UBS Group AG (SWX:UBSG)

AGM 2018

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May 3, 2018

We are delighted to see so many of you here today, and I'd like to welcome you most warmly to our also. Welcome also to those of you who are following this morning's AGM live over the Internet in English or in German. In accordance with Article 13 of the articles of UBS Group AG, I hereby declare open the ordinary AGM. I take up my position as Chairman, and I would like to introduce those my colleagues who are here, followed by Markus Baumann, the Group General Counsel Sergio Amolte, our CEO. I hereby point Markus Baumann as minute taker for today's AGM. And I would also like to proxy, Althor for Dus and Ballstein AG of Zurich is also here, represented by Doctor. Ors, in particular, the lead auditors for the fiscal year 2017. The invitation to today's AGM was published in the Swiss Commercial Gazette No. 63, a 3rd of UBS Group AG. Additionally, around 6,000 shareholders decided not to receive a printed copy of the invitation and the annexes there too and simply had the QR code sent to them at home. We're delighted to see this technical development and the fact that you've accepted it so widely. On the first of ever mentioned that anybody wishing to request items for the agenda should file resolutions today. Allow me to just make a few organizational comments at 11 o'clock, and you will then be called to take the floor when the time comes. In accordance with Article 710 of the meeting, please don't forget to hand in your voting device at the validation desk, broadcast live over the Internet. Annual General Meeting. I am delighted that so many of you have come to Basel today. And many of the people I talk to from abroad ask me why I think this is the case. I always give the same answer. I say it's because of Stobanian's sustainability decisions in mind. And Swiss companies, in spite of the need for quarterly and autumn, are more strongly focused on achieving good results over the long term. That certainly applies to UBS. But there, you will see a correction in our deferred tax assets following the comprehensive tax reform in the U. S. We were obliged to reduce these assets and that has left it small. Including the tax effects in the U. S, rose 22% to CHF 4,000,000,000. The good news about the tax reform and our deferred CET1 capital ratio or in our ability to return capital to you, our shareholders. For banks like ours dealing with this kind of uncertainty is part of our business. Good corporate risk that's often underestimated as the risk of inflation. We're currently emerging from it. We also don't know whether the policies in the USA, namely expansionary monetary policy, low taxation and high debt, I'm convinced that Asia will continue to be important for you being optimistic as well. For 10 years now, the international community has been striving to make the financial services industry more secure through clear rules. Even though it has cost us a lot of effort and a great deal of money to implement these new regulations, We now have a clearer picture of what the capital requirement. The sustainability isn't significantly. Clients are also attaching ever greater importance. Our clients have already invested 35 percent of the assets that we manage for them, amounting to nearly CHF1 1,000,000,000 on the bottom of products. Within our range of core sustainability products though, the Vod, we don't just on using blockchain and artificial intelligence and we see these as technologies with tremendous potential for artificial to all of us, clients, shareholders and the bank itself. They are not transparent and they're therefore overly aware of these risks. Switzerland as a financial center needs to be careful not to take any risks here that could damage its reputation. Within the bank itself, we can use the latest technology to make our processes as streamlined and cost effective as possible. And this is why over the next few years we will be investing around 10% of our profits in further technological development. People are asking increasingly your offer. Do banks actually have a When FinTech, robotic adviser, UBS takes this challenge very seriously. Not only that, we are actively trying to shape it as well. I'm convinced that we as a bank do definitely have a future. The more complex the world becomes, and it becomes more complex with every year that passes, the more important it is for every world, can keep an eye on the bigger picture and is able to offer the right resources and solutions to deal with that complexity. We at UBS are trusted partners on the needs of our clients. Our capital strength and the concentration of our resource success of UBS. This is also reflected in remuneration. The same principle applies here. We only reward sustainable success. You, as shareholders, are going to get to vote today on a in a set agenda item principles. When the results for 2016 were poor, variable compensation went down. 2017, we're reporting considerably higher operating profit, and so compensation is going up, albeit only slightly. So where will UBS going that time? We've experienced highs and lows. For example, during financial collapse, a new strategy every year because our existing strategy is working. Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest threat to our continuing success is complacency. We must guard against that. It's important for you to know what we do with the capital entrusted to us. On the one hand, we needed a dividend by 8% to CHF 65 per share this year. And over the next 3 years, we're planning to buy back shares amounting to a Jokul of CHF 2,000,000,000 of which CHF 500 says. And that is good news, I believe. By way of conclusion, allow me to thank you. Thank you for your support and your trust in approach that it's been possible and will continue to be possible for us to follow this course. I'm in constant dialogue with many of our investors, and I know that they support our policy of sustainability. My thanks go also to our ever growing number of clients in Switzerland and worldwide who rely on the expertise and from the client advisers at the counter to the most senior management members led by Sergio and Monti, who successfully not only in this country, but also all over the world. Thank you very much for your attention. To Sergio Amotti Group CEO. Anke? Dear shareholders, I too would like to warmly welcome you to Basel. Ladies and gentlemen, gexcellent year for UBS in operational terms. As you have heard, looking at the operating performance, we can see my colleagues at the bank very cordially so. Full performances encapsulated in a painting that I see every day in my office, his collection. It is called year after year and it brings results. And in everything we do, we are constantly getting better and profitable. Pretax profits increase by 29% to CHF5.3 billion. UBS is a very appealing destination. Our asset and wealth management clients have entrusted us with over CHF 100,000,000,000 of net new money. And by the end of CHF 2000,000,000,000, UBS is a safe and solid bank. We've got a strong common equity Tier 1 capital ratio and we've increased our loss absorbing capital to nearly CHF 80,000,000,000. As we achieved positive results. The Wealth Management business boosted its movement, attracted nearly 600. This is the highest figure in the last 9 years. The investment bank made CHF1.2 billion in pretax profit with a rigid cost savings of CHF2,100,000,000. And incidentally, saving costs is not an end in itself. It is all it also allows us to invest resources in the future. In addition, we also now these are all very positive developments. Investors should be grateful. It is sticking to its typecasting. The shares are expensive, but so are tickets for the best Broadway shows. I believe you mean. When the Financial Times writes this about UBS, it is a big compliment. Yes, indeed, we are world class. This allows us to be confident but not complacent year after year. In 2018, we won 2 inches of 17 percent in Swiss francs and 24% in U. S. Dollars. The Swiss franc increase is lower because the dollar weakened in the last quarter in comparison with the prior year, which has an impact on our profitability. And we generate 60% of our revenue this year. Incidentally, our return on equity of about 12% compared with our peers. And I've said it before. As with many of our U. S. Competitors, the market may have too high short term expectations, And some investors want to see more radical measures, for example, in terms of cost, simply to boost profit. It would be easy to cement of new staff, but that would be to gamble with the quality of our Sertu become more efficient every day, not just for a specific period defined by a particular program. It is our aim to reduce costs to significantly below the level of 75% of revenue. But we can't achieve greater revenue and growth. We have to prove ourselves through others are familiar with. We want to be the leading wealth manager worldwide as well as the leading universal bank in Switzerland. And together with our regional balance, give us good diversification, developing it according to market conditions. Targets that we announced to the public have also been set with this in mind. Our challenge is to find a balance between growing the day to day. We want to pay out an ordinary dividend that increases by a middle we intend to return additional capital primarily through share buybacks. We received greater clarity about the future regulatory framework. So what is it we are doing to prepare for the future? Invest heavily in our digital infrastructure, more than 10% of our revenue, that is more than CHF 3,000,000,000 per annum is invested in technology. This makes us more efficient and allows us to further develop our offering. All this, of course, has a short term impact on to work at UBS. I am, 1st and foremost, thinking about the clients of the next generation whose parents and even grandparents often were or still. The world is changing faster than used to for our clients and thus also for our employees. This is why we are investing a great deal in further training for UBS employees. They need to be fit for the new challenges year alone. Our employees completed more than 750,000 training courses. The world of work is we want our employees to have to do fewer repetitive tasks in the future. Their jobs will become more exciting, more interesting and more challenging as a result. The last 10 years driven by digitalization. And in 10 