Category: Banking

MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Text of the Vice-President’s address at ‘Murli Deora Memorial Dialogue’ (Excerpts)

Source: Government of India

Posted On: 06 MAR 2025 10:30PM by PIB Delhi

We had such a feast, both of governance and leadership. Shinde Ji, you have stolen the thunder. I am wonderstruck whether I can add anything. I may only repackage it. I recall every moment I spent with Shinde Ji, but more when me and my wife, went to his residence and had the good fortune to perform puja.

His address is remarkably relevant, full of depth, assessment of contemporary scenario and challenges. He speaks of spinal experience he has gained from worker to leader and a leader is always a leader. It doesn’t matter in a cricket team you play at which number.

I am absolutely elated that a leader has such a sacrificial attitude. My congratulations to you.

We have amongst us, Shrimati Hema Deora Ji. I was greatly touched because she is privy to the hand holding which I received as a young parliamentarian from Shri Murli Deora Ji. I was elected to Parliament in 1989 and that was a big change. Congress had lost power and I was a Union Minister. He was a congressman. He took me to then Bombay, now Mumbai, and he helped me and introduced me to people who matter in industry and in the Marwadi community. When she revealed this briefly I had vivid recollection of those days. A man of sterling qualities, Murli Deora Ji. Ma’am your presence matters to us. I’m sure you will have the good occasion to see your son perform in Rajya Sabha. Eknath Shinde Ji has sent a jewel to Rajya Sabha. He marks his addresses with due diligence, thorough study, calm and composed. I’m sure you’ll be in Chairman’s Gallery to applaud him someday.

We have amongst us distinguished Members of Parliament. Though the audience is absolutely very imminent and each one of you matters to me hugely but I don’t believe in taking risks. Therefore I must recognise presence of Members of Parliament. One on the dais, Shri Milind Deora Ji. A stalwart of politics in the State and the Nation, Shri Ashok Chauhan Ji. Shri G.K. Vasan Ji, whose father had handheld me in a similar manner as Murli Deora Ji. Young, energetic, youthful, but in third term, Shrikant Shinde Ji. I hope I don’t miss any parliamentarian otherwise, I may suffer at their hands

Shri Raghavendra Singh, President Kotak Mahindra Bank is energy capsule has great administrative capacities, but what I gather from him, having known him, for the third generation, is full of positivity. I must recognize presence of some who are present here, Shri Ashok Hinduja Ji is here, We have Shri Uday Kotak Ji.

I’ll come to Amrita Ji a little later because she is much beyond the spouse of the Chief Minister for me. His Holiness Syedna Sahab Ji.

Shri Gauranga Das, Shri Gaur Gopal Das, they both are from ISCON. People in Industry, Shri Pranav Adani, Shri Neeraj Bajaj, Mr. Jalas Dhani, and let me tell you, everyone who is present here, I am greatly indebted, but never miss a journalist if he is your friend. You may suffer at his hands forever. I am referring to none other than Sanjay Pugalia, whom I have known for more than four decades. We had such a wonderful cricket match and India is in the finals so why not remember Surya Kumar Yadav? He’s known as Mr. 360 degrees

Now, Amrita ji. Amrita ji, you have created a problem for me because of a condition I set for Devendra Fadnavis, that I will receive him at Upa-Rashtrapati Niwas as only if he is accompanied by Amrita ji. Every time he makes excuse, please ensure. I would love to receive both of you at Upa-Rashtrapati Niwas, where I have had the great occasion to receive Shinde Ji.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I come to the inaugural lecture.

It is an absolute honour and privilege to deliver the Murli Deora Memorial Lecture Dialogue, dedicated to one of the finest public figures in politics, who nurtured friendships all his life. He bridged the differences and was loved by all. In his life, he missed one thing. He had no adversaries that was his stature. Murali bhai, as fondly reminisced by his peers, exemplified public spirit and dedication.

He was a statesman in the mould of a politician, a rare blend of foresight and pragmatism. From being the youngest mayor of Bombay, now Mumbai, to serving seven terms in Parliament, he showed deep commitment to democratic values and public service. His belief in dialogue, debate, discussion, deliberation, consensual approach, cooperative approach, coordination, are being missed now.

Murli Deora will always be remembered for his proactive efforts to save the country from the hazards of smoking. He approached the highest Court of the land, sought affirmative intervention to secure a ban on smoking at public places. Life of Murli Deora Ji was a testament to the idea of leadership, that this idea is not a pedestal but a pilgrimage, a journey of service to the last, the least and the lonely.

I commend, ladies and gentlemen, Milind Deora, a senior parliamentarian, former Union Minister, and his friends for organising this annual feature as a befitting tribute to Murli Ji. The theme “Leadership and Governance” is indeed thought provoking as also of great contemporaneous relevance.

Bharat, home to one sixth of humanity, is the oldest, largest and most vibrant and functional democracy. Bharat is the only Nation in the world that has constitutionally structured democratic institutions from village to National level.

First, I focus on the source of Governance in Democracy. Our Constitution’s Preamble indicates ‘We The People’ as the foundational source and premise of Governance. Preamble of the Constitution also reveals purpose of governance being Justice, Equality, Fraternity for all.  We must appreciate the contours of ‘We The People’  the ultimate repository of sovereignty. A sovereignty that we cannot afford to dilute or to be taken away.

We the people through electoral platforms constitute Parliament, Legislatures, panchayats, municipalities and elect the President and the Vice- President. The sanctity of this repository of sovereignty is essential for democratic governance. Imagine what will befall us if we are deprived of our sovereignty. The integrity of ‘We the People’ in the present times is being stressed and challenged and the challenge is surfacing in multiple ways. Leadership faces a daunting task to preserve and sustain this.

Let me advert to some worrying trends. There are many, I am referring only to some. The Nation houses millions of illegal migrants causing a demographic upheaval. Millions of illegal migrants are in this country making a huge demand on our health services, education services. They are depriving our people of employment opportunities. Such elements have alarmingly secured electoral relevance in some areas and their securing electoral relevance is shaping the essence of our democracy. Emerging dangers can be evaluated through historical reference where Nations were swept off their ethnic identity by similar demographic invasions.

As a matter of fact there are countries where demographic invasion resulted in complete eclipse of ethnicity where ethnicity was in complete majority.

Ladies and gentlemen, this malaise, far more severe than COVID, is aggravatingly intersected with conversions through allurements, with vulnerable sections trying to be trapped, the marginalised, the tribal, the weaker become easy prey to these temptations and allurements.

Faith is your own, faith is dictated by conscience. The Indian constitution gives freedom of faith but if this faith is held hostage by temptations, it is according to me, defacing freedom of faith. The concerning objective behind these pernicious designs is to detrimentally vary and ultimately eclipse ‘We the people’s’ identity and secure for themselves a majoritarianism position. I’m sure no one will disagree. This danger has to be thwarted.

This is too serious an onslaught to be either countenanced or overlooked. Just reflect for a moment the change that has taken place in our demography in the last two decades. Look at some of the areas where impregnable fortresses emerged.

The theme “Leadership and Governance” is indeed thought provoking as also of great contemporaneous relevance.

Bharat, home to one sixth of humanity, is the oldest, largest and most vibrant and functional democracy. Bharat is the only nation in the world that has constitutionally structured democratic institutions from village to national level.

First, I focus on the source of Governance in Democracy. Our Constitution’s Preamble indicates ‘We The People’ as the foundational source and premise of Governance. The Preamble of the Constitution also reveals purpose of governance being Justice, Equality, Fraternity for all.  We must appreciate the contours of ‘We The People’ – the ultimate repository of sovereignty.

A sovereignty that we cannot afford to dilute or to be taken away.

The power of ‘We the people’ cannot suffer any sacrilege or dilution. Leadership must engage in overdrive, generating National consensus to preserve the sanctity of ‘We the people’ and work in togetherness, in tandem, to neutralise all misadventures against it.

‘We The People’ faces onslaughts from within and without. Forces inimical to Bharat have converged to systemically weaken nationalistic spirit. Constitutional institutions face orchestrated public ridicule as part of political strategy. Even the Presidency isn’t spared. Tarnishing institutions, especially on foreign land, is against our culture, is against our national interest.

