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Annual report 2011 - VTB

Annual report 2011 - VTB

Annual report 2011 - VTB

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<strong>VTB</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> Report <strong>2011</strong>5. Corporate governance94Ernst & Young Vneshaudit JSC has been <strong>VTB</strong> Bank’sexternal auditor since 2003. Besides the paymentit receives for auditing services, the company hasno other proprietary interests in <strong>VTB</strong> Bank, hasno relationship of affiliation with the Bank, withmembers of its governing bodies or <strong>VTB</strong> subsidiaries,and has not provided consultancy services to theBank as defined in Article 1, paragraph 6 of theFederal Law on Auditing.5.8. Relations with individualshareholders<strong>VTB</strong> Bank follows a policy of open communicationswith regard to all its activities. This is clearly seen inthe Bank’s interaction with its shareholders.In <strong>2011</strong>, <strong>VTB</strong> continued to improve the channels ofcommunication with its shareholders by increasingthe effectiveness of existing forms of interaction andcreating new ways to work with them.<strong>VTB</strong>’s Individual Shareholders Relations departmentis responsible for communications with individualshareholders. The department has put in place anumber of ways in which shareholders can obtainfull updates on the Bank’s operations and detailedanswers to all of their questions. All enquiries fromindividual shareholders are reviewed and answeredpromptly, and are also analysed in order to establishif communications with the Bank’s shareholders maybe further improved.Open Days and WorkshopsIn <strong>2011</strong>, <strong>VTB</strong> Bank expanded the geographical range andthe size of its meetings with shareholders. Up until 2010,meetings were held only in Moscow and St. Petersburg,but during the year under review these activities spreadfar beyond the metropolitan areas. As a result, <strong>2011</strong>was a record year in this context, with 22 meetings beingheld with individual shareholders in different regions ofthe country.Open days held in Moscow and St. Petersburgat the Bank’s Shareholder Interaction Centrestake the form of individual counseling sessions.During these meetings, shareholders can receiveprofessional advice on any matters related to thestock from specialists employed by <strong>VTB</strong> Bank and itssubsidiaries (<strong>VTB</strong>24, <strong>VTB</strong> Insurance, <strong>VTB</strong> Registrar).Members of the Shareholders’ Consultative Council(SCC) of <strong>VTB</strong> Bank always participate in <strong>VTB</strong> OpenDay events, helping individual shareholders tounderstand the work of the stock market. In addition,SCC members listen to shareholders’ views and passthem on to the Bank’s management.Another channel of communications withshareholders, which has been developing duringthe <strong>report</strong>ing year, is the holding of workshopsin different regions of Russia. During <strong>2011</strong>, morethan 1,000 individual shareholders from Ufa,Voronezh, Novosibirsk, Volgograd, Krasnodar,Samara, Stavropol and St. Petersburg participated inthese workshops. During the course of the events,representatives of <strong>VTB</strong> Group provided consultationon personal finance, the ownership and managementof <strong>VTB</strong> shares, financial performance, depositaryand brokerage services, the activities of the SCC andbeneficial products and services.In <strong>2011</strong>, <strong>VTB</strong> Bank also introduced a new practiceof members of the Management Board participatingin regional workshops via video conferencing. VasilyTitov, First Deputy President and Chairman of theManagement Board, and Ekaterina Petelina, memberof the Management Board, provided answers toshareholders during video workshops in <strong>2011</strong>. Inaddition, the Bank continued to work on improvingthe workshop programme. Speakers’ presentationswere optimised to meet shareholders’ needs andinterests, and particularly to cover the most importantand topical issues. Other key people from <strong>VTB</strong>, <strong>VTB</strong>24,<strong>VTB</strong> Insurance and <strong>VTB</strong> Registrar have taken part inthe regional workshops, and the Corporate Secretaryof the Bank has participated since the end of <strong>2011</strong>.NewslettersInvitations to participate in <strong>VTB</strong> workshops aresent to all regional shareholders, so that those whoare unable to attend an event are informed of thecommunications channels that exist. So that theymay receive the most up-to-date information, <strong>VTB</strong>offers its shareholders the opportunity to sign up forthe Bank’s monthly “<strong>VTB</strong> Shareholder Newsletter” byregistering on the <strong>VTB</strong> website.The <strong>VTB</strong> Shareholder Newsletter is also distributedto shareholders who have registered their emailaddress on a <strong>VTB</strong>24 Depositary form. The subscriberbase comprises approximately 35,000 <strong>VTB</strong>shareholders.The <strong>VTB</strong> Shareholder Newsletter contains the mostup-to-date and relevant information for the Bank’sshareholders, including the Group’s financialperformance, information about the AGM anddividend payments, invitations to meetings withother shareholders and <strong>report</strong>s on events that havetaken place, news on <strong>VTB</strong> Group companies andinformation on the activities of the SCC. The successof this method of communicating with shareholdersis clear from the growing subscriber base, as well asfrom positive feedback received from shareholders.In <strong>2011</strong>, following legislative changes, <strong>VTB</strong> sentemails to shareholders who were to lose dividendsthat had been unclaimed for three years. Thesechanges impacted only unpaid dividends for 2007announced by OJSC <strong>VTB</strong> Bank and OJSC <strong>VTB</strong> BankNorth-West. As a result of the email notifications,dividends, which would otherwise have been lost,were paid to 108 <strong>VTB</strong> shareholders (out of 555shareholders to whom emails were sent) and to241 shareholders of <strong>VTB</strong> Bank North-West.Prompt adviceShareholders can receive prompt consultation inShareholders’ Support Centres and by telephone.The Bank’s website and all its printed materials alsoprovide contact details. The Bank’s advisers providethe most up-to-date information on matters related toownership and disposition of <strong>VTB</strong> shares, the currentshare price and dividends. They handle more than1,500 email enquiries and phone calls per month.Individual shareholders can also receive supportthrough the <strong>VTB</strong> Unified Information Service, wherecall-centre operators and an automated menu provideinformation about <strong>VTB</strong> shares.Shareholders’ Consultative CouncilThe Shareholders’ Consultative Council (SCC) isan independent advisory body consisting of tenshareholders. Its work in <strong>2011</strong> was based mainlyon meetings with <strong>VTB</strong> shareholders and themanagement teams of the Bank and its subsidiaries.During the <strong>report</strong>ing year, members of the SCCparticipated in regional workshops as externalexperts, answered shareholders’ questions regardingthe Council’s activities, and provided individualcounselling during Open Day events. A new formatof interaction with individual shareholders was ameeting with a shareholder action group in Moscowin September <strong>2011</strong>.In <strong>2011</strong>, the Shareholder Consultative Council heldfive meetings, which were attended by membersof the SCC and managers of the Bank and itssubsidiaries, including <strong>VTB</strong> Insurance, <strong>VTB</strong> Capitaland <strong>VTB</strong> Registrar. Among the key issues on theagenda was the privatisation of a 10% stake in<strong>VTB</strong> Bank, the acquisition of the Bank of Moscow andthe outdoor advertising agency News Outdoor, thefinancial results of <strong>VTB</strong> Group, progress <strong>report</strong>s onthe Group’s subsidiaries and the SCC, and changesto the Regulation of the Shareholder ConsultativeCouncil. In one of these meetings SCC members hadthe opportunity to discuss current issues with SergeyDubinin, Chairman of the Supervisory Council of<strong>VTB</strong> Bank.95

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