Corporate Governance Report - BKS Bank

24
BKS Bank is committed
to the international
fight against money
laundering and
terrorism.
A prompt, transparent
and detailed flow of
information to
investors.
Overview / Management Board / Investor Relations / Group Management Report / Consolidated Financial Statements 08 / Additional Notes
significance, in the international fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. It
has always pursued a risk-focused Know Your Customer policy in accordance with the relevant
legislative provisions. Since the end of 2007, BKS Bank has successfully been putting
the European Union’s 3 rd Money Laundering Directive — which is based on the recommendations
made by FATF (the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering) — into
effect. During the year under review, BKS Bank introduced an IT programme on the basis
of its anti-money laundering (AML) needs that is designed to more effectively combat
money laundering and the possibility of terrorism financing. In addition to carrying out indepth
anti-money laundering research into concealed account movements and suspicious
financial transactions, we were, above all, able to significantly refine our means of establishing
the true identities of customers, including, among others, politically exposed persons
(PEPs). An on-the-spot AML audit carried out by the Austrian Nationalbank in late autumn
confirmed that BKS Bank has sufficiently prioritized money laundering issues and that no
threat of money laundering existed.
Director’s dealings
Under § 48 d BörseG (Austrian stock exchange act), the members of the Management
Board of BKS Bank, the members of the Supervisory Board and persons in a close relationship
to these persons are obliged to disclose the purchase or sale of BKS Bank shares
if the amount of the transactions carried out for their own account during a calendar
year equals or exceeds €5,000. During the year under review, one reportable purchase
was recorded. A corresponding record was immediately sent to the Finanzmarktaufsicht
(Austrian Financial Market Authority) and published at www.fma.gv.at. On the reporting
date, BKS Bank shares held by the members of the Management Board and Supervisory
Board totalled less than one per cent of the shares in issue by the Company.
Transparent, real-time reporting
To ensure the greatest possible transparency, BKS Bank keeps its equity holders and
employees, the media and the interested public informed about the enterprise’s position on
a regular, real-time basis. It has a fair disclosure policy, treating all addressees equally when
disclosing information. The preferred information platform is the Internet. In the interests
of good corporate governance, all data of relevance for investor relations purposes are
available at http://www.bks.at. In addition, regular publications produced in accordance
with the legislative ad hoc criteria, including the annual and semi-annual financial reports
and interim reports on the first quarter and first three quarters and announcements of
new bond issuances and of changes to key equity investment thresholds are also published
on OeKB’s Emittenten-Portal Austria (Austrian issuers portal) and via the APA-OTS euro
adhoc service. Every BKS Bank employee has round-the-clock access to the Group-wide
intranet as a source of information, including key internal BKS Bank announcements.