Every citizen has the power of social media. I beseech everyone in the interest of this country to be alive to these trends and make contributions. Anti-national narratives gain evil-inspired momentum. Misinformation aimed at destabilising the nation is rising.

We had the painful occasion to see it during COVID. The pandemic that shook the world, then a nation of over 1.3 billion faced it by innovative mechanisms initiated by the Prime Minister and it was successfully handled. The entire global fraternity, as I call it, in Bharat, while tackling pandemic at home, lent assistance to hundreds of other countries. But some amongst us did not spare any effort to run us down. Such category of people who are recipe for chaos need to be exposed. Leadership must navigate this challenge through citizens’ mindset response.

Friends, Bharat is a global beacon of inclusivity and thrives with unity in diversity. This calls for all to prioritise nation first. Commitment to nationalism marks freedom and democracy.

No interest, partisan, economic, or personal, can justifiably be the ground to compromise national interest.

Ladies and gentlemen, Issues of constitutional clarity, whether Constitution is categorical, our founding fathers have given us the path. On issues like language, common civil code, seats of divisions are being sown. The response of the government emanates from constitutional

prescriptions.

We have to work in overdrive to see that these issues that are premised on our Constitution are not politicised to the detriment of the Nation.

Leadership must seek national consensus and public awareness to sensitize people of the dangers that are inherent in such approaches. India’s civilizational ethos offer a rich repository of leadership principles that predate modern governance theories by millennia.

Our Vedic knowledge offers insight for leadership. Leadership in public life requires vision, character, and commitment to nationalism. We have seen what wonders visionary leadership can do in the last 10 years. The nation has navigated from a disturbed scenario of gloom to one of hope and possibility.

We must always remember, ladies and gentlemen, we are the land of Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Srimad Bhagavad Gita and the wisdom therein guides us all throughout.

The Bhagvad Gita provides timeless leadership lessons through Lord Krishna’s counsel to Arjuna.

“यद्यदाचरति श्रेष्ठस्तत्तदेवेतरो जनः।

स यत्प्रमाणं कुरुते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते॥”

“Whatever a great man does, others follow. Whatever standard he sets by his exemplary acts, the world pursues.”

This verse underscores the profound responsibility of leaders, because they are naturally taken as torchbearers, role models whose actions shape the course of the society.

But a challenge that is coming to society from these people is very dangerous. An informed mind, having held credible positions, trades on the ignorance of people to monetise politically. And that happened on many occasions in the last ten years. People in authority, who presided over our financial institutions for long, had no qualms in indicating to the world that India can never register economic rise beyond 5%. And we had one and a half times of that, that very year. On such matters, ladies and gentlemen, our memory should not be short.

Kautilya’s Arthashastra, perhaps the world’s earliest comprehensive treatise on statecraft and governance, offers sophisticated insights on leadership.

I quote “The king shall consider as good not what pleases himself but what pleases his subject.”

This ancient wisdom resonates with modern governance principles, where true leadership transcends self-interest to embrace collective welfare. We all have seen this development. We need to continue it.

Let us reflect on what is there in our civilisational essence and ethos. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Sarvajan Hitaaya, Sarvajan Sukhaaya.

These are the twin pillars of governance from our scriptures, and look at how it translated for the entire world to know. During India’s presidency of G20, one earth, one family, one future, this was universally accoladed and accepted.

Friends, democracy flourishes with expression and dialogue. Abhivyakti or samvad are its jewels. One is incomplete without the other. Expression complements dialogue and the other way round. If you believe in the right of expression without taking note of the dialogue, then you miss the point. In the process you indicate, I alone am right, to the exclusion of every other thought. And that is why we have emanated from our scriptures, Anantavada. This is essential. Inalienable facet of good governance, judgemental response to different viewpoints, differing viewpoints, a point that is different than yours, reflects absolutism. And absolutism has no place in democracy. Democracy requires consensual approach.  The other point of view must be considered. And there should be an effort for convergence to an agreed viewpoint.

Constituent Assembly debates exemplify this approach. For little less than three years, in 18 sessions, Constituent Assembly deliberated very contentious issues, very divisive issues that took recourse to dialogue, debate, discussion, and deliberation.

There never was an occasion for disruption or disturbance but when we find such a big change taking place. Disruption is being weaponized as a political strategy to make Parliament or legislatures dysfunctional. This does not augur well for the health of democracy and in some situations, it will pronounce death knell of democracy. If these temples of democracy do not perform constitutional ordainment, then people in the country are bound to be concerned and worried.

I, as Chairman of the Council of States, express my deep anguish. And I appeal to people at large, academia, intellectuals, those in business, trade, commerce and industry, those in media, public servants, to create a mindset to put pressure on Parliamentarians and representatives. You perform because there can be no vacuum in democracy. If the legitimate platform of debate is dysfunctional. People will take to the streets. They have to voice their concerns in one way or the other.

Ladies and gentlemen, coming to another challenge. Last 10 years, the nation has witnessed exponential economic upsurge, phenomenal infrastructural growth, deep digitization, technological penetration, unknown before. Global institutions are accommodating Bharat as a favorite destination of investment and opportunity. The rural landscape has been revolutionized with every house having toilet, electric connection, pipe water is on the way, gas connection, road connectivity, health and education centers. And people therefore have gravitated to politics of development as indicated by Eknath Shinde Ji. In that scenario, this phenomenal success story during the last 10 years brings with it a great challenge. On one hand, no nation in the world has this kind of growth as Bharat has had in the last 10 years.

India at the moment on account of this growth is the most aspirational nation in the world. Imagine a country of 1.4 billion with that kind of demographic dividend getting into aspirational mode. The leadership has to perform at rocket speed. Because there can be restiveness, restlessness. And therefore I call upon every person, do not look at the government alone. Your opportunity basket is flattening every day, blossoming. When you look at surface of the sea, or deep sea, or ground surface, or deep ground, or sky, or space.

India’s performance has increased your participation. Blue economy or space economy, you can take to that area.

Good governance requires that we prevent problems, we preempt problems. It is not merely solving a problem. We must have a full diagnosis. Why should a problem be there at all? Real-time delivery is quintessential.

There was a time not long ago when power corridors were infested with lies and agents, corrupt elements, who extra-legally leveraged decision-making. Patronage was the password for a contract or a job. But on account of introduction of technology, expedition service delivery, transparent and accountable mechanism. These power corridors now are fully sanitised. The world is looking to India for generating transparency, accountability, quick service delivery, people-centric policies in their countries

Ladies and gentlemen, I see one concern, and that concern is across the political spectrum. There is emergence of a new strategy, and the strategy is of appeasement or being placatory.

Now, election is important in Democracy but not the end of it. Our scriptures have indicated means are as important as the end.

And the governments, we are in a state where financial position is very strong. The financial capital of the country, a global center for business and trade, but some governments that took recourse to this appeasement and placatory mechanisms are finding it very difficult to sustain in power, but one consequence is very categorical and those in economics know it.

We have stalwarts of economics sitting here and that is if there is excessive spending on electoral promises, then the state’s ability to invest in infrastructure is correspondingly reduced. This is detrimental to the growth scenario.

And therefore, I would call upon leadership of all political parties in the interest of democratic values to generate a consensus that engages into such kind of electoral promises that can be performed only at the cost of CAPEX expenditure of the state.

I should not be misunderstood, ladies and gentlemen, because while the Indian Constitution has given us right of equality, it does provide in Article 14, 15 and 16 an acceptable category of affirmative governance, affirmative action, the reservation for SC, ST, for those who are in the economically weaker section. That is sanctified.

There are exceptional situations for rural India, for the farmer, where affirmative steps are required to be taken. But this is very distinct from the other aspects I was talking about. This is not placatory or appeasing. It is justifiable economic policy. And therefore, it is good leadership that can take a call, where to draw the line in the fiscal sense in the matter of political foresight and leadership spine.

There is another aspect on which we need to focus. National debate is required so that we take note of the shift from Democracy to Emocracy. Emotion-driven policies, emotion-driven debates, discourses threaten good governance. Historically, populism is bad economics. And once a leader gets attached to populism it is difficult to get out of the crisis. And therefore, the central factor has to be the good of the people, the largest good of the people, and the lasting good of the people. Empower people to empower themselves rather than empower them momentarily, because that affects their productivity.