years' time, dear shareholders, we will once again be amazed to see by how much everything has changed. I can assure you in the year 2028, Yustri will not rest. That's why UBS of Switzerland have every interest in CRIC, and UBS will continue to be globally successful working from its base in Switzerland in the future. Everyone needs to understand that all of us are competing with other providers and sites in the world. Nothing is guaranteed. Swiss companies, both large and small, are aware of this in many other sectors. I have talked about 2017 and about our achievements. Let's take a look into the nearer future. Our priorities for 2018 and beyond are clear. We want to picture growth opportunities primarily in Asia and the Americas and reinforce our leading position in Switzerland. By investing in technology, we want to continue to improve on the client experience. Efficiency and effectiveness are not secondary goals. They're a top priority are our objectives. This is what we're working on year after year. There are no shortcuts on the road to sustainable success. You can be successful only if you remain ambitious and hungry, but also realistic. We have lost none of the motive. And finally, I would like to express my gratitude. I mentioned our employees at the beginning of my presentation. I would also like to thank the Board of Directors and its Chairman, Axel Weber, for their invaluable support and new ones who entrust UBS with their business. And last but not least, of course, I thank you, our esteemed shareholders, to me and to everyone at UBS. Thank you, Sergio. Can I ask Marcus Baumann to announce the attendance figures, please? At check-in, we've established the following figures. We have 1160 shareholders present here today as well as the independent proxy that you appointed. On aggregate, they represent 2,211,000,000,306,377 shares of votes, which amounts to 75,000,000 of the following representations based on types of representation. The independent proxy represents 2,204,009,920,000,000,000,000,000,009 120,000,000,000 996,448 votes. 65,000,000 votes have given instructions on the various items to the management report and the stand alone consolidated financial statements of UBS Group R and D with the invitation about the motions to be voted on regarding compensation at this AGM. The brochure has given you an additional overview of the 3 votes on compensation at the AGM today, and you have also had an opportunity. So let me now invite you, dear shareholders, for a debate on Item 1.1. We are going to vote on 26 items today. As speaker, to keep control of timing, I hope you will understand. We have clocks installed on in the rostrum. It's from Zurich, and I would like to ask Brigitte Mosa Haber from Huttangen to stand and also represents them as a manager in the world, the leading asset manager. And his new mission is now all about sustainability and doing good things in private banking. We've already heard today that certain sustainability rating agencies have reflected this commitment and indeed praised it. UBS is one of the leaders in its sector now. Of course, Arcturus is very pleased to hear all of this. However, we also think that there's considerable room for improvement, particularly where your mission for trouble doing without business in areas that involve palm oil plantations. So there still quite a lot of conflict between what you're doing and the objectives that you expound. Let me give you the example of the coal in the oil pressure. Many countries are deciding not to use coal fired energy anymore, and some major insurance companies have already exited their investments in coal or are planning to do so in the near future. States. In non OECD member states only, support will only be given. In 2017, UPS UPS paid out around €4,500,000,000 to various companies operating in the field of nonrenewable energies. NPS was also one of the 9 Western Banks, which that it has provided to Colfoire Power Stations after the Paris Climate Agreement was sold. It has to be comprehensive, and that is why we are expecting you to share financing but continue with indirect funding. And the name of our members we have around 1300 as well as companies, NGOs and local authorities. We have several demands for you. We are responsible shareholders, and we do not want to see UBS using our money in any way to fund industries whose activities promote climate change or endanger the health and well-being of entire communities. We also don't want to see our money going into sectors we, responsible investors, still have a real problem with, and that is your compensation rate. Don't seem to have anything to do with the overall performance of UBS or even with Asian related items. Here are the most important questions from Active is in the share option now for you. First of all, when will UBS be adapting its strategy to be in line with the objectives of the Paris agreement? And when will you communicate transparently about that? Secondly, when will UBS commit itself to ceasing new funding of coal fired power plants and coal mines? And when will you cease to invest in the expansion of existing mines and power plants? Thirdly, when will UBS announce a plan to exit its current involvement in coal? UBS's performance in the field of sustainability and referred to our we have reinforced efforts in this regard, and this is being recognized by external institutions. However, we are not only being supported by those rankings. The Share Action Organization submitted a report last year about the 15 biggest rank 2 among the banks, and we were also part of the Climate A List of the CDP. And we're typically in response to your questions. First of all, the Paris Agreement. What is key to implementing our strategy is the recommendations by the task force and climate related financial active on this group ourselves. And I talked to Mark Carney about the subject matter on several occasions. It's always an item on the agenda. When directly related to the Paris Agreement, we will continue to be leading to ensure a smooth transition to a low CO2 or low carbon economy. This is why together with 230 other organizations in the world UBS supports has gone further. We have disclosed our steps under the 5 year road map by the TCFD. So you can see we are in that I think it's worth mentioning finance initiatives. In this field, we are, in particular, drawing up the first report responding to your questions about coal. Our climate strategy in mining and in the field of energy has top priority with us. I believe that UBS has a good set of policies and standards in this regard. To review our strategy, we have a globally operating committee meeting in this field and how we can maintain our leading position. At board level, we have the Corporate Culture and Responsibility Committee headed by myself permanently working on the matters. And we have 8 meetings a year and deal with themselves. UBS is implementing what we announced in our reporting. He and Sergio and Matti also referred to sustainability. So you can be rest assured that sustainability is important to you, B. S. A lot of our wealthy clients want to along these lines. And I would also like to thank you for the support that you have provost Mrs. Brigitte Mosahab from Hundwangen to come forward to deliver her statement and Mr. Dieter Burger from Boulav to stand by. Shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, let's have a little look. That's why behind it sold off CHF 11,000,000,000 worth of investments, what used to be the biggest shareholder. So we've seen quite an issue with the provision on conglomerate HNA. And we're pretty surprised actually to invest in those to the tune of €24,000,000 According to Bloomberg, there was an incredible level of debt there. So other banks had refused to give any credit to those companies. HNO has been investigated as well here in Switzerland. When UBS was involved in that investigation, the Chinese are now trying to generate liquidity by going public in certain areas that investors here will ship. Secondly, what about your expensive profits available to shareholders? If you for every CHF100, you have only CHF3.71 capital. You wouldn't get a loan from a bank on that basis. Profits have fallen vis a vis 2016, and you've blamed special effects for that. But special effects affect all companies. And sometimes, it has incredibly well there among European banks, as is President Weber with his €6,000,000 then to your profits. You're only in 3rd or 4th place. You don't need to worry, though, about your bonuses. You've got plenty of money in the bonus parts, cutting measures with lovely names like the rainbow plan. They often affect older workers. And we've seen a lot of people being retired off early. Somebody retiring now at 58 is going to get 20% less pension each month. Now I stood here a year ago, and I criticized your policy, particularly with Mr. Eva and Mr. Amorti are also over the age of 50. You fall into that same age group. And so I would suggest that in order to cut costs, you cut your with a threshold performance. But he says, I'm not motivated by money. Conversation related votes today. Thank you very much for your support there. Iain will be coming back to the compensation matters later on. Regarding your question about Singapore and the adjustment to bring UBS investments in line with the investment policy of the Singapore Fund, the investment policy to the Singapore Investment Fund, of which we knew early on and which we had to accept at the end of the day as Singapore is in control of how they invest. Instead of making individual investments in certain fields, they now use diversified investments in indices. So adjustment to this is nothing to do with whether they believe or do not believe in the future of UBS. It's generally just stake in us has been adjusted. And you can be sure that since you refer to HNA, with every business partner that we deal, we'll go through several rounds of due diligence. Be assured when we have business partners, we do due diligence and we repeat due diligence when there are headlines about a business partner and we do that regularly. For us, the you expressed in your presentation. Now let's move on in Melissa Uesli or Troxell from Schleren to stand by. General Chinese companies. I was only referring to the ACHAN. This is a dubious business relationship and whatever you say about it. I do take note that you didn't make a general statement, but I do not share your assessment of Executive Board, dear co shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, and 20,000 staff of UBS in Switzerland and in Switzerland shareholders like you are. A lot of things have changed ever since last year as digital has become the new standard. So UBS is offering to you, as clients, a high standard of digital channels and electronic solutions whose banking services in traditional manners. Now with this commitment to digitalization, UBS is taking its employees and its clients. This is something that employees are expected to do. The Swiss banks and UBS in particular, 1st and foremost, stand out by competent and loyal employees, employees who are in control of the banking business, who are your contacts in the bank, who provide advice to you and to whom you give your trust to process your banking transactions. I have talked to those employees, and I know from these conversations that the challenges and ready to face up to them. And it will be important to take all those employees on board when it comes to this journey to give them the stock in trade they need to be ready for the future to provide them will have to be committed to gender equality. Equally Opryas is going to do just this and takes all its employees on board. It will be able to champion the digital future. UBS Pro, they also need to have a safe future, often for the young also outside the major centers such as the Ticino, where we'll primarily deal with such matters as artificial intelligence, analytics and big data. Ladies and gentlemen, interests employees have and propose improvements, and I can proudly say that UBS has listened to me and us and has taken up proposals for the benefit of employees such as a clear making a clear commitment to Switzerland also when it comes to its headquarters to providing safe jobs and to expanding its offer of its UBS where it wants to be with regard to employee causes, very much in your interest, dear shareholders. And don't forget, ladies and gentlemen, banking is people, for it is people, human. I am pleased to see that you have taken the floor again speaking on behalf of your employees. And the Executive Board highly appreciates your commitment. And you have clearly, as you have addressed and other than previous speakers said, we also keep good dialogue of also about retaining jobs for more senior, older employees. UBS is proud of its employees. We are now in a phase where employees are back to being proud of the bank of UBS. I think there is a joint interest. We need to drive this several times a year for many years now. You are doing a very good job, and it helps us driving this bank further ahead. So I would like to thank you and to all employees again on behalf of the management and Board of Directors of this bank. Come on. I live in Schlieren, a multicultural booming city or a suburb of Zurich. The growth of housing, which has come out of control, has had its effect on recent elections. UBS rents a building that has been quickly set up, building opposite a well known tree. And it's not really customer friendly when it comes to its structure. When it's raining, the cash machine at Bahnhofstrasse does not have people, not only at the end of the month for the savings potential. Those who simply walk past the I don't know what's happening, whether you didn't manage to find the money to prevent that. Or is UBS abusing artificial intelligence to cut down jobs? No. To make me switch over to e banking to see my data abused or worse yet to be part of all the logistics failures at UBS. I'm getting paid should benefit still here. I have to wait for this for 90 days. I hope that you share, Angho, with regard to your retrenchment policy and this compared to your unethic option to not hear the anger expressed that I am expressing. And as such, we don't share your opinion on the you should voice any more threats about UBS relocating to Thank you, Mr. Troxler. Rest assured that both Sergio Amotti and myself, and we've done it several times over, Oman internationally, so rest assured that the Executive Board is well aware of the benefits of having a bank operating out of Switzerland. As far as your suggestion regarding site of Brando Strasse 45, there is no shelter there for the ATM. I will pass that on as a suggestion. Thank you very much. Can I now call Mr? Beattkaiser from Bottingen? I wish to present a petition for information and a potential dividend because of pending litigation issues and the unclear situation left all this behind us. We're going to find ourselves in a really, really strong position. And Wilbert L. Malti made a speech and admitted in that speech to its shareholders that there was still a need to clarify the situation with provisions and contingent liabilities for you. You specifically questioned the Board about the actual cost of legacy issues. Given any specific answer to her question, she was merely referred to the 2016 annual report and told that it wasn't possible to provide any additional information over and above what was in the early report. However, when it comes holding up a graph here and on this graph, you can see an orange light and years. According to a study carried out by Credit Suisse Research, euros 200,000,000 as shown in the accounts were only the tip of the iceberg in times of the fines that UBS would have to pay. The study estimates that the actual figure could be twice as high as that budgeted. The external auditors of UBS, that's Ernst and Young, has swallowed up something like 100,000,000 over the last 11 years in audits, including special audits for FINMA. According to finance on Beetschaft, UBS is a third of the pretax profits earned by UBS over that period. Last year, UBS paid $445,000,000 for. What about your lawsuit, which was recently rejected the lawsuit is whose proposed settlement UBS rejected the investigator for advanced statuaries, and UBS is top of the list of companies being investigated there. The former Finance Minister of North Rome's failure, Walter Boyens, has stated that we're and I quote, this is similar to organized. These unsolved problems must be quite troublesome to the new Board of Directors at UBS Excellent AG. In the minutes of UBS AG's AGM on the 2nd May 2013, directors proposed to reject his motion. However, the reason given, there is still considerable grounds for suspicion, which needs to be investigated, that Mr. Wolfgang Meyerhofer may have abused his dual role as Chairman of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and a member of the Board of UBS AG at the expense of 3rd parties. This would seriously affect the financial strength, the image, and in particular, the ethics rules you've not yet known. No discharge should be granted to Wolfgang Mayer Huber The and an incredible 69% abstained on the vote. I already filed a request for information on the 8th April 2017 in accordance with Article 697 for the Swiss Code of All Litigation and called upon auditors Ernst and Young to provide additional information and questions for you. Question 1, how far have you got with your investigation into So I would be interested to know what you were discussing at the low. My third and final question is as follows: what level of to shareholders could you imagine as an attractive level of payout after the next 3 years, of course, when we've left all this behind us, thereby finally deliver the necessary transparency that your creditors deserve. Thank you. For several years, you have appeared concerns that were not related to being a shareholder and against the discharge of a former member of the Board of Directors. And we were always willing to talk to you following the 17, our Group General Counsel, Mr. Marcus' detail on the podium here, met with you in person on June 13, your approaches. So we believe to have done everything we can do to read, and we've informed you on November 7, 7, 2017, of the outcome. Every quarter, in our meetings, we devote part of our meetings and the risk is on the podium. He'll be pleased to say something about the legal risks and risks for information and your wish for a special audit once missed a detailed. As specific, as we said in the earlier years in our quarterly reports, we provide regular information on the settlements achieved. Gerard Motti mentioned in his presentation that some provisions in the past, of course, I cannot make any statements about future cases. Thank you very much. Create additional transparency. Now about my own track record, let me say that ever since I took up office, I have met investors often and regularly and got positive, very positive feedback from employees, investors and other stakeholders as far as the clearing up of legacy issues is concerned. So that you can rest assured that this is no longer accounts for 80% of my time, but the lower share of my time. But at the beginning, of course, these cases caused a great deal of effort. But I believe we've made good headway in managing this portfolio. And you can see that our legal risks include a fair number of fewer issues today. And now regarding an appealing payout to shareholders, let me say that we've given clear guidance to shareholders for a number of years. Also, publishing our annual report, we have referred to this we are not making any statements going beyond the horizon of 3 years, but Mr. Amotti referred to the 2 components. We uphold the idea of paying a high single digit share. And we've got a 3 year share buyback program to the tune of €2,000,000,000 that we have announced. And so if you're talking about sustainability, as many of your previous speakers said, then of course, you have to be sustainable in raising your objectives as well. So sustainable growth is more important to us than short term growth, which is not sustainable in the long run. So we believe that our growth policy as an asset manager, we can grow by 2 fold the we are an appealing bank with an excellent growth prospect. And the share of shareholders in it is insured by our dividend policy in a highly transparent manner. So it's not that we wouldn't have given any guidance, but we've guided for a reasonable period of 3 years' time. And we've got, I believe, a fairly reasonable dividend policy that we've approved and shareholders that I've met have not provided negative but positive feedback to me with regard to predictability and sustainability of UBS in this regard. So my question to you is, we've discussed these matters in bilateral manner several times over. So with regard to your motion for a special audit, my question is whether the information that we