RepoRt on - BNP Paribas

financial statements
committee
in 2009, the membership of the financial
statements committee was unchanged
from the previous year and
included louis schweitzer (chairman),
Patrick auguste, denis Kessler and
Hélène Ploix. most of its members have
extensive experience and expertise in
the areas of corporate financial management,
accounting and financial
information.
the committee’s membership complies
with afeP-medef’s corporate
governance code. no members of
the bank’s executive management sit
on the committee. its duties and modus
operandi are set out in the board’s
internal rules. as is the case for all of
the board’s committees, it can rely on
external experts if necessary.
to ensure that the committees’ information
and knowledge remains fully up to
date, its meetings include briefings on
key issues, which are then examined
and discussed in the presence of the
statutory auditors. the information presented
can be rounded out, as the case
may be, by meetings with managers of
group functional and operating units,
organised by the board’s support staff
for any committee members who express
a need for further clarification.
the financial statements committee
met six times, including two times in
a specially convened meeting, and
the rate of attendance was 87%. it
also met with the internal control,
risk management and compliance
committee. documentation on agenda
items, specifically the quarterly, halfyearly
and annual results and financial
statements — presented in standardised
form — was previously addressed to the
committee members.
(1) AFEP-MEdEF Corporate Governance Code (point 14.2).
Review of the financial
statements and financial
information (1)
— the committee reviewed the financial
statements based on the documents
and information provided by
executive management and the
verification procedures carried out
by the statutory auditors. in doing so,
it verified the relevance and consistency
of accounting methods used in
drawing up the bank’s consolidated
and corporate accounts. it analysed
the results and returns on capital by
field of operation. it examined the
draft press releases on the results before
their presentation to the board.
— it was briefed on trends in the consolidated
balance sheet between
31 december 2007 and 31 december
2008 and on a comparative analysis
of the balance sheets of european
banks on that last date.
— it examined the effects of the crisis
on the group’s revenues and cost of
risk. it reviewed sensitive exposures by
reference to the recommendations
of the financial stability board. it devoted
a specially convened meeting
with the statutory auditors, without
the chairman or the chief executive
officer being present, to matters in
connection with the valuation of financial
instruments and the financing
of fund derivatives as well as with
the accounting standards applicable
to provisions for impairment of equity
interests.
— the committee periodically discussed
trends in the group’s solvency
ratios.
— the committee was presented the
joint report by the group-finance
development department and the
statutory auditors on the key choices
made concerning the application
of accounting standards and on the
reclassifications of financial assets, in
accordance with the amendments
to ias 39 and to ifrs 7, in the portfolio
of loans and receivables.
111 <strong>RepoRt</strong> on CoRpoRate SoCial and enviRonmental ReSponSibility
— based on a document prepared by
the global finance-development
department, it discussed the composition
of the basel ii risk-weighted
assets and risks of the consolidated
balance sheet.
— during their joint meeting, the members
of the financial statements
committee and of the internal
control, risk management and
compliance committee discussed
the process for the valuation of financial
instruments based on a
document prepared by the Head of
compliance. the Heads of global
finance-development and of group
risk management as well as the Head
of Periodic control also took part in
that meeting.
— when reviewing the financial results
for each quarter and in the course
of its discussions of specific issues, the
committee interviewed the Head
of group finance-development.
during its review of the 2008 financial
statements, it interviewed the Head
of group finance-development,
without the chairman or the chief
executive officer being present. the
committee listened to the comments
and findings of the statutory auditors
concerning the financial results for
each quarter, without the chairman,
the chief executive officer or Head
of group-finance development being
present, and asked them any
questions it deemed relevant.
— the financial statements committee
was informed of the work carried out
in the scope of the first consolidation
of bnP Paribas fortis. during a
specially convened meeting, it reviewed
the adjustments made to the
net equity of the group acquired. it
monitored the findings of the evaluations
subsequently carried out on the
opening balance sheet.
— the financial statements committee
reported its findings to the board
of directors at the end of each
meeting.