Report of the Supervisory Board

This Annual Report presents the results and developments of NIBC in 2008. The financial crisis that spread into the wider economy last year affected all market players. NIBC moved fast to de-risk its Balance Sheet, raise capital and boost liquidity.

 

 

 

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Enthoven and Vice-Chairman and Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Jurgen Stegmann stepped down in January. They were replaced by Jeroen Drost as Chairman and CEO and Jan Sijbrand as CRO.

  

In terms of performance, 2008 was a challenging and extraordinary year for everyone. NIBC did manage to make an acceptable profit under the circumstances and ended the year with a Net profit of EUR 92 million.

 

NIBC Holding raised EUR 400 million new cash equity from its shareholders in early 2008. Under the new leadership of Mr. Drost, NIBC took swift and decisive action in critical areas such as liquidity management, cost management and risk management. In 2008, NIBC diversified its funding further by launching a covered bond programme, starting the Dutch online retail savings programme NIBC Direct, and issuing a EUR 1.4 billion bond under the Dutch State’s Credit Guarantee Scheme.

 

NIBC reduced its costs by 14% in response to declining income. It sharpened its strategy and focused its organisation around two strategic pillars - Merchant Banking and Specialised Finance - and quickly made necessary changes to the organisation, in order to better support the development of our mid-cap client franchise.

 

In addition, much work has been done to stabilise the bank, improve staff morale and retain key employees. In short, NIBC is now much better positioned than it was 12 months ago and this is largely due to the leadership and abilities of the Managing Board.

 

The Supervisory Board is impressed by the work done by the Managing Board and all staff and wishes to thank them for their valuable efforts in these turbulent times.

 

 

Financial Statements and dividend proposal

 

The Financial Statements were drawn up by the Managing Board and audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants N.V., who issued an unqualified opinion dated 8 April 2009. The Supervisory Board advises and proposes that the Shareholders adopt the 2008 Financial Statements at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on 29 April 2009. In 2008, NIBC paid no dividend to NIBC Holding.

 

The Supervisory Board recommends that the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders discharge the Managing Board and Supervisory Board for their respective management and supervision during the financial year 2008.