provided to you in the past and today would satisfy you whether you would uphold the request for information and the motion to for a special audit? Yes. I want to insist on my motion for a special audit. Thank you. Mr. Bierbkeiser demands that a special audit be carried out and the request of information have been responded to at the AGM today orally. Mr. Behar Kaiser thus has executed his right to obtain information at the AGM. I asked Mr. Kaiser whether he was satisfied by our answers and would retain, however, his motion for a special audit, which he said yes to. So I hear with note for the minute that we need precise questions or issues about which you want to have a special audit carried out. So the floor is yours to word the questions specifically that are meant to be part of the special audit. Ladies and gentlemen, with my request for information at the AGM today, you have an opportunity to understand for yourselves how UBS is coping with its legacy issues. It remains to be stated that Mr. Wolfgang Meyer Huber on the 24th September 2017 announced his early retirement from the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa, AG, the CEO Deutsche Bank and former CFO of UBS, John Krein, was forced to step down from his office on the 8th April 2018. Could you please talk about the specific issues you want to have a special audit on? Neither Lufthansa nor Deutsche Bank, anything directly to do with UBS. Could you be specific in wording your questions for the special audit? At the AGM today, I am tabling a motion for a special audit on the following rationale, the Board of Directors, the Executive Board and regarding the process of cleaning up legacy issues of UBS and creating the transparency to their investors. This is why I propose provisions and contingent liabilities of UBS should be subject to a special audit by an independent auditor. Furthermore, I tabled the motion that the forensics units of KPMG at Baden Ostras, 172 in Zurich, ought to be appointed as the special auditor. The special audit is to be carried out within the budgeted auditing fees for the 2018 financial year. That's in a cost neutral manner. This is the reasons that I have. Well, we're taking them down in the minutes. The Board of Directors rejects this motion for a special audit. And I would like to ask Mr. Marcus Baumann to as we have to vote on this, to briefly explain to you the televoting system and the mode of voting. Dear shareholders, I'll be pleased to explain to you briefly our televoting system. Many of you will be familiar with it. The televota has a colored touchscreen. The screen is automatically dimmed after 3 minutes. And after 2 more minutes, it will extinguish entirely. As soon as the new vote is on, the screen will be automatically switched on. You can activate it by touching the screen anytime or by pressing the button on the side. There is a symbol spraiche for language for you to change the language. And with the Mainewald, Arles, my votes icon, you can check how you voted on the various items. The info icon will display your personal shareholders information, and so you will see how many votes you represent. A few seconds before a vote, the screen of your televoting system will display the item to be voted on. During the countdown, you will have 3 colored buttons to choose from. Green is for yes, red for low and the amber button is for abstaining. As soon as you have made your choice, this will be acknowledged by vibration, but the telephony system will vibrate and the button you have chosen will be check marked and the other buttons will be dimmed down. If you've pressed the wrong button, you can correct your vote within the countdown by simply pressing a different button. As soon as the countdown is over, you will not be able to correct your vote again, correct your vote anymore. And once the countdown is over, the screen will show the what you've chosen. Thank you, Marcus. So let me repeat for all of you, Mr. Beaabkaiser gave reasons for his motion for a special audit. We have taken note of the reasons and taken them down in the minutes. The Board of Directors is rejecting this motion. So we're going to have a vote on his motion for a special order. Markus Baumann, those who wish to go along with Mr. Berndkaiser's proposal carrying out a special order, order, press the green button on your televoting system. Those who wish to reject Mr. Beert Kaisers' motion for a special order for as proposed by the Board of Directors, press the red button. And if you wish to abstain from voting, touch the amber button. The countdown is on now. Countdown is up. As you can see from the screen, 19.89% of the votes are in favor and 68.1% against Mr. Wehrkeiser's motion to carry out a special order. 12% of the votes have abstained. So Mr. Wertkaiser's motion, according to Article 17, Paragraph 1 of the articles of association of UBS Group AG, has not received the required majority, so the motion has been turned down. Let's go back to the list of speakers. Thank you very much, Mr. Kaiser. We'll move on with Mrs. Carolahart from Geneva, who is the last person to have signed on to speak on this very item. And I will afterwards close the debate on Item 1. Mrs. Hart, please. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm the last person who's asked to take the floor on this point. I'll keep it nice and short for you. I think I've done quite a lot to promote the success of UBS. Nevertheless, I don't get any kind of salary, not to mention a bonus. That's it, really. I don't think I even took 25 seconds to say that. Thank you. But I really enjoy my work nevertheless. Well, thank you very much, Mrs. Hart. And as every year, you have put on a particularly beautiful dress. I know you came for Art Basel, which is also taking place here, of course, at the exploration center in Basel, although not just yet. Nevertheless, we really appreciate the fact that you come every year. Yes, and UBS is one of the main sponsors of Art Basel. Yes, I was really hoping you would say that. So thanks for saying it. Anyway, have a nice day, says Mrs. Hart, and enjoy your lunch at the end of the meeting, of course. Yes, thank you. We will. And thank you so much. As usual, we are delighted to have you adding such color to the speakers' list. We're sorry to see that you're not quite so mobile as you have been in previous years. And we wish you all the very best for your health. It's always an honor to have you here. Thank you. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen. That brings us to the end of the speakers' list. And I like my colleague, Ursa Roner. I would also like to mention Mr. Struchen, who is no longer with us. He always took the floor here at our ADM and always called upon UBS to deliver transparency and live up to its objectives. Year on year, we are very sorry to hear of his passing. In his memory, we ensured that there were plenty of croissants outside at Coffey, and I hope that he would have been happy to see us proceeding despite his unfortunate absence. So let's return to the agenda. I'd like to close the floor then on Agenda Item 1.1. I note that as in Young AD, our auditors have recommended approval of the management pool, a consolidated stand alone accounts for UBS Group AD for 2017. Their reports contain no reservations and are printed in the financial information provided to you could also be inspected at our headquarters. So I would ask sir. This is the 2nd vote for today. It is Agenda Item 1.1 under which the board proposes that you approve the management report as well as the consolidated and stand alone financial statements, the EBS Group AG for 2017. Marcus, please. To avoid repetition, I will not explain how to use the telephoto and what the different icons mean. Just as a final reminder, it's green for yes, red for no and amber if you wish to abstain. And we can proceed to the vote. The vote. Thank you. The AGM has therefore approved the motion of the Board. And we can move on to Agenda Item 1.2 which is an advisory vote on the compensation report 2017 in UBS Group AG. So all this, our compensation policy reconciles the interest of our investors, our customers and our employees. It's based on our long term strategy, and it enables us to deliver performance focused and competitive compensation so to attract the best talent and retain it. Now we do all this while trying to maintain a balance between returns for our shareholders and the fulfillment of our sustainable capital requirement. The development of our compensation model and discontinued use over the last 5 years is supporting the cultural change within our bank towards a stronger focus on sustainable performance, personal responsibility and a measured approach to risk. So in 2017, we have not just focused on the results achieved, but also on how they were achieved because we feel that's just as important So the behavior of all of our employees is taken into account when setting compensation. Since we introduced this compensation model in 2012, it's been very little changed. In 2017, we made a few minor adaptations, which you can find details of in the SAIL and Pay brochure. Allow me to just say a few points about the main items within our remuneration policy. A large proportion of performance related compensation is deferred over several years and carries a risk of forfeiture. Deferrable periods are 3 to 5 years, sometimes even longer, which makes them some of the longest within our market when we measure ourselves against other major international banks. We do not provide incentive for people to take compensation plans don't really leave for effect, for example, which might multiply performance related to pay. The level of such compensation can only go up if the UBS share price goes up, which of course is in the interest of our shareholders. And the value of the compensation received can also go down, not just if the share price falls, but also if certain performance related conditions are not met. One of those conditions, for example, is that we maintain a minimum return on equity. Apart of our performance related compensation also helps to provide loss absorbing capital at the bank. If our capital quota falls below a certain threshold level, then these awards are lost and therefore help to bolster the loss absorbing capital buffer buffer and protect the capital position of the bank. To sum up, the entire Board of Directors and I are convinced that we have, as we have for some time now, a simple, transparent and effective compensation