Our institutions are very critical. Our institutions must continue to be relevant. Political leadership must address declining relevance of institutions due to disruption and divisive politics. We have an example before us, as I said earlier. We have the legacy of our Constitution being negotiated through dialogue without acrimony. Today’s leaders should consult this spirit.

Parliament is much beyond ideological discourse. Its democracy is a temple where discussions should focus on progress and people’s welfare. Sliding parliamentary institutions into irrelevance is a challenge to democracy and our existence. It is worrisome when disruption and disturbance are weaponised, as I said. A dysfunctional Parliament, particularly in Bharat, that is the world’s oldest, largest, and most vibrant democracy, is injustice to the people. Our people deserve much better from our parliamentarians.

From this sacred place, I urge parliamentarians and legislators to soul-search. Democracy cannot function when expression and dialogue are compromised, while citizens must hold representatives accountable. For eternal vigilance remains freedom’s price. Institutional perimeters must be maintained. Judicial overreach into executive governance disrupts democratic values. I do not mean to reflect more on it, but I affirm governance is the sole prerogative of the executive and this is premised because executive is accountable to the people, to the legislature, every five years or before, the executive has to go to the people to get their approval. And every action taken by the executive is amenable to legislature intervention but if this executive function is performed by any other institution, including judicial, it will be difficult to look for accountability and, furthermore the wherewithal, the information, the database, that help arrive at a decision cannot be available at other institutions other than the executive.

Leadership is purpose driven and not position of power. It has been said in Upanishad. The Ishavasya Upanishad ईशवस्य उपनिषद counsels: “तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथाः” (Ten Tyakten bhunjitha)– “Enjoy through renunciation.”

Our leaders will have to embrace this philosophy. Selfless service in governance by blending India’s timeless wisdom with today’s needs create Tagore’s vision. Rabindranath Tagore has said, I tread where mind is without fear and head is held high.

“सत्यमेव जयते नानृतम्”, which emanates from Mundaka Upanishad, it says, truth alone must survive and nothing else. The Rig Veda, moving together in harmony principle, must be our North Star.

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JK/RC/SM

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MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Measures to reduce red tape – E-000828/2025
Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-000828/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Georgios Aftias (PPE)

Addressing Parliament, the European Central Bank’s former president and former prime minister of Italy, Mario Draghi, stressed that ‘progress is now happening outside of Europe’ and that ‘Europe’s internal barriers are equivalent to a tariff of 45% for manufacturing and 110% for services’.

The EU has wound up being a single market of obstacles rather than of unhindered access to markets and services, which was the initial idea behind the European project. It is therefore losing the main advantage upon which it was founded. All obstacles must be overcome. For instance, European regulatory rules on tech companies alone pose a significant burden, as the cost of complying with the GDPR has reduced profits for small European tech companies by up to 12 %. As a result, bureaucracy and over-regulation are leading European companies to boost trade with non-EU countries, such as the US and China, which have simpler legislative frameworks.

Based on the above, can the Commission answer the following:

1.Does it intend to take measures to reduce red tape within the EU, while boosting transparency and trade?

2.Will it introduce self-help financing schemes that will strengthen the EU’s domestic industries so as to reduce its dependence on third partners?

3.Is it aiming to introduce single energy prices?

Submitted: 24.2.2025
Last updated: 7 March 2025
MIL OSI Europe News –
March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: EIB lends Latvian energy utility Latvenergo €200 million loan to refurbish power-distribution network
Source: European Investment Bank
- EIB lends Latvian energy utility Latvenergo €200 million loan to refurbish power-distribution network
- Project to make electricity supply more reliable for Latvian residents and businesses
- Financing also promotes renewable energy and climate action
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending Latvian energy utility Latvenergo AS €200 million to upgrade the country’s electricity distribution network. State-owned Latvenergo AS will use the EIB credit to make the electricity-distribution system both more efficient and more capable of delivering clean power.

This project, due to be completed by the end of 2026, will add digital features to the network, improve the dependability of electricity supply for the almost 1.9 million customers and contribute to the European Union’s fight against climate change.

“Modernising Latvia’s electricity-distribution network is important both for the climate and for energy security,” said EIB Vice-President Thomas Östros. “This project will significantly boost the reliability of electricity supply for the country and accelerate the integration of renewable-energy sources into the energy mix, paving the way for a sustainable and resilient energy future. The EIB is glad to be able to support Latvenergo in this transformative endeavour.”

The EIB’s financing offers Latvenergo favourable terms – including flexible disbursements and a longer duration – compared with market alternatives. The support is expected in turn to attract more long-term financing for Latvenergo and strengthen its green credentials.

The credit marks the seventh financing accord between the EIB and Latvenergo, highlighting their strong partnership.

“We are investing to promote energy sector transition to renewable resources and in modernisation of distribution network to make a significant contribution to the economy of the country,” said Guntars Baļčūns, Member of the Management Board of Latvenergo AS. “These targets require significant financial resources, and the EIB provides access to competitive funding that supports both business and climate objectives. Our successful cooperation with the EIB has continued for more than 25 years, and this loan will allow us to use the resources we invest in solar and wind parks more efficiently.”

The investment programme aligns with Latvia’s National Energy and Climate Plan for 2021-2030 and the EIB’s Energy Lending Policy. In addition to supporting climate action, it aims to promote economic, social and regional cohesion.

Background information

EIB

The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. Built around eight core priorities, we finance investments that contribute to EU policy objectives by bolstering climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, high-impact investments outside the European Union, and the capital markets union.

The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high -impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security.

All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Almost 60% of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment.

Fostering market integration and mobilising investment, the Group supported a record of over €100 billion in new investment for Europe’s energy security in 2024 and mobilised €110 billion in growth capital for startups, scale-ups and European pioneers. Approximately half of the EIB’s financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower than the EU average.

High-quality, up-to-date photos of our headquarters for media use are available here.

Latvenergo

Latvenergo Group is one of the largest providers of energy supply services in the Baltic states, engaged in the generation and trade of electricity and thermal energy, and distribution of electricity. Since 1939, Latvenergo is the largest producer of renewable energy in the Baltics and one of the greenest electricity generators in Europe – approximately half of the electricity is generated in three large hydropower plants. They are complemented by modernized combined heat and power plants, where electricity is obtained from natural gas. The Group develops new green wind and solar energy generation capacities in Baltics and is also a leader in the field of electromobility services. All shares of Latvenergo AS are owned by the state and held by the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia.
MIL OSI Europe News –
March 8, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: RBI imposes monetary penalty on Bridge Fintech Solutions Private Limited (“Finzy”)

Source: Reserve Bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, by an order dated March 04, 2025, imposed a monetary penalty of ₹10.00 lakh (Rupees Ten Lakh only) on Bridge Fintech Solutions Private Limited (the company), also referred to as “Finzy”, for non-compliance with certain provisions of the ‘Non-Banking Financial Company – Peer to Peer Lending Platform (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2017’ issued by RBI. This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers conferred on RBI under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Section 58G read with clause (aa) of sub-section (5) of Section 58B of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

A scrutiny of the company was conducted by RBI in September 2023. Based on supervisory findings of non-compliance with RBI directions and related correspondence in that regard, a notice was issued to the company advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed on it for its failure to comply with the said directions.

After considering the company’s reply to the notice, additional submissions made by it and oral submissions made during the personal hearing , RBI found, inter alia, that the following charges against the company were sustained, warranting imposition of monetary penalty.

The company:

disbursed loans to individual borrowers without the specific approval of individual lenders;
took partial credit risk, which was not provided under the ‘Scope of Activities’ for NBFC-P2P companies;
did not, in certain instances, (a) ensure that its agreements with service providers included clauses to recognise the right of RBI to cause an inspection to be made of the service providers, and (b) undertake an annual review of the service providers; and
did not conduct periodic review of the compliance of the Fair Practices Code and functioning of the Grievances Redressal Mechanism.

This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the company with its customers. Further, imposition of this monetary penalty is without prejudice to any other action that may be initiated by RBI against the company.

