Shareholders' Auditors

Selection

The Audit and Conduct Review Committee, which is comprised entirely of independent directors, is responsible for selecting the shareholders’ auditors and reviewing the qualifications, independence and performance of both the shareholders’ auditors and internal audit. The shareholders’ auditors and the bank's Chief Auditor have full and free access to the board of directors, its Audit and Conduct Review Committee and other relevant committees to discuss audit, financial reporting and related matters.

KPMG LLP has been one of the bank's auditing firms since 1990, and became the bank's sole auditing firm on November 1, 2003.

Independence of auditors

We have a strict policy limiting other services that the shareholders' auditors can provide to the bank. Moreover, the Audit and Conduct Review Committee pre-approves all services from the shareholders' auditors, either on a case-by-case basis or in annual budgets for specific services. This helps protect the audit function from conflicts of interest and helps ensure the independence of the shareholders' auditors. A rigorous process is applied under the bank's Auditor Independence Policy to ensure that all the audit services provided by the shareholders' auditors comply with the policy and professional standards and securities regulations.