model, which takes account of the interest of all stakeholders. We are convinced that this compensation model will help us to achieve our overarching target, which is sustainable and long term success. Ladies and gentlemen, the compensation report of 2017, EBS Group AT and therefore, our compensation model as a whole is being put to you in a consultative advisory vote today. Although this is only an advisory vote and the result of the vote is not binding, nevertheless, by placing your vote, you are demonstrating your will or your agreement or indeed perhaps your disagreement with our overall compensation policy as shown in the report. We take the results of this vote very seriously because it shows whether you agree with our compensation practices in connection with our compensation structure for 2017, our governance and our guidelines. I would like to open the floor for discussion on the report, although as far as I can see, no shareholders have asked to take the floor on this particular agenda item, which would mean that we could skip this week's list and proceed directly to the advisory vote. The Board proposes that you endorse the 2017 compensation report of UBS Group AG in an advisory vote. The ballot is open, and you have 10 seconds from now. And we will await the results, which will be shown on the screen in a moment. The AGM has therefore endorsed the 2017 compensation report in UBS Group Pay On a stand alone basis, the net profit of UBS Group AG for 2017 was CHF 47,000,000. The Board of Directors proposes fully appropriate this sum to the voluntary earnings reserve. We also propose the payment of an ordinary dividend of CHF0.65 5, a CHF.64 per share. This will be paid out of capital contribution reserves Since the debt has been paid from the capital, the Confucian reserve, it is exempt from withholding tax. And if the shares are held by private individuals, resident in Switzerland, it's also exempt from income tax. Other people, including legal entities, persons residing overseas and persons holding the shares as part of their business assets, should please verify their own tax liability for their own individual situation. I'd like to open the floor for discussion on agenda item 2. Martin Knuts from BULAQ is the first speaker on the list. And Marc Dueur from Gundlaghi should please be waiting to speak next. Martin Lutz, Export I don't know whether this question has already been asked because this is the first time I've come to the ATM here in Basel. But some years ago, you used to alternate between Zurich and Basel. I haven't been to Basel for a while. I probably won't make myself very popular by asking this question it would appear that about twothree of the shareholders come from Zurich area and any third from Basel. But anyway, having said that about the location, let me say something about the dividend. I remember very well that various chairmen of the board have said at various times that UBS has a shareholder friendly dividend policy or that's what you intend to have. Well, I don't really see that. I mean, you've made or you've lost quite a lot of money, wasted quite a lot, I think. And as to the share price between 2016 2017, where we saw the share price at around 80 But then, of course, the picture was very disappointing after that. And so I would recommend to you today, shareholders, that you exercise a protest vote here against the payment of this dividend. I know that well over 90% of you will still vote in favor, and so I don't think the dividend is in danger. But nevertheless, as a UBS shareholder, I really feel so far we've always been the losers in this picture, and I don't really think that that should be the case with a company like this. So thank you for listening. Thank you, Mr. Lutz. Mr. Mark Tor, please approach the speakers shareholders, Mr. Amotti, members of the Board of Directors, Doctor. Weber, I am astonished about the detailed knowledge you have on the questions and proposals made that are not always very easy to respond and your eloquent manner in giving your presentation. Great job. For an entirely different matter now, the dividend. I would like to thank you for the appealing dividend will be paid out a week from now. Contrary to the previous speaker, I appreciate this payout, but I was particularly pleased with your announcement of a buyback of shares to the tune of CHF2 1,000,000,000. If I've done my maths properly, this is around 120,000,000 shares at the current share price. Given the number of shares in circulation of around 3,000,000,000, this is a drop in the ocean. And I would assume that this is only a beginning and will be continued. Well, of course, there's no need to ask that questions as you have provided an answer already regarding your intentions about the dividend and share buybacks. Thank you, Mr. Durer. I'll be pleased to respond to the 2 speakers. I mentioned it earlier on and Mr. Amotti mentioned it in his presentation. We want to use our robust capital position. And we actually needed to retain it following deregulation in the banking sector. We want to build up on that solid position and to further increase return for shareholders. In future, we want to pay out a decent dividend in the range of a middle to higher single digit range of growth. Of course, we need to keep an eye on our objectives of sustainability, and the executive board is certainly aware of the need to be sustainable in managing the business. And we also plan to return capital by buyback shares Repatriate capital, this year, we launched a program to the tune of €550,000,000 Now you converted this to the volume. It amounts to about CHF115 of dividend as a dividend equivalent of the share buyback program. And I believe we're doing well as a bank. Let me come back to the first speaker, the first statement made by Mr. Lutz. Mr. Lutz, every year at the AGM, we have a number of shareholders who bought into UBS at different prices. And I can tell you, in the period of time when Sergio and Monti and myself worked, I can recall the first day I worked, the UBS share was traded just under CHF 10. So there's been ups and downs in the history of UBS, especially the financial crisis had an impact on the share price and left considerable vestiges with UBS. All I can do is to promise to you, together with the Executive Board, that we're going to continue to work on a decent dividend policy that we want to increase the dividend in future. Thank you also for the support provided to us. It's, of course, it's always nice to hear that at Annual General Meeting. Thank you very much. No one else has signed up to speak on this item. So I would like to proceed to the vote on Item 2. The vote will be conducted by Mr. Baumann. The Board of Directors proposes to use the €47,000,000 profit and fully allocate it to freely available reserves and to pay out a dividend of CHF0.65 per UBS Group per share at a par value of CHF0.10 from to be paid out of capital contribution reserve. The vote is on. Countdown is on now. Voting time has elapsed and the results will appear on the screen behind me in a minute. As you can see from the results on screen, the share of Jesvo is 98.89 percent versus 0.16 percent of no votes. The Annual General Meeting thus has carried the board's motion on item 2. Moving on to item 3, discharge the members of the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board for the 2017 financial year. The Board of Directors proposes that the discharge with the members of the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board for the 2017 financial year be granted the list of persons serving on the Board and the Executive Board in the 2017 financial year and about whose discharge we're going to vote on will be shown or is being shown on the screen behind me. No one has requested the floor on this item. So we needn't even open the debate, but we can proceed straight to the vote on item 3. Let me remind you that the members of the Board of Directors and the executive board of UBS Group, Marguerite, are not entitled to vote with their own or represented on this item. This also applies to any representative of the persons involved. So the Board of Directors proposes that discharge of the members of the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board for the 2017 financial year be granted. Is the. The vote is on now and the countdown is on. Time is up. The results are being established. And here we are with the results. The share of Jesvo's is 89.7% versus 5.9% of no votes. The Annual General Meeting thus has carried the board's motion on item 3. Moving on to item 4, approval of the aggregate amount of variable compensation for the members of the Group Executive Board for the 2017 financial year. The Board of Directors proposes that the aggregate amount of variable compensation of CHF74,150,000 of members of the Group Executive Board for the 2017 financial year be approved. Pursuant to Article 43, Paragraph 1C of the articles of association of UBS Groupe, The AGM approves the aggregate amount of variable compensation of members of the Executive Board for the 2017 financial year. The vote on the aggregate amount of variable compensation for the past year allows shareholders to take a well founded decision on compensation based on measurable performance. When defining variable compensation, performance of the executive board members is assessed on both qualitative and quantitative terms. Quantitative variables refer to the corporate results. And depending on the function of the member, 2, the results of the region, the division of the function of the person. The qualitative variables refer to our cornerstones, principles and behaviors that define our cultural program for the improvement of culture internally. In addition, total compensation is compared on the basis of every role and with a group of peers. And a description of performance appraisal and the our assessments of the performance of Group CEO can be found in our 2017 compensation report. The aggregate amount of performance awards to the Executive Board amounts to about 1.2% of the adjusted pretax income of the corporation, which is clearly below the defined cap of 2.5%. The increase of the agri demand by 3.1% over the previous year reflects the excellent financial result of UBS despite challenging market conditions in the 2017 financial year, a strong capital positions and the net cost savings remain preserved. Let me point out at this point refer to the 2017 compensation report to the UBS Group and the invitation