(Puneet Pancholy)
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2024-2025/2333

MIL OSI Economics –

March 8, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: RBI imposes monetary penalty on Visionary Financepeer Private Limited

Source: Reserve Bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, by an order dated February 25, 2025, imposed a monetary penalty of ₹16.60 lakh (Rupees Sixteen Lakh Sixty Thousand only) on Visionary Financepeer Private Limited (the company) for non-compliance with certain provisions of the ‘Non-Banking Financial Company – Peer to Peer Lending Platform (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2017’ issued by RBI. This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers conferred on RBI under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Section 58G read with clause (aa) of sub-section (5) of Section 58B of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

After considering the company’s reply to the notice, additional submissions made by it and oral submissions made during the personal hearing, RBI found, inter alia, that the following charges against the company were sustained, warranting imposition of monetary penalty.

The company:

disbursed loans to individual borrowers without the specific approval of individual lenders, and it did not ensure that each individual lender and borrower had signed a loan agreement;
did not disclose the required details of the borrowers to the lenders;
did not have a Board approved policy for pricing of services provided by it;
did not, in certain instances, (a) ensure that its agreements with service providers included clauses to recognise the right of RBI to cause an inspection to be made of the service providers, and (b) undertake an annual review of the service providers; and
took partial credit risk, which was not provided under the ‘Scope of Activities’ for NBFC-P2P companies.

(Puneet Pancholy)
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2024-2025/2334

MIL OSI Economics –

March 8, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: RBI imposes monetary penalty on Fairassets Technologies India Private Limited (‘Faircent’)

Source: Reserve Bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, by an order dated February 11, 2025, imposed a monetary penalty of ₹40 lakh (Rupees Forty lakh only) on Fairassets Technologies India Private Limited (the company) (also referred to as ‘Faircent’) for non-compliance with certain provisions of the ‘Non-Banking Financial Company – Peer to Peer Lending Platform (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2017’ issued by RBI. This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers conferred on RBI under the provisions of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Section 58G read with clause (aa) of sub-section (5) of Section 58B of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

After considering the company’s reply to the notice, additional submissions made by it and oral submissions made during the personal hearing, RBI found, inter alia, that the following charges against the company were sustained, warranting imposition of monetary penalty.

The company:

disbursed loans without the specific approval of individual lenders;
did not undertake and disclose credit assessment and risk profile of the borrowers to the prospective lenders;
took partial credit risk by foregoing the management fee partially / fully, which was not provided under the ‘Scope of Activities’ for NBFC-P2P companies; and
did not comply with RBI’s directions on ‘Fund Transfer Mechanism’, when it allowed repayments to lenders from fresh funds provided by new / existing lenders or through repayments pooled from the borrowers, rather than from a specific borrower to a specific lender.

(Puneet Pancholy)
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2024-2025/2332

MIL OSI Economics –

March 8, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Isabel Schnabel: Interview with wochentaz

Source: European Central Bank

Interview with Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Patricia Hecht and Beate Willms on 5 February 2025

7 March 2025

Ms Schnabel, do you remember the first time you held money in your hand?

That must have been during primary school. I often used my pocket money to buy sweets or an ice lolly.

So money was just a means of payment for you, something that let you buy things?

Exactly. However, my father placed great importance on me understanding how to deal with money early on – even though as a teenager I wasn’t that interested. He later recommended an apprenticeship at a bank to me when I wasn’t sure what to do after I had finished school. And one of his arguments was that I should learn how to manage money.

Did you have the impression he was particularly concerned because you were a girl?

Well, he didn’t make the same suggestion to my brother. That bothered me a little. It was just taken for granted that my brother could deal with money. But, at the end of the day, my father’s recommendation may have been one of the reasons why I ended up in a male-dominated field.

Is it true that women engage too little with money?

I do think so. On average, women have a lower level of financial literacy than men. That’s a problem. It can lead to them making suboptimal financial decisions and possibly ending up in financial difficulties. For example, women are more at risk of poverty in old age. So financial planning is particularly important for women.

Are women themselves to blame for being financially worse off?

There are many structural reasons, for example interrupted career paths due to becoming a mother or caring for elderly relatives. In addition, women are significantly more likely to work part-time. These factors contribute to women having lower incomes and smaller pensions. The insufficient engagement with financial matters is also linked to traditional gender roles. However, there’s also an element of individual responsibility. Just as one needs to think about one’s health, one needs to also deal with finances. Today, there are plenty of ways to get informed, for example, through podcasts or YouTube channels, to name just a few.

Today you are one of the people responsible for deciding on the financing conditions for 350 million people in the euro area, because it’s the ECB’s task to keep inflation in check. Out of the 26 members of the Governing Council, only two are women – Christine Lagarde and you. Is the monetary policy that you pursue different from that of the men?

Research shows that men and women do behave differently when it comes to economic issues. So it is possible that monetary policy may change when more women join the decision-making bodies. What is key here is diversity – also in terms of views and experiences. That’s what makes decision-making more robust.

How do financial decisions made by men and women differ?

Women tend to be more risk-averse in their financial decisions and they are more afraid of losses. This, for example, leads them to invest less in the stock market and thus achieve lower returns. Women also have less confidence in their financial decision-making. So improving financial literacy would be particularly important for women.

Is there a feminist monetary policy?

To be honest, I haven’t really thought about this. Monetary policy used to focus primarily on the economy as a whole, for instance on aggregate economic activity or consumption. Meanwhile, research has evolved and is now looking more into the underlying heterogeneity. We know, for instance, that poorer people are particularly affected by rising energy and food prices. There are likely also noticeable differences across genders.

What are you doing to attract more women to the ECB?

As an institution, we have a keen interest in equal opportunities. This does not always mean a fifty-fifty distribution, but we aim to represent the society for which we make our decisions and to use the entire talent pool available. This is why we have set targets at all levels of hierarchy. In order to achieve those, around half of all new hires and promotions should be women, as long as we are below our targets.

What else are you doing?

We try to remove barriers. Often this concerns obstacles like a lack of childcare. The ECB offers good childcare facilities, starting at infancy, and we also have a European School. Additionally, we noticed that women applied for promotions less frequently than men. When reading a vacancy notice, women have more doubts than men whether they fulfill all the criteria perfectly. We are now more explicitly encouraging women to apply. This strategy has proven to be very successful.

Are salary differences transparent at the ECB?

We are part of the public service, which means that we follow a clear salary structure that depends on qualifications and tasks. Then there are various allowances, which depend on things like staff members’ family situation but not on their gender.

How do you deal with the responsibility for decisions that affect the lives of so many people?

When I learnt in 2019 that I would be nominated for the ECB’s Executive Board, I had just arrived by train at Bonn’s main station. I saw the people on the platform and thought – in the future, I will have to make decisions affecting all these people! That’s a completely different role from that of a researcher, and one that carries a lot of responsibility. I take my job extremely seriously and try to take all decisions to the very best of my knowledge.

You worked at different universities in Germany and the United States for 15 years, became a professor in 2007, and you were also a member of the German Council of Economic Experts. Throughout your career, you were always one of few women – often the only one, as in the case of the ”wise (wo)men”.

The higher you go, the fewer women there are. That is still the case. And it shapes the style of communication. An example was the research seminars at university, where all the professors were men and the tone was often very harsh and aggressive. As a young researcher, that bothered me, and I know my female colleagues felt the same.

How did you deal with it?

I simply accepted it at the time, but it made me feel insecure. You need to have confidence in your career potential. Some women are better at handling a male-dominated environment than others. But there are also women who have a different type of personality. Some of my female colleagues left the university back then.

Does the tone change when there is another woman in the room?

Yes, it changes the entire tone of the conversation. This is especially true when an institution or committee is led by a woman, as is the ECB. Christine Lagarde can set the tone here. I am really impressed by how she manages to create such an inclusive and friendly climate.

Is there something like female solidarity between the two of you?

Absolutely. We have a close personal relationship. We also talk about private matters and we trust each other. She listens to my concerns. I can always approach her and she finds time for me even though she is extremely busy.

Is it different with your male colleagues?

There are a number of male colleagues with whom I have a similarly trusting relationship, but it is indeed different. There is greater emotional closeness among women.

How important are women’s networks in your field?

Very important. It took me a long time to understand that. Today, I am part of many informal women’s networks. It is particularly important to invite younger women and to support each other. Former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, once said there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women. We must support each other rather than seeing each other primarily as competitors. I myself benefited from having a female mentor who later became a colleague at the University of Mainz.

