well-capitalized, diversified, and sustainably profitable banking and financial services group. In a further demonstration of the significant progress that we have made in recent years and the credibility we have built with international investors, Bank of Cyprus reopened the euro-denominated LT1 debt market in 2023. This market has been closed following the merger, the takeover of Credit Suisse and the write-down of its AT1 debt in March 2023. Our successful issue of EUR 220 million AT1 capital securities was twelve times oversubscribed, with interest from around 240 institutional investors, and this enabled us to price much more favorably than our previous AT1 that was issued in 2018.
This transaction was also well recognized as the best financial institute of bond in Southeastern Europe by EMEA Finance in 2023, in its awards in 2023. I will now provide an overview of the group performance and of the economy in Cyprus for 2023. Operating environment, Cyprus continued to outperform the euro area. In addition to the ongoing war in Ukraine, in 2023, we saw the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, increased geopolitical uncertainty and instability. Furthermore, attacks from Houthis in Yemen on merchant shipping in the Red Sea added to existing inflationary pressures as shipping routes became longer and more expensive. Despite this challenging backdrop, Cyprus economy continued to show its resilience to geopolitical and microeconomic shocks in 2023.
Cyprus recorded GDP growth of 2.5% in 2023, with trade, transport, accommodation contributing more than half of this growth. Cyprus GDP growth significantly outperformed the euro area, whose GDP grew by only 0.5%. Tourist activity continued to improve in 2023 after another strong performance in 2022. Arrivals increased by 20% from a year earlier, reaching almost four million tourists, which correspond almost to 100% versus 2019, it was pre-COVID. Likewise, tourist revenue in 2023 increased by an estimated 23%, reaching almost EUR 3 billion. This was 11% higher than total receipts before 2019.
Cyprus economy also benefited from lower inflation than the Euro area, with average inflation as measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices of 3.9% compared to 5.4% in the Euro area. Harmonized inflation is expected to continue going down in 2024, with the European Commission forecasting 2.4% for Cyprus and 2.5% for the Euro area. I will move now to a short presentation. The first slide, before discussing details, our operational and financial performance in 2023, I would like to take you a step back. As I have said, 2023 was a milestone year for the bank. It was a start of a new chapter in which the bank is well capitalized, has a diversified business model, and is sustainably profitable.
This followed the radical transformation of the bank during the past decade. We de-risked the bank, reducing the NPEs by $14.6 billion, or by 98%, since December 2014. At the end of 2023, the NPE ratio stood at 3.6%, and with a very good coverage. De-risking was also combined with significant improvement in our capital ratios and a total transformation of our liquidity profile, allowing us to deliver strong returns in 2023, with a reported return on tangible equity of 24.8%. Moving now to the next slide on the financial performance highlights for 2023.
We deliver a strong operational and financial performance in 2023, generating a profit after tax of $487 million, benefiting from sharply rising interest rates and surpassing the full 2023 targets that we set in our investor update event in June 2023. We are particularly pleased with the return on tangible equity of 24.8% and our cost-to-income ratio of 31%. We strengthened our capital position during 2023, thanks to strong organic capital generation of 482 basis points. As a result, our regulatory CET1 and total capital ratios reached 17.4% and 22.4% respectively. These capital ratios are after the shareholder distribution from full year 2023 profit after tax, the cash dividend of which you are being asked to approve today.
Our liquidity position remained robust, with surplus liquidity of $9.1 billion and a total liability base, mainly retail funding, of $19.3 billion, up to 73%, up four percentage points versus prior year. Moving now to the next slide. As I mentioned earlier, in April 2023, Bank of Cyprus was the first bank in Cyprus and in Greece to secure approval from the ECB to resume dividend payments after twelve years. Our particularly strong performance in 2023 enabled us to gain approval again from the ECB in March 2024, to significantly increase the shareholder distribution from full year 2023 earnings to $137 million. This comprised of a cash dividend of $112 million, twenty-five cents per share, and annual inaugural share buyback program up to $25 million.
This distribution is over six times higher than the distribution in 2023, with the proposed cash dividend five times higher than what we paid in 2023 on 2022 profitability. We have more than doubled the payout ratio to 30% compared to last year, meeting our target payout ratio of 30% to 50%. Moving now to our performance for the first quarter of the year. We have— You have probably seen our first quarter results for 2024, which we published yesterday, and which are also available on our website, so I will just outline the main points. We had a strong start in 2024, particularly in terms of profitability. We delivered a profit after tax of $133 million, with a ROTE of 23.6%, which is the fifth consecutive quarter of ROTE more than 20%.
