Annual Report 2002

3.5.3 Working methods of the Board of Directors and
its committees
In the 2002 financial year, the Board of Directors met for
eleven half-day sessions. In addition, the committees held
a total of thirteen half-day meetings. The agendas for
BOD, CBD and ACBD meetings are set by their respective
chairs. The Board of Directors and its committees encourage
a regular exchange of ideas and opinions with the
operative management personnel of the company, in particular
during the meetings of those governing bodies.
3.6 Definition of areas of responsibility
The Board of Directors bears ultimate responsibility for
determining the strategic orientation of the VP Bank Group.
In keeping with the applicable legal provisions, the Board
of Directors (except in the case of IGT, Vaduz, as per OBR)
has delegated to the parent branch’s Board of Management
responsibility for the operative business management
of VP Bank, as well as the overall management, supervision
and control of the VP Bank Group’s subsidiaries.
The functional separation in this regard can be ascertained
from the organisational diagram presented on page 18 to
23 of this annual report.
3.7 Information and control instruments vis-à-vis
senior management
The Board of Directors of VP Bank and its committees have
at their disposal the following information and control
instruments:
• regular verbal and written reports from the Board of
Management pertaining to the company’s current
course of business;
• monthly reports on the individual company balancing of
the parent company and subsidiaries, with comparisons
to budgeted and prior-year amounts, as well as information
on the consolidated figures of the VP Bank Group;
• monthly reports on asset and liability management,
risk management and risk controlling, as well as securities
held in the company’s proprietary trading account;
• the Internal Audit team, which works in accordance
with internationally recognised standards of the Swiss
Association for Internal Auditing (SVIR/SAIA); and the
Audit Committee, which assesses and approves the
audit planning, audit activities and related reporting,
as well as monitors the implementation of agreed-upon
improvements.
All such reports are handled by the appropriate governing
bodies pursuant to the competency regulations defined in
the OBR.
annual report 2002 | vp bank | page 37