You do that too. During the pandemic, your colleague Isabella Weber – a left-leaning economist from the University of Massachusetts who was then in her mid-30s – suggested tackling inflation with strategic price controls. As this contradicted the textbooks, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, among others, publicly dismissed her idea as “truly stupid”.

I found this treatment of Isabella Weber intolerable. And I had the impression that a man would have been treated differently. That simply shouldn’t be the case. Although I didn’t share the view on price controls, we must be open to consider unconventional ideas. It was probably also about maintaining power and thought leadership. In general, I would find it disastrous if women were discouraged from challenging the mainstream because of this.

Have you yourself ever felt that people were treating you differently because you are a woman?

I experience this constantly on social media. I am sometimes besieged with sexist comments and I then mute those people. But I don’t experience this in my immediate professional environment.

But did you suffer from any disadvantages because of being a woman?

At the beginning of my career, during my studies, I was firmly convinced that it didn’t matter whether one was a man or a woman. I thought I just had to be good enough, and then I would make it. At that time, I wasn’t particularly positive about the promotion of women. It took a while before I realised that there were a number of gender-specific barriers. For example, during my entire university studies in Germany, I didn’t have a single female professor. So I had no role models. These issues became more obvious when I had children. I have three daughters, which means that I was either pregnant or breastfeeding for around six years. The time between the ages of 32 and 38 were very exhausting for me. And that was precisely the critical phase for progressing in an academic career. When I arrived at the office completely rushed in the morning, I already had my first major task behind me. I sometimes struggled with that. Travelling also wasn’t easy when the children were small. I wasn’t very keen on it either, as I wanted to be with my family.

How did you manage it nonetheless?

My doctoral advisor Martin Hellwig played a major role in this. He had helped me to build up networks already during my doctoral studies – before I had children. At the time, I hadn’t yet realised how important that was. When the children came, he gave me complete flexibility.

How soon did you return to work?

Very quickly. With the first child, I was back at my computer right away. With the second, I took my daughter to the office in the beginning. By the time of the third child, I was already a professor, so I brought her with me when commuting by train from Bonn to Mainz during the breastfeeding period. Just getting the stroller into those old trains was a real challenge. All of the commuters knew me – the woman with the baby! At university, I had many people to support me. I sometimes recruited students to look after my baby while I was teaching. I even breastfed during office hours.

Did your husband bring the children to work too?

No, because I was breastfeeding. But it wouldn’t have been possible without him. My husband has always been very involved in our family work, even more so than me in recent years. I now work in Frankfurt, but our family is still in Bonn. Besides, we have had a wonderful nanny for over 20 years, who has been with us every day and helped us tremendously.

Not everyone can afford a nanny.

At the beginning, almost an entire salary went to that. But it’s sometimes overlooked that paid childcare is also an investment. It allows you to stay on your career path. And I always knew that my children were very well taken care of. That’s why I rarely had a guilty conscience.

Did you have to make compromises because of your dual role as a mother and as an economist?

Constantly. One must not have the expectation of being absolutely perfect in each role at all times. Otherwise, you will fail to live up to your own standards. But that wasn’t always easy for me.

What did you have to compromise on?

Mostly on my personal needs – I didn’t have much time for myself. And the same was true for my husband. But we also learned to be efficient. In the evenings, we would sometimes put our children to bed with their tights on to speed things up in the morning.

Have you ever been accused of being a “raven mother” (bad mother)?

Subtly, yes. But I didn’t take on that role. The paediatrician and author Remo Largo once said, in essence, that the most important thing was to be happy as a parent and a good role model. Children imitate what they see. And I believe I am a good mother to my daughters.

It took you a few years to call yourself a feminist. Where do your daughters stand on that today?

My daughters grew up knowing that women can achieve anything they want. Of course they complained from time to time that I wasn’t at home as much as other mothers. But they really like what I do and take it as motivation. My daughters are true feminists who will speak up when they are disadvantaged. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do that at their age, but of course the world has also changed in that regard.

And how do you introduce them to the topic of money?

My husband and I are both economists and we have often talked about how to deal with money. But they tended to find financial investment rather tedious. Today, two of my daughters are studying economics, so they have automatically come closer to these topics.

Mark Zuckerberg recently said that companies needed more “masculine energy”. Do you find that worrying, also in relation to your daughters?

That worries me a lot. There’s a risk that society will go backwards, even though we are far from where we want to be. In the United States, this is currently more pronounced than it is here. But it’s spilling over. For the ECB, I can say that we stand firmly behind our diversity and inclusion strategy.

MIL OSI Economics –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: President Lagarde hosts International Women’s Day event on closing gender gap in financial literacy
Source: European Central Bank

7 March 2025
- New financial literacy network of central banks and national competent authorities to focus on actions for women
- Committed to harmonising financial literacy data for comprehensive insights across Europe
- Panel discussion with Claudia Buch, Chair of the ECB’s Supervisory Board; Klaas Knot, President of De Nederlandsche Bank; Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank; Fabio Panetta, Governor of the Banca d’Italia and Annamaria Lusardi, Professor at Stanford University
The European Central Bank (ECB) today hosted an event to mark International Women’s Day, addressing financial literacy with a special emphasis on the gender gap.

“Today Europe must address two key challenges: increasing sluggish productivity growth to stay competitive; and maintaining price stability in an increasingly volatile world,” ECB President Christine Lagarde told participants. “And improving financial literacy among women can facilitate efforts to address both issues”.

The 2023 Eurobarometer found that women are 12 percentage points less likely to understand the concept of inflation than men. The ECB Consumer Expectations Survey for 2023 found that 52% of Europeans lack basic financial literacy and that 60% of this group are women. The actions discussed at today’s event underscore that euro area central banks can significantly help to advance financial literacy and promote financial inclusion, particularly among women.

President Lagarde’s opening remarks were followed by a panel discussion with Claudia Buch, Chair of the ECB’s Supervisory Board; Klaas Knot, President of De Nederlandsche Bank; Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank; Fabio Panetta, Governor of the Banca d’Italia; and Annamaria Lusardi, Professor at Stanford University and expert on financial literacy. President Lagarde and the panellists committed to several actions, such as creating a financial literacy network of central banks, focusing on actions to strengthen financial literacy in general and for women in particular, and the harmonisation of financial literacy data across Europe.

Chair Buch focused on how financially literate bank customers contribute to a healthier banking sector and therefore support financial stability. Governors Knot, Nagel and Panetta described the financial literacy strategy of their respective countries, such as developing educational programmes to be used in schools or at the workplace. These best practices can be shared with other countries looking to tackle financial literacy disparities.

Highlighting the urgent need to accelerate efforts to close the gender gap in financial literacy across Europe, Professor Lusardi said that “differences in financial literacy between women and men are large and stubborn; they persist over time and across countries”. Speaking during the panel discussion, she added “We all have to bundle our resources to promote financial literacy and reduce the gender gap”.

The event was the first in a series of annual gatherings designed to raise awareness and foster cooperation to close the gender gap in financial literacy. The ECB is committed to serving as a facilitator within the Eurosystem, promoting interaction and the exchange of best practices. This event aligns with the ECB’s broader diversity and inclusion efforts, aiming to inspire action and cooperation among stakeholders.

For more information, please visit our website with the financial literacy initiatives in Europe.

Photos of the event can be found on the ECB’s Flickr account.

For media queries, please contact Anne Grüttner, tel.: +49 162 449 2511.
MIL OSI Economics –
March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Isabel Schnabel: Interview with wochentaz

Source: European Central Bank

Interview with Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Patricia Hecht and Beate Willms on 5 February 2025

7 March 2025

Ms Schnabel, do you remember the first time you held money in your hand?

That must have been during primary school. I often used my pocket money to buy sweets or an ice lolly.

So money was just a means of payment for you, something that let you buy things?

Exactly. However, my father placed great importance on me understanding how to deal with money early on – even though as a teenager I wasn’t that interested. He later recommended an apprenticeship at a bank to me when I wasn’t sure what to do after I had finished school. And one of his arguments was that I should learn how to manage money.

Did you have the impression he was particularly concerned because you were a girl?