We continue to support our clients in the economy with a very strong quarter of new lending of $676 million. Our capital position remains robust. We generated around 113 basis points of organic current generation, including the profits of the first quarter, net of distribution accrual. CET1 and total capital ratio stood at 17.6% and 22.5% respectively. Our liquidity position also remains robust, with separate liquidity of $7.3 billion. Deposits, the majority of which are retail, remain flat quarter on quarter at $19.3 billion, but we are up 2% year-on-year. We have also met our 2024 MREL target ahead of schedule, following the successful issuance of $300 million green bond in April 2024.
Asset quality is very healthy and in line with our full year target, reflected an NP ratio of 3.4% and an improved level of coverage to 77% as of this quarter. Our strong performance this quarter indicates that we are tracking ahead of our 2024 targets. Moving now to our immediate priorities, starting with digital transformation. Digital transformation is essential to delivering operational excellence, and the Bank of Cyprus is pioneer in digital banking innovation in Cyprus. We are reshaping the banking experience so that it is more intuitive, more responsive, and more aligned with the needs of our customers. The group aims to continue to innovate and simplify the banking journey, providing a unique and personalized experience to each of our customers. Quick Hub is our...
In 2023, we launched QuickHub , our digital branch, which facilitates the everyday transactions and financial needs of our customers in a user-friendly and efficient way. QuickLoans is the most recent innovation of the bank, and that is accessible through both the BOC mobile app and our internet banking. QuickLoans have transformed the traditional loan process, enabled customers to obtain credit decision instantly without the need to visit a branch. Since the beginning of 2023, over 33,000 applications were processed, granting more than $100 million of new loans. Moving now to Jinius. Jinius, in April 2023, Bank of Cyprus established Jinius Limited , a wholly owned subsidiary, which is a B2B and B2C digital economy platform that connects the entire Cypriot market. It offers business innovative services that simplify and speed up their daily transactions and activities.
We also expect Jinius to create new revenue sources for the bank over the medium term. The B2B service of the platform include tenders management, ecosystem management, invoicing, remittance, payments, et cetera. As at the end of March 2024, over 2,000 companies had registered, and over $500 million was exchanged via the platform through invoicing and remittance services. We launched also in February 2024, B2C, which enabled retailers to sell their products online to customers. As at the end of March, around 100 retailers were onboarded, and over 150,000 products were available across all categories. Moving now to an important topic, our ESG agenda. Climate change and the transition to sustainable economy are two of the world's greatest challenges.
As part of our vision to be the leading financial hub in Cyprus, we are determined to lead the transition to a sustainable future. The group continues to progress towards its goal to embrace ESG in all aspects of its business. As usual, we remain our leading role in social and governance pillars. The Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center has helped almost 50,000 patients since 1998. We are also proud of the bank's supportive wide network, consisting of companies and organizations, responding to various needs in society, to crisis and emergencies. Finally, we should not forget the contribution of our cultural center in promoting the cultural change and heritage on the island.
Under the governance pillar in 2023, we exceeded our ESG target of having more than 30% women in the group's management bodies by 2030, with female representation at this level reaching 33%. Furthermore, the bank had female representation of 41% in key positions such as managers, heads, leads, team heads. All these define us wider group leadership. We continue to work to increase the positive impacts on the environment by transforming not only the bank's own operation, but also the operation of our customers. In 2023, we set our first decarbonization target on our mortgage portfolio, aligning with our net zero 2050 commitment. We are proud that the Bank of Cyprus was the first bank in Cyprus to become an official signatory of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking. This happened in November 2023.
Our commitment to lead Cyprus' transition to a sustainable future was demonstrated by the issuance of our inaugural green bond in April 2024. This highly successful transaction, which was four times oversubscribed, enabled us to raise $300 million to support eligible green projects, such as green buildings, energy efficiency, clean transport, and of course, renewable energy. The progress we are making on embracing ESG in all aspects of business as usual was demonstrated by our double A rating on MSCI ESG ratings assessment in 2023. We maintain our strong commitment to sustainability and to longer term value creation for all of our shareholders. Moving now to our strategic priorities in the medium term, this is just an update for you.
