La banque d'un monde qui change 2004 - BNP Paribas

STATUTORY AUDITORSNames and addresses of the AuditorsFor the years 2002, 2003 and 2004Barbier Frinault & AutresRepresented by Christian Chiarasini,up to 15 November 2004, and Radwan Hoteit41, rue Ybry 92576 Neuilly-sur-Seine CedexPricewaterhouseCoopers Audit(formerly Befec - Price Waterhouse)Represented by Étienne Boris32, rue Guersant 75017 ParisMazars & GuérardRepresented by Hervé Hélias125, rue de Montreuil 75011 Paris• Barbier Frinault & Autres was re-appointed as Auditor atthe Annual General Meeting of 23 May 2000 for a six-yearperiod expiring at the close of the Annual General Meetingto be called in 2006 to approve the financial statementsfor the year ending 31 December 2005. The firm was firstappointed at the Annual General Meeting of 26 May 1988.Barbier Frinault & Autres, represented by Christian Charasini(up to 15 November 2004) and Radwan Hoteit, has beena member of Ernst & Young since 5 September 2002.• PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit (formerly Befec-PriceWaterhouse) was re-appointed as Auditor at the AnnualGeneral Meeting of 23 May 2000 for a six-year periodexpiring at the close of the Annual General Meetingto be called in 2006 to approve the financial statementsfor the year ending 31 December 2005. The firm was firstappointed at the Annual General Meeting of 26 May 1994.PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit (formerly Befec-PriceWaterhouse), represented by Étienne Boris, is a memberof PricewaterhouseCoopers.• Mazars & Guérard was appointed as Auditor at the AnnualGeneral Meeting of 23 May 2000 for a six-year periodexpiring at the close of the Annual General Meetingto be called in 2006 to approve the financial statementsfor the year ending 31 December 2005.Mazars & Guérard was initially represented by the lateYves Bernheim and is now represented by Hervé Hélias.Statement by the Statutory AuditorsIn our capacity as Statutory Auditors of BNP Paribas and asrequired by articles 211-1 to 211-42 of the general regulationsissued by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, we haveexamined in accordance with French professional standardsthe information about the financial position and the historicalaccounts included in the Document de référence.This Document de référence is the responsibility of the ChiefExecutive Officer of BNP Paribas. Our responsibility is toexpress an opinion on the fairness of the information aboutthe financial position and the accounts contained in theDocument de référence.Our procedures, which were performed in accordancewith French professional standards, consisted of assessingthe fairness of the information about the financial positionand the accounts and verifying that this information agreeswith the audited financial statements. They also involvedreading the other information contained in the Documentde référence in order to identify any manifestly incorrectinformation, based on our overall knowledge of the Company,as acquired during our audit. The Document de référencedoes not contain any forward-looking information determinedin accordance with a structured process.We audited in accordance with French generally acceptedauditing standards the parent company financial statementsand consolidated financial statements for the year ended31 December 2004, as approved by the Board of Directorsof BNP Paribas. Our reports on the parent company financialstatements and consolidated financial statements were freeof qualifications or observations.We audited in accordance with French generally acceptedauditing standards the parent company financial statementsand consolidated financial statements for the year ended31 December 2003, as approved by the Board of Directorsof BNP Paribas. Our reports on the parent company financialstatements and consolidated financial statements were freeof qualifications and contained a number of observations, asset out in our general report and our report on the consolidatedfinancial statements. These observations related to note 1to the financial statements which describes the change inaccounting method resulting from the application of Comitéde la Réglementation Comptable standard CRC 2002-03relating to accounting for credit risks and standardCRC 2002-10 relating to depreciation and amortisation of assets.304BNP PARIBAS - ANNUAL REPORT 2004