Well, he didn’t make the same suggestion to my brother. That bothered me a little. It was just taken for granted that my brother could deal with money. But, at the end of the day, my father’s recommendation may have been one of the reasons why I ended up in a male-dominated field.

Is it true that women engage too little with money?

I do think so. On average, women have a lower level of financial literacy than men. That’s a problem. It can lead to them making suboptimal financial decisions and possibly ending up in financial difficulties. For example, women are more at risk of poverty in old age. So financial planning is particularly important for women.

Are women themselves to blame for being financially worse off?

There are many structural reasons, for example interrupted career paths due to becoming a mother or caring for elderly relatives. In addition, women are significantly more likely to work part-time. These factors contribute to women having lower incomes and smaller pensions. The insufficient engagement with financial matters is also linked to traditional gender roles. However, there’s also an element of individual responsibility. Just as one needs to think about one’s health, one needs to also deal with finances. Today, there are plenty of ways to get informed, for example, through podcasts or YouTube channels, to name just a few.

Today you are one of the people responsible for deciding on the financing conditions for 350 million people in the euro area, because it’s the ECB’s task to keep inflation in check. Out of the 26 members of the Governing Council, only two are women – Christine Lagarde and you. Is the monetary policy that you pursue different from that of the men?

Research shows that men and women do behave differently when it comes to economic issues. So it is possible that monetary policy may change when more women join the decision-making bodies. What is key here is diversity – also in terms of views and experiences. That’s what makes decision-making more robust.

How do financial decisions made by men and women differ?

Women tend to be more risk-averse in their financial decisions and they are more afraid of losses. This, for example, leads them to invest less in the stock market and thus achieve lower returns. Women also have less confidence in their financial decision-making. So improving financial literacy would be particularly important for women.

Is there a feminist monetary policy?

To be honest, I haven’t really thought about this. Monetary policy used to focus primarily on the economy as a whole, for instance on aggregate economic activity or consumption. Meanwhile, research has evolved and is now looking more into the underlying heterogeneity. We know, for instance, that poorer people are particularly affected by rising energy and food prices. There are likely also noticeable differences across genders.

What are you doing to attract more women to the ECB?

As an institution, we have a keen interest in equal opportunities. This does not always mean a fifty-fifty distribution, but we aim to represent the society for which we make our decisions and to use the entire talent pool available. This is why we have set targets at all levels of hierarchy. In order to achieve those, around half of all new hires and promotions should be women, as long as we are below our targets.

What else are you doing?

We try to remove barriers. Often this concerns obstacles like a lack of childcare. The ECB offers good childcare facilities, starting at infancy, and we also have a European School. Additionally, we noticed that women applied for promotions less frequently than men. When reading a vacancy notice, women have more doubts than men whether they fulfill all the criteria perfectly. We are now more explicitly encouraging women to apply. This strategy has proven to be very successful.

Are salary differences transparent at the ECB?

We are part of the public service, which means that we follow a clear salary structure that depends on qualifications and tasks. Then there are various allowances, which depend on things like staff members’ family situation but not on their gender.

How do you deal with the responsibility for decisions that affect the lives of so many people?

When I learnt in 2019 that I would be nominated for the ECB’s Executive Board, I had just arrived by train at Bonn’s main station. I saw the people on the platform and thought – in the future, I will have to make decisions affecting all these people! That’s a completely different role from that of a researcher, and one that carries a lot of responsibility. I take my job extremely seriously and try to take all decisions to the very best of my knowledge.

You worked at different universities in Germany and the United States for 15 years, became a professor in 2007, and you were also a member of the German Council of Economic Experts. Throughout your career, you were always one of few women – often the only one, as in the case of the ”wise (wo)men”.

The higher you go, the fewer women there are. That is still the case. And it shapes the style of communication. An example was the research seminars at university, where all the professors were men and the tone was often very harsh and aggressive. As a young researcher, that bothered me, and I know my female colleagues felt the same.

How did you deal with it?

I simply accepted it at the time, but it made me feel insecure. You need to have confidence in your career potential. Some women are better at handling a male-dominated environment than others. But there are also women who have a different type of personality. Some of my female colleagues left the university back then.

Does the tone change when there is another woman in the room?

Yes, it changes the entire tone of the conversation. This is especially true when an institution or committee is led by a woman, as is the ECB. Christine Lagarde can set the tone here. I am really impressed by how she manages to create such an inclusive and friendly climate.

Is there something like female solidarity between the two of you?

Absolutely. We have a close personal relationship. We also talk about private matters and we trust each other. She listens to my concerns. I can always approach her and she finds time for me even though she is extremely busy.

Is it different with your male colleagues?

There are a number of male colleagues with whom I have a similarly trusting relationship, but it is indeed different. There is greater emotional closeness among women.

How important are women’s networks in your field?

Very important. It took me a long time to understand that. Today, I am part of many informal women’s networks. It is particularly important to invite younger women and to support each other. Former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, once said there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women. We must support each other rather than seeing each other primarily as competitors. I myself benefited from having a female mentor who later became a colleague at the University of Mainz.

You do that too. During the pandemic, your colleague Isabella Weber – a left-leaning economist from the University of Massachusetts who was then in her mid-30s – suggested tackling inflation with strategic price controls. As this contradicted the textbooks, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, among others, publicly dismissed her idea as “truly stupid”.

I found this treatment of Isabella Weber intolerable. And I had the impression that a man would have been treated differently. That simply shouldn’t be the case. Although I didn’t share the view on price controls, we must be open to consider unconventional ideas. It was probably also about maintaining power and thought leadership. In general, I would find it disastrous if women were discouraged from challenging the mainstream because of this.

Have you yourself ever felt that people were treating you differently because you are a woman?

I experience this constantly on social media. I am sometimes besieged with sexist comments and I then mute those people. But I don’t experience this in my immediate professional environment.

But did you suffer from any disadvantages because of being a woman?

At the beginning of my career, during my studies, I was firmly convinced that it didn’t matter whether one was a man or a woman. I thought I just had to be good enough, and then I would make it. At that time, I wasn’t particularly positive about the promotion of women. It took a while before I realised that there were a number of gender-specific barriers. For example, during my entire university studies in Germany, I didn’t have a single female professor. So I had no role models. These issues became more obvious when I had children. I have three daughters, which means that I was either pregnant or breastfeeding for around six years. The time between the ages of 32 and 38 were very exhausting for me. And that was precisely the critical phase for progressing in an academic career. When I arrived at the office completely rushed in the morning, I already had my first major task behind me. I sometimes struggled with that. Travelling also wasn’t easy when the children were small. I wasn’t very keen on it either, as I wanted to be with my family.

How did you manage it nonetheless?

My doctoral advisor Martin Hellwig played a major role in this. He had helped me to build up networks already during my doctoral studies – before I had children. At the time, I hadn’t yet realised how important that was. When the children came, he gave me complete flexibility.

How soon did you return to work?

Very quickly. With the first child, I was back at my computer right away. With the second, I took my daughter to the office in the beginning. By the time of the third child, I was already a professor, so I brought her with me when commuting by train from Bonn to Mainz during the breastfeeding period. Just getting the stroller into those old trains was a real challenge. All of the commuters knew me – the woman with the baby! At university, I had many people to support me. I sometimes recruited students to look after my baby while I was teaching. I even breastfed during office hours.

Did your husband bring the children to work too?

No, because I was breastfeeding. But it wouldn’t have been possible without him. My husband has always been very involved in our family work, even more so than me in recent years. I now work in Frankfurt, but our family is still in Bonn. Besides, we have had a wonderful nanny for over 20 years, who has been with us every day and helped us tremendously.

Not everyone can afford a nanny.

At the beginning, almost an entire salary went to that. But it’s sometimes overlooked that paid childcare is also an investment. It allows you to stay on your career path. And I always knew that my children were very well taken care of. That’s why I rarely had a guilty conscience.

Did you have to make compromises because of your dual role as a mother and as an economist?

Constantly. One must not have the expectation of being absolutely perfect in each role at all times. Otherwise, you will fail to live up to your own standards. But that wasn’t always easy for me.

What did you have to compromise on?

