Appointment of a new company auditor

A statutory auditor’s mandate runs for only a limited period of time. Consequently, the Bank has to periodically arrange a procedure for the selection of a new company auditor.

In 2016, the Bank organised a public tender procedure with a view to appointing a company auditor as of the 2017 accounting year. During the course of the procedure, the interested companies were compared within one another in terms of price and quality. The quality criteria were, on the one hand, the quality and composition of the team, including relevant experience of the staff members, their organisation and planning, and on the other hand, the methodological approach to the auditing and planning, including the number of “auditor equivalent” hours spent on the assignment.

The Bank’s Audit Committee has analysed the offers submitted and interviewed the interested candidates. The audit firm Mazars, represented by Mr Dirk Stragier, emerged from the comparison as the best candidate. As a result, it is nominated as the Bank’s statutory auditor with effect from the 2017 financial year.