to the AGM and the shareholders' brochure on say on pay and compensation votes at the 2018 AGM. The 2 reports clearly illustrate the average amount variable compensation of the member of the executive boards for the 2017 financial year. The Board of Directors thus proposes to you to approve the aggregate amount of variable compensation 2017 for the Executive Board in in the amount of CHF74,000,000 to be approved. No one has signed up to speak on this item, so let's proceed to the vote. The Board of Directors proposes that the aggregate amount of variable compensation of CHF74,150,000 for the members of the Group Executive Board for the 2017 financial year be approved. The vote is on now and the countdown is running. The results will be displayed on the screen behind me in just a moment's time. And here they are. 82.57 percent of the votes have been in favor, 12.2% against the board's motion. Thank you very much. The Annual General Meeting thus has carried the board's motion on item 5. Item 4. Moving on to item 5, approval of the maximum aggregate amount of fixed compensation for the members of the Group Executive Board for the 2019 financial year. Other than the retrospective vote in 2017, the fixed amount is prospective. For the 2019 financial year, the board proposes that the maximum average amount of fixed compensation of CHF 31,500,000 for the members of the Group Executive Board for the 2019 financial year be approved. According to Article 43, Paragraph 1 of the articles of the UBS Group, Art Gave, the annual general meeting is to approve the maximum aggregate amount of fixed compensation of the members of the Executive Board for the 2019 financial year. Again, let me refer to the comprehensive brochure has been enclosed with the invitation to the AGM today. The maximum aggregate amount for fixed compensation for the members of the Executive Board for the 2019 financial year is explained in detail in the brochure. The Board of Directors believes that the prospective vote on fixed compensation for members of the Executive Board provides the necessary certainty to the company to work successfully. The proposed maximum average amount of fixed compensation for the Executive Board in the amount of CHF 31,500,000 particularly includes base salaries with the group CEO receiving CHF 2,500,000 and every other member of the Executive Board CHF1,500,000 each. These base salaries have remained unchanged since 2011. Furthermore, the maximum aggregate amount of fixed compensation includes row based allowances, estimated standard contributions to pension schemes and fringe benefits as well as a reserve. The unchanged maximum aggregate amount of fixed compensation compared to the previous year is sufficient in the view of the Board of Directors to cope with uncertainties related to geopolitical and regulatory changes or potential market developments. Let's open the debate on item 5. One person has signed up to speak. Let me call Mr. Bosco Bude from Flavio to come forward to deliver his statement. Good afternoon. I have a pleasant announcement to make. I've been active in more than 90 countries working for the Swiss government and 8 projects. And I can contribute to honoring Lucius Cameron, the former Secretary General of UBS. As you will see, it's sometimes difficult to be in contact with me, but he has been a great champion in doing so. The new Secretary General, Marcus Baumann, I would like to ask to hand over the bunch of that bunch of flower to Lucius Cameron. But to be on the safe side, I'll give this bunch of flowers to a security person. He checked it whether there was a bomb in it already. Let me talk about the gratifying concept of sustainability first. It's not a hobbyhorse of mine. But since 1975, I've been involved in the Swiss and the European Sustainability Movements and also in the global movement for sustainability. So let's do a little commercial. I'll be pleased to offer a course to you because I would assume that the concept of sustainability is something you haven't fully grasped yet. But let's talk about the subject matter now. Good afternoon, gentlemen. There aren't really many ladies, especially not on stage. Mr. Motti, I have to complain to you. My dear partner keeps criticizing me about my suits. He says, why can't you buy the same quality suits and ties like Mr. Amotti? He's the most well dressed man in Switzerland. Now of course, you can read up on that in a German book by Gottfred Keller that purses are made by what they wear. Now what is more important, content or packaging? I think it's content and your heads and the computer you have in your head is more important. And I don't really understand everything that happened in the past year. If you look at the glossy reports, there aren't really a lot of relevances and not really relevant information in it. No lessons have been learned from the financial crisis. 1,000,000,000 of dollars have been paid in fines by UBS and who committed the mistakes. Have the fines been paid by those who made the mistakes? Have they been paid by the Board of Directors of the Executive Board? Or have they have the bill been put in by the shareholders? Well, people always say, well, this it's the former people to be blamed, but that's really a lame excuse. You have been in control of this business for years, but you kept skimming off the profits. Of course, you didn't do everything wrong. I think the idea of sustainability is a good idea, and I made my commercial before. To save some time today, I would like to ask the Secretary General here. We've got 75% of shares that are voting in the hall today or did I misunderstand? That would be tremendously high. Well, 75 of the shares are represented, but not all of them are physically represented in all. So yes, of course, they're represented by the independent proxy. So the following motions apply from the beginning of 2019 to be decided upon at the next year's AGL, the Board of Directors and the Executive Board have time until September 30, 2018. By then, we shareholders want to see a written proposal in line with the following motions. Www.boniestovst. Ched. You can read up on everything, including my statement at the Raiffeisen Bank annual general meeting. First, bonus payments from 2019 to be half, cut by 50%. That's half way, about £3,000,000,000 This half to be transferred to a dividend payout. 2nd motion, halving compensation on all bodies, but in particular, the executive board and the Board of Directors, including their members, a modestly reduced amount will be transferred to the UBS Society Sustainability to remedy some of the destruction caused by human beings for which UBS is also to blame. 3rd motion to increase the dividend from 2019. With the money flowing in from Motion 1 and 2, of course, the share price will explode and QBS's image will be tremendously enhanced. And we shareholders want to be receive higher remuneration as well rather than simply receive patent snub. Should these motions not be in line with the spirit of a new attitude that is required, there will be we will organize a worldwide shareholder uproar for the 2019 AGM. Now I'm familiar with mechanisms and processes that are required to bring about this uproar. The industry of financial services provider UBS directly have soiled the image of my home country, Switzerland. Why do we have so many people around the world who are unwilling to learn but occupying important functions. All of the persons up on stage have enough money. We will see to it that they will go down in history in the world. There is no lady sitting up on stage. I wrote down there's only a few of them. But ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you we finally have to destroy that financial cartridge. Let's look forward to the 2019 Annual General Meeting. We will be taking a decision on setting up the most eccentric bank, the real first bank in the world, the new United Bank of Switzerland, Group AG. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Bosco Buhler. I take it as praise if you're saying we didn't do everything wrong. However, I do believe that in the past 5 to 7 years, I believe we've done quite a few things right. And of course, when you joined a company, you cannot determine the beginning of the journey, but you can try and have an influence on journey. We haven't reached our objectives, but we are on track and we are doing well as far as I'm concerned. Our compensation philosophy is focused on defending and aligning interests of investors, clients and employees. And they take into account financial results and many other factors. And believe you, me, that we are taking our responsibility on the Board and we are well aware of the significance of decisions we take. We're an independent body. Someone earlier asked about this. Of course, we meet with members of the Executive Board when it comes to driving this business. But everyone's free to say anything when we meet. We're a business that holds up governance. And rest assured that on the Board of Directors, we are independent enough. And apart from the Chairman of the Board, we have independent members of the Board of Directors only on the Board. Now your proposals to inform on the matter by 30th September is not in line with our standard information processes. And I don't really think there is a major benefit about reporting about the year as early as September 30 because there'll be 3 months following it. So believe you me that we are going to report about the financial and business results along the Sandler Way. And next year, we will also inform about the dividend and compensation. It's in terms of timing, we can't really do it any earlier than we are doing it already. Among the Swiss banks and Swiss companies, we're in the leading pack. Many are reporting only later than that their AGM. So you can be certain that we are informing as early as possible. We have brought forward timing in recent years, and we're going to keep doing so. I'm looking forward to your attendance at the 2019 Annual General Meeting. Many of the points that you referred to in terms of them being radical are not in line with what we're planning to do. But as far as the direction and intention is concerned, the Board of Directors shares your ideas regarding better involvement of the shareholders and better results of the banks over time. But our objectives need to be realistic. Capital buildup and deregulation have been important and this phase is only coming to an end now. Of course, there is some uncertainty. We