Meetings of the audit committee in 2009

The supervisory board has appointed an audit committee from among its members. The audit committee consists of Messrs J.K. Brouwer (Chairman), C.J.M. Scholtes and L. Deuzeman. The meetings are attended by the Chairman of the executive board, the CFO, the manager of the Internal Accountancy Service (IAD) and the manager of the Compliance department. The audit committee meets the prevailing requirements of independence and has sufficient members with the required financial expertise.

In 2009, the audit committee met five times. The meetings were held in the months of February, April, June, September and December.

The activities of the audit committee consist of supervising the setup and functioning of the system of internal control and risk management measures, implementation of the recommendations made by the external auditor and the performance of the IAD. Supervising the provision of financial information by the company is a task carried out the supervisory board. All meetings were attended by the Chairman of the executive board and the CFO of BinckBank.

During the meetings of the audit committee, the audits carried out by the IAD and Compliance department, including the resulting findings and recommendations, were focal points. The audit committee assessed the setup, existence and functioning of the internal control measures and found these to be adequate in the risk areas that were studied. This year, as in 2008, considerable progress has been made with the implementation of the internal risk management system in a Governance-Risk-Compliance application. The processes, risks and control measures have been entered into this application and facilitate the creation of a transparent record of the effectiveness of the identified control measures.

The audit committee fulfilled a preparatory role in order to facilitate supervision by the integral supervisory board.

At the end of 2009, the supervisory board, in addition to the audit committee, installed a risk committee as referred to in the Banking Code. The risk committee shall be chaired by the supervisory board member appointed to that end, currently Mr L. Deuzeman.

In addition, the Chairman of the executive board and the CFO will have a seat on the risk committee, as do the managers of the relevant departments. This ensures that the relevant risks are adequately analysed and dealt with. The risk committee will become operational in 2010. The product approval process as initiated in accordance with the Banking Code provides for supervision by the risk committee.