Mostly on my personal needs – I didn’t have much time for myself. And the same was true for my husband. But we also learned to be efficient. In the evenings, we would sometimes put our children to bed with their tights on to speed things up in the morning.

Have you ever been accused of being a “raven mother” (bad mother)?

Subtly, yes. But I didn’t take on that role. The paediatrician and author Remo Largo once said, in essence, that the most important thing was to be happy as a parent and a good role model. Children imitate what they see. And I believe I am a good mother to my daughters.

It took you a few years to call yourself a feminist. Where do your daughters stand on that today?

My daughters grew up knowing that women can achieve anything they want. Of course they complained from time to time that I wasn’t at home as much as other mothers. But they really like what I do and take it as motivation. My daughters are true feminists who will speak up when they are disadvantaged. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do that at their age, but of course the world has also changed in that regard.

And how do you introduce them to the topic of money?

My husband and I are both economists and we have often talked about how to deal with money. But they tended to find financial investment rather tedious. Today, two of my daughters are studying economics, so they have automatically come closer to these topics.

Mark Zuckerberg recently said that companies needed more “masculine energy”. Do you find that worrying, also in relation to your daughters?

That worries me a lot. There’s a risk that society will go backwards, even though we are far from where we want to be. In the United States, this is currently more pronounced than it is here. But it’s spilling over. For the ECB, I can say that we stand firmly behind our diversity and inclusion strategy.

MIL OSI Europe News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: EIB Group and partners announce new initiatives to champion gender equality and women’s economic empowerment

Source: European Investment Bank

In collaboration with the European Commission, the EIB has launched the “Gender Finance Lab for commercial banks” under the InvestEU Advisory Hub. This advisory programme is designed to assist EU commercial banks in enhancing access to finance for women-owned and women-led businesses.

The initiative will kick off with 25 European banks participating in a masterclass program focused on closing the gender finance gap and leveraging the economic potential of women entrepreneurs. By equipping financial institutions with the tools and strategies to effectively support women-led SMEs, the lab aims to unlock untapped opportunities in the market.

EIB

Just before the launch of the Gender Finance Lab, the EIB and CBNK (the bank for key engineering and health professionals formed by the merger of Banco Caminos and Bancofar) announced a historic initiative to support women entrepreneurs in the pharmaceutical sector in Spain. The operation represents the first EIB intermediated loan within the EU that is fully dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs. It will benefit women who want to start or grow in the pharmaceutical sector, in urban and rural areas. This would represent around 600 pharmacies across the country. It will involve access to loans of an average size of 450,000 euros, with which women entrepreneurs can finance from the establishment of their business (purchase of licenses), working capital (stocks) or materials such as counters, shelves or computer equipment.

Despite making up a majority of the workforce in the pharmacy sector, women continue to face barriers such as limited access to finance, wage gaps and underrepresentation in leadership positions. This operation seeks to address these challenges by providing tailored financial support to women entrepreneurs and business leaders, enabling them to scale their businesses and contribute to Spain’s economic growth.

CBNK is among the 25 European banks that have already joined the InvestEU Gender Finance Lab.

Women Climate Leaders Network celebrates one year of advocacy

March 2025 marks the first anniversary of the Women Climate Leaders Network (WCLN), launched by the EIB Group to champion sustainable practices and empower businesses in their green transition. Over the past year, the network has developed actionable recommendations to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies adopt greener approaches and scale climate-friendly innovations, that they shared with EU policymakers at the EIB Group Forum.

Recommendations include local knowledge-sharing platforms, simplified reporting, capacity building, and linking green to business benefits. Additionally, the Network advocates for enhanced policies to scale green innovation through temporary tax incentives, adjusted financial regulations, and regulatory sandboxes. The Network confirms that a single point of entry guidance for the next Multiannual Financial Framework – EU’s long-term budget – will be crucial in informing SMEs about available EU financing.

As the Women Climate Leaders Network enters its second year, it remains dedicated to empowering businesses in the EU’s transition to a greener, more inclusive future.

For more information: Gender equality and women’s economic empowerment

MIL OSI Europe News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: President Lagarde hosts International Women’s Day event on closing gender gap in financial literacy
Source: European Central Bank

7 March 2025
- New financial literacy network of central banks and national competent authorities to focus on actions for women
- Committed to harmonising financial literacy data for comprehensive insights across Europe
- Panel discussion with Claudia Buch, Chair of the ECB’s Supervisory Board; Klaas Knot, President of De Nederlandsche Bank; Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank; Fabio Panetta, Governor of the Banca d’Italia and Annamaria Lusardi, Professor at Stanford University
The European Central Bank (ECB) today hosted an event to mark International Women’s Day, addressing financial literacy with a special emphasis on the gender gap.

“Today Europe must address two key challenges: increasing sluggish productivity growth to stay competitive; and maintaining price stability in an increasingly volatile world,” ECB President Christine Lagarde told participants. “And improving financial literacy among women can facilitate efforts to address both issues”.

The 2023 Eurobarometer found that women are 12 percentage points less likely to understand the concept of inflation than men. The ECB Consumer Expectations Survey for 2023 found that 52% of Europeans lack basic financial literacy and that 60% of this group are women. The actions discussed at today’s event underscore that euro area central banks can significantly help to advance financial literacy and promote financial inclusion, particularly among women.

President Lagarde’s opening remarks were followed by a panel discussion with Claudia Buch, Chair of the ECB’s Supervisory Board; Klaas Knot, President of De Nederlandsche Bank; Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank; Fabio Panetta, Governor of the Banca d’Italia; and Annamaria Lusardi, Professor at Stanford University and expert on financial literacy. President Lagarde and the panellists committed to several actions, such as creating a financial literacy network of central banks, focusing on actions to strengthen financial literacy in general and for women in particular, and the harmonisation of financial literacy data across Europe.

Chair Buch focused on how financially literate bank customers contribute to a healthier banking sector and therefore support financial stability. Governors Knot, Nagel and Panetta described the financial literacy strategy of their respective countries, such as developing educational programmes to be used in schools or at the workplace. These best practices can be shared with other countries looking to tackle financial literacy disparities.

Highlighting the urgent need to accelerate efforts to close the gender gap in financial literacy across Europe, Professor Lusardi said that “differences in financial literacy between women and men are large and stubborn; they persist over time and across countries”. Speaking during the panel discussion, she added “We all have to bundle our resources to promote financial literacy and reduce the gender gap”.

The event was the first in a series of annual gatherings designed to raise awareness and foster cooperation to close the gender gap in financial literacy. The ECB is committed to serving as a facilitator within the Eurosystem, promoting interaction and the exchange of best practices. This event aligns with the ECB’s broader diversity and inclusion efforts, aiming to inspire action and cooperation among stakeholders.

For more information, please visit our website with the financial literacy initiatives in Europe.

Photos of the event can be found on the ECB’s Flickr account.

For media queries, please contact Anne Grüttner, tel.: +49 162 449 2511.
MIL OSI Europe News –
March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Croatian businesses to get financing boost as EIB Group provides €132 million backing to Erste Bank
Source: European Investment Bank
- EIB Group offers €132 million in guarantees to Croatia-based Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d. to expand financing for range of businesses in the country
- Package includes guarantees of €100 million from EIB and €32 million from EIF
- Operation to bolster Croatian Mid-Caps, micro-entrepreneurs and social enterprises
The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group is providing Croatia-based Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d. (ESB) with €132 million in support to expand lending to a range of businesses in the country. The backing is in the form of a €100 million guarantee from the EIB and two portfolio guarantees totalling €32 million from the European Investment Fund (EIF).

ESB expects to use the EIB guarantee to generate as much as €280 million in new financing for Croatian Mid-Caps. The terms will include lower interest rates for loan recipients and higher risk-taking opportunities for ESB.

“Ensuring businesses of all sizes have access to financing is fundamental to driving economic growth and stability,” said EIB Vice-President Teresa Czerwińska. “With this guarantee, we are reinforcing our commitment to supporting Croatian Mid-Caps, helping them seize new opportunities for expansion and innovation.”

The EIF support totalling €32 million aims to bolster ESB lending to Croatian micro-entrepreneurs and social enterprises. It includes guarantees of €19.2 million for micro-entrepreneurs and €12.8 million for social enterprises including non-governmental organisations.