know about the future regulatory setting, but I can promise to you that we are doing everything to drive ahead this bank. So let's proceed to the vote as there is no one else who's signed up. The debate is now closed. And by the way, just to mention this, I can only go along with you congratulating Lucius Cameron. He did an excellent job as the General Secretary. I worked with him for years, and I told him so several times when he stepped down. And just as much, I believe that Mr. Baumann is doing an excellent job in his capacity and he's looking forward to receiving a bunch of flowers from you as well. So let's proceed to the vote on item 5. The Board of Directors proposes that the maximum aggregate amount of fixed compensation of CHF 31,500,000 for the members of the Group Executive Board for the financial year 2019 be approved. The vote is on now. Countdown is running. Time is up. And the results will be shown on screen in almost next to no time. As you can see, 84.81 percent of you have carried the board's motion, 10.04% of votes have been against. So the AGM has carried the board's motion on Item 5. We proceed then to agenda Item 6, elections, and begin with item 6.1, reelections of members of the Board of Directors. Since the term of office is 1 year, all members of the Board need to be reelected. The Board proposes that Michel Dammery, David Sidwell, Rachel Magnone, Anne Gordborough, Julie Richardson, Isabel Romy, Robert Sculley, Beatrice responsibility involved, this isn't a given. The Board as a whole has to rise to ever greater expertise in banking, risk management, reporting, human resources, accommodation policy, legal affairs and the leadership of large companies. We have plenty of that expertise among the members of our Board, which means that we are able to staff our 5 Board Committees with highly qualified individuals. These committees do excellent work and greatly increase the efficiency of the work of the Board as a whole. Before we come to the reelection, though, there is one colleague to whom we have to say goodbye today. Mr. William Paret is not standing for reelection here today. At the beginning of 2018, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of UBS Americas Holding LLC and will now be concentrating on this very important role, which is strategically important for the bank. William Paret joined the Board of Directors of UBS AG 10 years ago and the Board of Directors to PBS Group AG 3.5 years ago. He was Chairman of the Order Committee for 9 years and member of the Compensation Unit for 3 years. Liam Parrot joined the Board during very turbulent times, and it's his work in leading the Audit Committee, which has particularly helped steer UBS into calmer waters. The Board of Directors and the executive team as well as our internal and external auditors always found Bill to be a highly competent individual and an excellent person to work with and benefited very much from his in-depth knowledge. So on behalf of the Board, I would like to thank William Parrot for the very valuable work that he did on the Board of UBS Group AG and UBS AG. And I'm really looking forward to working with him in his new role as Chairman of the Board of UBS Americas Holding, LCC. Bill, thank you for all you did. It was a great job. And we'll have time tonight to celebrate your achievements when we're back in Zurich. We will now briefly introduce the members of the Board who are starting for reelection, and then we will vote on their reelection in one single voting operation. If you wish to look at the detailed CVs and their involvement in listed and non listed companies, then you can do that by consulting the annual report in the German version. It starts on Page 294. Let's begin with under ISM 6.1.1. I would ask the Vice Chairman, Michel Demerre, to conduct my reelection, which he will do in French. Thank you, Axel. Was appointed Chairman of the Board of UBS AG 6 years ago and Chairman of the Board of UBS Group AG 3.5 years ago. If reelected, he will also chair the Governance and Nominations Committee and the Corporate Culture and Responsibility Committee. The Board is delighted that Mr. Huber is prepared to continue to carry out these functions and therefore, recommends that you reelect him today. Thank you. Thank you. And we can proceed to Item 6.1 point 2, the reelection of Michel Desmarie. Mr. Desmarie was appointed to the Board of U. S. AG 9 years ago and to the Board of Evers Group AG 3.5 years ago. If reelected, he will once again be appointed Vice Chairman and will remain a member of the Order and Governance and Nomination Committee. Now his reelection to the Compensation Committee is here on the agenda as a separate item, item 6.3.2. Now comes agenda item 6.1.3 reelection If reelected, he will once again be appointed Senior Independent Director and once again will chair the Risk Committee and remain a member of the government's and nominating committee. Gender Item 6.1.4 covers the re election of the re election operator, Froncioni, who joined the Board of Evus AG 5 years ago and the Board of Evus Group AG 3.5 years ago. Mr. Froncioni will remain a member of the Corporate Culture and Responsibility Committee and the Risk Committee if reelected today. The generalization 6.1.5 concerns the re election of Anne Godfrey. Anne Godfrey joined the board of UBS AT 9 years ago and the board of UBS Group AG 3.5 years ago. If reelected today, she will remain a member of the Audit Committee. Her reelection to the Compensation Committee is a separate item on today's agenda on 6.3.1. Moving on now to 6.1.6, reelected Julie reelection of Isabelle Rumi. Isabelle Rumi joined the Board of U. S. AG 6 years ago and the Board of U. S. Group AG 3.5 years ago. If reelected, she will remain a member of the Audit and Governance Nominating Committee. Item 6.1.8, reelection of Robert Scully. Scully was appointed to the boards of UBS Group AG and UBS AG 2 years ago. And if reelected today, he will remain a member of the Risk Committee. Now to agenda item 6.1.9, reelection of Beatrice Veda di Mauro. Beatrice Veda di Mauro joined the board of UBS AG 6 years ago and the board of UBS Group AG 3.5 years ago. If reelected today, she will remain a member of the Order and Court for Culture and Responsibility Committee. Finally, I'm delivering elections by Dieter Wermer, who was appointed to the boards of UBS Group AG and UBS AG 2 years ago. If reelected today, he will remain a member of the Risk Committee. His election to the Compensation Committee is a separate item on today's agenda. That's item 6.3.4. The Board is delighted that the people we've just talked about have declared themselves willing to continue in their role as independent members of the Board. Before we proceed to the vote, I think As you know, ladies and gentlemen, our Board that works well needs to have the right people with the right qualifications. In order to give you an opportunity to get to know the 2 new candidates a bit better. Allow me to introduce them briefly. We will then vote on them in a single vote. Let's start with Item 6.2.1, which relates to the election of Mr. Jeremy Anderson, who was born in 1958 and is a British citizen. He received his bachelor's degree in economics from University College London in 1980. And in the same year, he began his career at Triad Computing Systems. 1985, he moved to KPMG Consulting U. K. There he was a partner in the Financial Services business in the consulting section of KPMG in the U. K. And was its CEO between 20,021,000 and 2. In 2002, KMG Consulting UK was acquired by Atos and Origin, and Jeremy Anderson became a member of the Group Management Board and Head of U. K. Operations at Atos Origin. In 2004, he moved to KPMG International, where from 2004, 2008, he led its financial services business in the U. K. From 2006 to 20 11, he was Head of Financial Services for KPMG Europe. And from 2,008 to 2011, he was also Head of Clients and Markets for KPMG Europe. From 2010 until November 2017, he was Chairman of Global Financial Services at KPMG International. Jeremy Anderson is also a trustee of the British Productivity Leadership Group. Board of Directors is delighted that Jeremy Anderson financial expert as a new member of the Board and to propose him to you as a new member of the Board today. He has plenty of expertise in IT as well, which is ideal. If he is elected, we intend to make him Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Corporate Culture and Responsibility Committee. Moving now to agenda item 6.2.2, the election of Fred Poole, who unfortunately isn't able to be here today. But I would like to introduce him briefly to you. He was born in 1963 and is a Chinese citizen. He holds a master's in engineering from Tsinghua University and a master's and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, which he was awarded in 1993. From 1990 1 to 1996, he worked as an economist for the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D. C. 7, he joined Goldman Sachs initially as Chief Economist. From 2004 to 2008, he was a Goldman Sachs partner and co Director of Investment Banking for China. From 2008 to 20 20 company based in Peking in Hong Kong, which he founded himself. Fred Wu is a non executive Chairman of the Board of the Board of Directors of Hong Kong Exchange Clearing Limited and Hang Seng Bank Limited is also involved in a number of charitable organizations, including the Nature Conservancy's Asia Pacific Council. The Board is delighted that Fred Hall is willing to take on responsibility on our Board of Directors. You see him as an experienced and proven economics expert and an expert in the financial industry, and we're delighted to be able to present him to you his connections to Asian region and his involvement there as well as his expertise in Private Equity believe I mean, Megas believe that he is an ideal candidate. So we will proceed now to John 96.3, which concerns the election of the members of the Compensation Committee. The Board proposes that Anne Godfrey and Michel be elected reelected for a term of office of a further year as members of that committee and that Julie Richardson and Dieter Remo be elected to the Conversation Committee for 1 year. I would like to thank the colleagues for making themselves available for these positions. Following the discussion, we will vote on all these agenda items in one single round of voting. Now I don't see that anybody has registered to take the floor under Agenda Item 6 as a whole. And I would therefore propose