2023 was the first year of Bank of Cyprus' new chapter as a well-capitalized, diversified, and sustainably profitable banking and financial services group. As I mentioned, the strong operational and financial performance with a ROE of 24.8% enabled the group to significantly surpass the full year targets that we set in our June 2023 investor day. Our vision for the group is to create lifelong partnerships with our customers, guiding and supporting them in a changing world. The strategic pillars remain as follows: First, to grow revenues in a more capital efficient way by enhancing revenue generation via growth in high-quality lending, diversification to less capital intensive banking and other financial services, as well as prudent management of our surplus liquidity.
Achieve a lean operating model through our ongoing focus on efficiency from further automation, facilitated by digitization and artificial intelligence. Maintain robust asset quality with high-quality lending via strict underwriting criteria, normalizing cost of risk, and reducing other impairments. Enhance organizational resilience and our ESG agenda by leading the transition of Cyprus to sustainable future and building a forward-looking organization, embracing ESG in all aspects. This is our guidance for this year and next year, but this was a little bit outdated because we published this in February 2024. Nevertheless, we are remaining committed to delivering shareholder value and sustainable returns.
We believe that we can continue to provide good return to shareholders on the basis of our ROE targets on a 15% CET1 ratio of over 17% for the full year 2024, and over 16% for the full year 2025, but most importantly, despite the expected decline in interest rates. Moving now to my closing remarks. Ladies and gentlemen, I am incredibly proud that after ten years of decisive management actions and extraordinary efforts and dedication of our staff, the bank was not only able to support its clients, the Cypriot economy, the society, delivering sustainable value for our shareholders, but also led the way among banks in the region.
2024 marks the 125th year of Bank of Cyprus, and I'm delighted that the bank is the leading banking and financial services group in Cyprus and delivering value for all of our stakeholders. Our proven strategy and well-diversified business model positions the group for success over the years ahead. Bank of Cyprus continues to be the cornerstone of the Cypriot economy, now pioneering its digital evolution, as well as an important contributor to the social and cultural life of our country. Our commitment to these roles is as strong today as it has ever been, alongside our commitment to serving our customers and delivering sustainable value to our shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, at the heart of banking is trust. On behalf of the group, I thank our customers for continuing to place their trust in us.
I express my thanks to the executive and senior management team, and to all of our staff, whose commitment underpins the group's performance. Thank you to you, all of our shareholders, for your investment and constructive engagement during the year. And last but not least, thank you to the chairman and the board of directors for their continuous guidance and support. It is a privilege and an honor to lead this great bank. Thank you all very much.
We are now moving on to the business of the annual general meeting and the proposed resolution. As indicated in the notice, we will take all resolutions on a poll vote by means of electronic voting, and I therefore ask the company secretary to elaborate.
Mr. Chairman, under Article 62A of PLC Holdings Articles of Association, the chairman is indeed entitled to demand a poll on any resolution.
I presume that all of you have read the AGM notice with the proposed resolutions and the agenda-related documents. The notice includes the agenda for the ordinary and special business of the AGM, as well as explanations for each agenda item. The notice is both in English and Greek, and has been posted on the bank's website in a timely manner. All agenda related reports are available on our website. Any comments or questions you may have about all these reports and proposed resolutions can be raised later in the meeting. Unless there are any objections to all this, we can consider these documents as already read.
Okay.
If there are no objections, we move on.
At this point, and before we proceed to open the poll for the AGM resolutions, we would like to inform our shareholders that as already announced on the 30th of April, on the 29th of April, the ACB has approved the appointment of both nominated directors, Mr. Christian Hansmeyer and Mr. Stuart Birrell. This refers to resolution 4H and 4I in the AGM notice.
Indeed, we welcome them officially today. The poll is now open for all resolutions on today's agenda. I invite the secretary to explain how the shareholders may exercise their vote through the Lumi application.
Hey, dear shareholders, I will say this both in English and in Greek. In order to be able to vote, you must have logged into the platform. Instructions how to log in are on the screen there. So the chairman has already opened the voting on all resolutions. You should now be able to see the polling icon on the navigation bar at the bottom of your screen, where all resolutions and voting choices will be displayed. To vote, simply select your voting direction from the options shown on screen. A confirmation message will appear to show your vote has been received. Vote received. To change your vote, simply select another direction. If you wish to cancel your vote, please press Cancel. You may vote or change your vote at any time during the meeting, until the chairman announces the closing of the voting on the resolutions.
At that point, your last choice will be submitted.
