We are aware of the recent media reports referencing the investigation by the office of the Public Prosecutor in Cologne.
Investec Bank Plc has been cooperating with the relevant authorities in the ongoing investigation for cum/ex transitions in Germany since August 2018. No findings have been made at this time, and no current or former Investec employees, nor the Bank itself, have been criminally charged, indicted or subpoenaed.
Investec regards its regulator responsibilities with utmost seriousness. Investec continue to hold themselves to high ethical standards, and are satisfied that their public disclosures to the market to date, concerning this matter are timeous and correct.
Investec refers you to the disclosures made in the Investec DLC 2021 audited annual financial statements, as well as the independent auditor’s report on the matter:
Risk
Adequacy of the provision held relating to the investigation by the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Cologne and potential related civil claims
Refer to the Audit Committee Report (page 108 of volume One), Accountng policies (page 431; and Note 54 of the Consolidated financial Statements (page 125)
There are ongoing investigations into historical German dividend arbitrage transactions where the outcome is dependent on the resolution of the investigation by the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Cologne.
Whilst the Group is not a claimant nor a defendant to any civil claim in respect of dividend arbitrage transactions, it cannot rule out the possibility of civil claims by or against the Group in the future.
Consequently, management made judgements about the adequacy of provisions *tech are PAW to Charge in future periods as more information becomes available
The level of risk has remained the same as the prior year.
Our Response
We examined the latest court rulngs and analysts performed by management which set out the basis for Me judgement on relation to the historical German dovidend arbitrage transactions.
We also inspected the correspondence between the group and as external advisors and between the group and Office of the Public Prosecutor at Cologne. In addition, we obtained a legal confirmation from the group’s external legal counsel to confirm the current status of proceedings.
With the assistance of specialist’s, we have considered the matters as dispute and used our knowledge of the law to assess the available evidence.
We also evaluated the appropriateness of management’s accounting treatment and disclosure in relation to the investigation by ten Office of the Public Prosecutor on Cologne and potential related related civil claims.
We performed full scope audit procedures over this risk area on the component Impacted by the risk.
Key observations communicated to the Audit Committee
Based on the information Mat is currently avertable we are satisfied with management’s judgement in respect of their assessment of the investigation by the Office of the Pubic Prosecutor in Cologne and potential related civil claims and the disclosure presented in the financial statements.