that we move directly to the vote. The as members of the Board, and that I be reelected as Chairman of the Board for a term of office of 1 year running up to the end of the 2019 Annual General Meeting. I'd ask Marcus Baumann to explain the procedure for this particular vote. Yes, we will use the tele voter to carry out one round of voting for all of these elections. You will see all the names of the members standing for reelection on your screen. There are 10 to be reelected, and that takes up 4 pages on your tele vote. You can use the arrow on the bottom right of your screen to move to the next page. Use the left hand arrow to go to the previous page. These arrows will continue to flash Balance is now closed, and we will await the results that will be shown on the screen in just a moment. Members of the Board of Directors and myself as Chairman of the Board. I congratulate all the members on their reelection and look forward to receiving your support on the Board in the coming year. Now all of the reelected members assured me in advance of this meeting that they would indeed accept their reelection. Let's move on then to the vote on gender Item 6.2.1 and 6.2 and 0.2, whereby the Board proposals that Jeremy Anderson and Fred Hall be elected to the Board of Directors for a period of office running for 1 year until the end of the 2019 General Assembly. We'll also carry out this vote in one round. You will see the two names on your screen. They fit on one page in your televoter as soon as the voting time begins. You have 12 seconds to cast your vote, and the ballot is open now. As you can see from the screen, 98 point 7 percent of the votes are in favor of the election of Jeremy Anderson and 96.6% of the votes cast are in favor of the election of Fred Houle. The General Assembly has therefore elected Jeremy Anderson and Fred Houle. And I can't grant you late as the gentlemen on their election and look forward to receiving their support from the Board of Directors. I'm looking forward on our future collaboration, and I cordially welcome you to the Board of UBS. Assured me the chance of the meeting that they would accept the election if duly elected. Rich and indeed to rumor be elected as new members to the compensation committee also for a period of 1 year. Markus Baumann, could you please explain the vote? Yes, indeed. And we will carry out this vote in a single round again. Once the voting time begins, you will see the four names shown in your telephoto. They're going to take up 2 pages. So you can use the arrows at the bottom of the screen to move between the two pages. You will have a period of 15 seconds to cast your vote. The ballot is open now. The reappointed Anne Godfrey and Dishmery. And Julie Richardson and Dietermo have been newly elected to the Conversation Committee. I congratulate the 4 members. I'm delighted to receive your support in the coming year. You certainly deserve that round of applause because that conversation committee is extremely busy, particularly around the end of the year. All of those members confirmed to in advance the meeting that they would accept their election. So thank you very much. Moving on to item 7, approval of the maximum aggregate amount of compensation for the members of the Board of Directors the for the period from the AGM 2018 to the AGM 2019 be approved. Pursuant to Article 43, Paragraph 1A of the articles of association of the U. S. Group, the Annual General Meeting shall approve the maximum aggregate amount of compensation with members of the Port of Directors from the Annual General Meeting 2018 to the next one. For this, I also refer you to the information brochure that you have found in invitation to the AGM today. The maximum aggregate amount of compensation for the members of the Board of Directors for the period from this year's to next year's Annual General Meeting is explained in detail in this brochure. The proposed maximum aggregate amount of fixed compensation for the Board of Directors of CHF 14,500,000 for the period from this year's to next year's AGM includes compensation for the Chairman and the fees of the elected independent members of the Board of Directors, and it corresponds to the same principles of compensation as in earlier years. The increase by CHF 500,000 over the previous year reflects an increase from 11 to 12 members on the board. The fees of the independent members are the same as in the previous year. And as a matter of fact, they have remained unchanged ever since UBS ARG was founded in 1998, almost remained unchanged. Even my total compensation has remained for many years. No one has signed up to speak on this item, number 7. So let's proceed to the vote. The Board of Directors proposes that the maximum aggregate amount of compensation of CHF14,500,000 for the members of the Board of Directors for the period of the AGM 2018 to the annual general meeting in 2019 be approved. The vote is herewith on. Countdown is on now. Time is And you will see the results displayed on the screen behind me in a moment. As you can see from the results, 86.1 percent of you have voted for the board's motion, 8.69% have voted against. The AGM has thus carried the board's motion. Moving on to items 8.1 to 8.3, reelections. The board proposes according to Item 8.1, re election of the independent proxy ADB Altdorf, Hildus and Valstein, AG of Zurich for a term of office of 1 year, expiring at the end of the Annual General Meeting in 2019. Furthermore, the Board proposes pursuant to Item 8.2, reelection of Ernst and Young of Basel as auditors for the consolidating and stand alone financial statements of UBS Group, and gave for the 1 year term of office until completion of the Annual General Meeting in 2,009. This 1 year term of office is prescribed by law. Ernst and Young exercises the auditing mandate for UBS R and G's standalone consolidated financial statements and has been has done so since 1998. The mandate has been renewed on an annual basis and Cendyong is a professional and efficient partner, meeting the high requirements of a globally operating financial corporation. This long standing partnership presents the crucial benefit of Ernst and Young being familiar with the structures, products and services of our company and performing its control function effectively as a result. In addition, Ernst and Young has confirmed to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors that they fulfill the requirement of independence required for the mandate and that independence is not impaired by the auditing mandate for the UBS Corporation. Such additional mandates require approval by the audit committee and Sten D'Au furthermore has confirmed to have not performed any services to UBS Group or its subsidiaries between 1st January 31st December 2019 would not be allowed by the SEC. The Board of Directors finally proposes according to item 8.3, reelection of the special auditors video of Zurich for a term of office of 3 years. Article 39, paragraph 3 of our articles reads for the AGM to elect special auditors for a period of 3 years to submit audits for capital increases. PDO of Zurich was elected on November 26, 2014, at the AGM of UBS Group, AG and at the level of UBS, AG in 2006. Video is a professional and highly efficient partner that meets the requirements of a globally operating financial company as UBS. No one has signed up to speak on these items on the agenda. So what we're going to do is to proceed right to the vote, reelections, all of them will be carried out collectively. The independent proxy will not vote on his own reelection, although he does not have obligations to do so. So he will only execute instructions from shareholders. So let's repeat. The Board of Directors proposes on the basis of Item 8.2, reelection of ADV as an independent proxy for 1 year term of office, expiring at the end of the AGM 2019 and furthermore proposes reelection of Ernst and Young for a 1 year term of office as auditors for the consolidated financial statements and the standard statements of UBS Group, AG. And finally, the Board of Directors proposes reelectio of Zurich for a 3 year term of office as special auditors. That is under item A. 3. Markus Baumann, please take over to conduct the votes. As soon as voting time is on, the candidates and three names to be proposed to be reelected will be shown on your scheme on one single page. You will have 12 seconds' time to cast your votes. Voting is now on and the countdown is on now. Time is up. The results are being established and will be displayed on the screen behind me in just a moment's time. As you can see from the results, you have carried the board's motions at vast majorities. The Board of Directors thus has reelected ADB Althoortus and Beierstein as independent proxy and Ernst and Young of Basel as auditors for a 1 year term of office each and BDO of Zurich are special auditors for a 3 year term of office. Congratulations to Anton Duft Baustein Ernst and Young, the representatives of Ernst and Young and BDO on their reelection. Dear shareholders, I would like to thank you for your trust that you have expressed in UBS Group and that you continue to have and also for your approval of the Board's motions. You have thus expressed that you intend to continue to support us. And I would also like to thank you for the interest that you have expressed by attending the Annual General Meeting today. Now regarding the question we have failed to answer earlier on, why the Annual General Meeting is taking place in Basel. Well, UBS AG, ever since the merger, has had 2 headquarters whereas business activities have been very much focused in Zurich. We've got the 2nd headquarters where we are conducting our AGM. The results of the outcomes of the votes today in the speeches will be published on our website. And in the weeks to come, you will also find an abridged version of the minutes of this AGM. The next AGM of UBS Group on a gear will take place on the 2nd May 2019. It's again a Thursday, and the venue will be announced to you with the invitation. I'm now pleased to invite you to refreshments in the Foie. The wine served today are from the region of Lakeville. I hope that you're going to have lively conversations over drinks and a safe trip home later on. Can I ask you to submit or return your televoting system when you leave the hall? This concludes the Annual General Meeting 2018. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your trust.

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