Let us now proceed with the Q&A session. You may submit your questions in writing at the designated Lumi space, or orally, verbally, if the question is posed by a shareholder physically present at the meeting. I would kindly ask you to be brief and to the point when submitting questions. We will only take questions which are relevant to the business of the AGM. If questions are made in Greek, they'll be immediately translated. So we allocate about fifteen minutes for this procedure. Let's have questions, please.
Okay.
Stefanos Kailis from Senvest. Firstly, Senvest would like to congratulate the executive management and the board for the excellent 2023 results. We commend the outstanding operating and financial performance, market leadership, and significant reduction in NPLs to a more normalized level. We would like to further recognize BOC's best-in-class return on tangible equity across the Eurozone, an even more notable achievement, considering that the bank also has among the highest equity and total capital ratios in the Eurozone. We would also like to express our satisfaction for the initiation of a share buyback program, as well as the significant increase in dividends. However, we believe that the current dividend policy of building prudently and progressively to a 30% to 50% payout is no longer appropriate for Bank of Cyprus, because it significantly underestimates the bank's distribution potential.
As noted earlier, based on our analysis, BOC has one of the highest ROEs and one of the highest capital ratios amongst comparable European banks, but has the lowest valuation in terms of P/E multiple, and one of the lowest in terms of price to book. We believe this stems from the fact that it also has one of the lowest payout ratios. To create shareholder value and enable the bank share price to reflect the bank's true potential, we propose that the board augments the bank's dividend policy in a way that is consistent with many other Eurozone banks as follows. Quote: "Bank of Cyprus intends to remain amongst the better capitalized banks in Europe, and the bank's dividend policy is aligned with this goal. Total payout ratio will be between 40% and 60% of each year's recurring profitability."
Over and above the aforementioned payout ratio of 40% to 60% of recurring profitability, the Board of Directors will decide each year at its discretion and subject to any required regulatory approvals on the distribution of the capital above 15% fully loaded CET1, which represents surplus capital. The distribution of this surplus capital can be in the form of cash dividend, share buyback or a combination of both. This is our suggestion. We will submit it also to the Secretary. Thank you very much.
A short and sweet answer. We note the comments. We will always try to increase our dividend in a stable, predictable and prudent way. But we'll take a serious note of your comments. Thank you.
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So congratulations from my side for the excellent results the bank delivered last year and during the first quarter of this year, and is well on track to outperform the majority of its peers in the Eurozone. I can stand up? All right. My reason I'm at the stand is not really for a question, is really for kind of a note. Building upon fellow shareholder Stefan Michaelis from Senvest and borrowing Mr. Panikos Nicolaou closing remark on the business model of banking that is based on trust. I would like to note the one interesting angle regarding the payout ratio, the future payout ratio, and the dividend that will be announced from the bank. Regardless, who benefits from those dividends? A bank paying strong dividends, it reinforces its image in the society.
Unfortunately, and especially in Cyprus, where we live in a society of, to a large extent, unfortunately, financial literacy and people do not really appreciate the great numbers being put out there. Since, unfortunately, the majority of the investing public have not been part of the great share price performance that the bank exhibited, down the road, people really understand dividends, and dividends is a confirmation of those results. I would like to note also what happened. One example, obviously magnified, but what happened with Credit Suisse. I mean, Credit Suisse did not really have the problems that it had to end up where it did. It had losses, but then again, was recapitalized. It had healthy ratios, but perception will drive out deposits down the road or attract deposits down the road.
We are in a business model that is based on perception. It's based on trust. Regardless of the liquidity ratios any bank can have, no bank can meet massive outflows. Of course, we're not going to be, I don't believe we're ever going to reach that stage, but we're at a stage where attracting deposits is very profitable for the bank. So I'd just like to bring this angle that dividends increase not just benefit the shareholder, but benefits the bank longer term as the perception strengthens. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Hi, good morning. Paris Hagiantonis. I'm also a shareholder. Just two brief questions from me. So the first question, if we look over the past ten years, obviously it was a very difficult period for the bank. We need to thank current and previous management for all their efforts in actually turning the bank around. But now we have a pretty healthy and profitable group. What I would like to ask is basically, ten years from now, what is your vision? How would you like the bank to be known ten years from now, given that you're starting from a much healthier base? And the second question I have, again, is on the payout ratio, but I'll flip it around, and I will talk about retained earnings.
If I look at it from a retained earnings perspective, you are returning anywhere between 50% and 70%, and given the current profitability, you are building capital quite quickly. Why are you building this capital, basically? Are you looking for more aggressive, organic and inorganic growth, or is it just basically very mechanical, given the low payout ratio?
If we ask a clear question of dividend payout, it means only that in disposable money, we have managed to restore to the bank. You can expect us to treat the issue of payouts. We are the first ones to be in a position to want to be in a position to pay out more. We are not paying, I mean, we're paying 50% or 60% because we don't want to. It's because we feel that payment ratio should be increased in an ordinary manner, in a controlled way, so that we're able to repeat at least the same thing next year.
We want to come back next year for some reason and say, "So we cannot pay out 30%, we said we pay out 20%." So we want to be predictable, stable, and responsible in the same way that we have been responsible up to now. So we also want to go to 50%, and we will do that progressively, right? Now, as far as our vision for the next ten years, there is no ten-year vision, never in the world. So we can only say that for the next twelve months, we can deliver a performance which is in line with what we have provided as guidance, which is returns of 16%, 17% on equity, and even if rates decline. Why? Because we have become more efficient. Okay?
I hope this answers your question, unless Panicos wants to add something.
Generally, on the capital distribution, right? I mean, 2023 was a year that will be buffer capital, the first year, right? We didn't have this in the past. So generally, when you have surplus capital, priority for us, we said it before, is to remunerate our shareholders. Number one priority, and remains until we reach a payout ratio at par with the rest of the European Union. Second, is to organically grow our business and invest in the business, right? So we need to organically grow. We can grow in areas where we don't have large market shares. We can grow in insurer, we can grow in wealth, we can grow... We can invest- we will invest in technology. We are investing heavily in technology, so we are creating the business model for the future.
We see how this will go in terms of if we have the opportunity to have, to come up with additional capital distribution over there, but this is something that will happen in the future, not today.
There are lots of people, and that's another question we received, whether there will be an interim dividend. We're not in the business of interim dividends. We believe in annual dividends, and that's where we focus. So that's the answer with response to one of the questions that we've had. And also, the more stable we are, the stronger our stock price is, and this gives us more options, right? Organic or inorganic. So we have more currency to do things that we couldn't do or couldn't consider a few years ago. So, Katia, can you provide us with the results of the voting, please?
Right. Okay. So I will read out the results in the order of the resolutions of the AGM notice. Resolution number one, percentage of total valid votes passed 100%. This corresponds to 186,719,819 votes. Resolution one approved. Resolution number two, number of shares 186,113,793. Resolution approved at 99.68%. Resolution number three, 186,712,819 votes. Resolution approved at 100%. Resolution four A, this is the election of our chairman, Mr. Takis Arapoglou, 186,038,317 votes. Resolution approved at 99.64%.
Resolution 4B, the election of our Vice Chair, Mrs. Lyn Grobler , 186,118,793 votes. Resolution approved at 99.68%. Resolution 4C, this is the election of our CEO, Mr. Panicos Nicolaou, 186,718,819 votes. Resolution approved at 100%. Resolution 4D, this is the election of our Senior Independent Director, Mr. Dinos Iordanou, 186,718,819 votes. Resolution approved at 100%. Resolution 4E, this is the election of our CFO, Eliza Livadiotou , 186,718,819 votes. Resolution approved at 100%.
Resolution 4F, this is the re-election of Monique Hemerijck , 186,718,819 votes. Resolution approved at 100%. Resolution 4G, this is the re-election of Mr. Adrian Lewis, 186,716,819 votes. Resolution approved at 100%. Resolution 4H, this is the election of Mr. Christian Hansmeier, 186,716,819 votes. Resolution approved at 100%. Resolution 4I, this is the election of Mr. Stuart Birrell, 186,716,819 votes. Resolution approved at 100%. Move on to resolution number 5. We have 17 resolutions. Just waiting for the download.
Resolution number five, approved at 99.97%. Resolution number six, approved at 99.97%. Resolution number seven, approved at 100%. Resolution number eight, approved at 98.31%. Resolution number nine, approved at 98.31%. Resolution number ten, approved at 98.31%. Resolution eleven, 100% approval. Resolution twelve, also 100% approval. Resolution thirteen, 100% approval. Resolution number fourteen, 98.32% approval. Resolution number fifteen, 99.87% approval. Resolution number sixteen, 100% approved. Resolution number seventeen, 100% approved.
Yeah.
This concludes the results.
This concludes the... Having done this, I announce the end of today's, this year's AGM. Thank you all for being with us, and see you next year.
Thanks.