This part of the package expands EIF-ESB cooperation under the InvestEU programme to bolster financial inclusion, facilitate entrepreneurship and drive sustainable social impact across Croatia. The expanded framework is focused particularly on start-ups and first-time borrowers and allows for favourable loan terms including reduced collateral requirements.

“Access to finance remains one of the biggest challenges for start-ups and social enterprises,” said EIF Chief Executive Marjut Falkstedt. “On the back of strong demand in the Croatian market, we are renewing our partnership with ESB, increasing financial opportunities for these organisations and ultimately enabling them to contribute to financial and social inclusion in Croatia.”

The new EIF guarantee for micro-entrepreneurs will enable total ESB lending to them of as much as €24 million. The guarantee for social enterprises will pave the way for total ESB financing to them of up to €16 million.

“We are very pleased to continue and further deepen our long-standing successful cooperation with EIB Group. So far, in partnership with the EIB and EIF we have provided a total of €926 million in loans to our clients supported by the EIB funding and EIF guarantee instruments. Support for micro-entrepreneurs and social enterprises, as well as medium-sized enterprises, as important drivers of growth and economic development, is one of our key strategic pillars. With this package, we have additional financing instruments which will support client growth, contribute to job creation in our communities and result in realisation of numerous successful projects.” said Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d. Member of the Management Board, Mr Hannes Frotzbacher.

Background information

The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It finances investments that contribute to EU policy objectives. EIB projects bolster competitiveness, drive innovation, promote sustainable development, enhance social and territorial cohesion, and support a just and swift transition to climate neutrality.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. It supports Europe’s SMEs by improving their access to finance through a wide range of selected financial intermediaries, such as banks, guarantee and leasing companies, micro-credit providers and private equity funds. The EIF designs and offers equity and debt financing instruments fostering EU objectives in support of entrepreneurship, growth, innovation, research and development, the green and digital transitions, and employment.

High-quality, up-to-date photos of our headquarters for media use are available here.

Erste & Steiermärkische Bank d.d. (ESB) Erste&Steiermarkische Bank d.d. originates from the former strong regional banks – Riječka, Bjelovarska, Trgovačka and Čakovečka banka – and has been operating under this name since 1 August 2003. Today it is a modern bank, ranked No3 on the Croatian market by total assets, and a part of the international Erste Group, one of the leading financial service providers in CEE. What makes Erste Bank different is its employees, their approach to work, innovation, and care for the clients. The Bank has been posting great business results for years, continuously investing in digital development that facilitates innovation and creativity in customer service. By supporting the financial needs of the citizens and financing sound and profitable projects implemented by entrepreneurs and companies contributing to employment growth in the real sector, the Bank adequately supports the development of the entire economy.

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery and growth. It also helps mobilise private investments for the European Union’s policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners that will invest in projects using EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. That guarantee will back investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.
MIL OSI Europe News –
March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Banking: Taiwan e-commerce market to grow by 7.9% in 2025, forecasts GlobalData

Source: GlobalData

Taiwan e-commerce market to grow by 7.9% in 2025, forecasts GlobalData

Posted in Banking

Taiwan’s e-commerce market is forecast to grow by 7.9% in 2025, continuing its fast-paced growth driven by the ongoing shift of consumer preferences from offline to online shopping, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s latest report, “Taiwan Cards and Payments – Opportunities and Risks to 2028,” reveals that the e-commerce transaction value in Taiwan has shown a steady increase, with the market size growing from TWD994.1 billion ($31.0 billion) in 2020 to TWD1.5 trillion ($47.6 billion) in 2024.

Shivani Gupta, Senior Banking and Payments Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Taiwan boasts a robust e-commerce market, supported by increasing internet penetration, rising smartphone usage, secure online payment options, and a growing trust among consumers in online shopping. Online shopping festivals such as Single’s Day (Double 11), Double Twelve, 618 Festival, and Black Friday have also contributed to the overall growth of e-commerce in Taiwan.”

According to the 2024 Taiwan Internet Survey, conducted by the Taiwan Network Information Center, a non-profit organization for national network information in Taiwan, in June 2024, online shopping penetration in Taiwan stood at 48.57%. E-commerce application usage is most prevalent among individuals aged 18-29 and 30-39, with the lowest adoption rate observed among Taiwanese citizens aged 70 and above.

Among payment methods, payment cards are the most preferred method for online purchases, according to the GlobalData’s 2024 Financial Services Consumer Survey*. Credit cards are more preferred due to the value-added benefits they offer, including interest-free installment payment options, reward programs, cashback, and discounts.

Alternative payment solutions are the second most preferred payment tool for online purchases. Their popularity can be attributed to their convenience, speed, and security features. LINE Pay remains the most preferred alternative payment option, with international brands such as Apple Pay, PayPal, and Google Pay also making their presence felt.

Despite the growing popularity of digital payment methods, cash still holds significance. The resilience of cash can be attributed to consumer preferences for traditional payment methods, concerns over cybersecurity, and a lack of access to banking services in some regions of the country.

Gupta concludes: “Looking ahead, the e-commerce transaction value in Taiwan is forecast to continue its upward trajectory in the coming few years. This can be attributed to growing consumer preference for online channels, improving payment infrastructure, proliferation of alternative payment solutions, and growing popularity of innovative online shopping methods. The Taiwan e-commerce market is expected to reach TWD2.1 trillion ($64.3 billion) in 2029.”

*GlobalData’s 2024 Financial Services Consumer Survey was carried out in Q2 2024. Approximately 67,292 respondents aged 18+ were surveyed across 41 countries.

MIL OSI Global Banks –

March 7, 2025
MIL-OSI Banking: Fiber to drive Japan fixed communication services market to over $26 billion in 2029, forecasts GlobalData

Source: GlobalData

Fiber to drive Japan fixed communication services market to over $26 billion in 2029, forecasts GlobalData

Posted in Technology

Fixed communication services revenue in Japan is expected to grow marginally from $25.4 billion in 2024 to $26.6 billion in 2029, maintaining a sluggish CAGR of 0.9%. The decline in fixed voice services will continue, while broadband growth remains moderate, driven by increasing fiber adoption but offset by falling cable and xDSL subscriptions, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s research reveals that fixed voice service revenue will decline at a CAGR of 0.5% over the 2024-2029 period, given the steady drop in circuit-switched subscriptions and sluggish growth in packet switched (VoIP) subscriptions as users from traditional voice services to OTT/app-based communications.

Fixed broadband service revenue, on the other hand, is expected to increase at a moderate CAGR of 1.6% over the forecast period, mainly due to growth in FTTH/B subscriptions.

Neha Mishra, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Fiber lines accounted for about 87% share of the total fixed broadband lines in 2024 and will remain the leading broadband technology through to 2029. This growth in fiber lines will be supported by rising demand for high-speed broadband connectivity and government’s efforts to increase the availability and promote the adoption of FTTH/B services.

For instance, in 2023, the Japanese government announced its goal to cover 99.9% of households with fiber-optic networks by the end of 2027 while bridging regional disparities in broadband access.

This increase in FTTH/B subscriptions will however be offset by the continued decline in cable Internet and xDSL subscriptions, keeping growth in the overall fixed broadband service revenues moderated over the forecast period.

Neha concludes: “NTT Docomo will lead both fixed voice and fixed broadband segments by subscriber share through 2029. The telco’s leading position in the fixed broadband segment is due to its strong presence in the FTTH/B service segment, offering a wide range of tariff plans based on data usage that serve the needs of both entry-level as well as premium users.”

MIL OSI Global Banks –

March 7, 2025
MIL-OSI: ING to nominate Petri Hofsté and Stuart Graham as members of the Supervisory Board
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

ING to nominate Petri Hofsté and Stuart Graham as members of the Supervisory Board

ING announced today that it will propose to appoint Petri Hofsté and Stuart Graham to the Supervisory Board at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on 22 April 2025. The proposed appointments are part of the agenda for ING’s 2025 AGM that has been published today. Upon decision by the AGM, the appointments will be effective as of 1 July 2025.

Petri Hofsté (Dutch, 1961) has extensive experience in the financial and corporate sector, including as auditor, controller and CFO. She served as division director of Banking Supervision at De Nederlandsche Bank and held board positions at various financial institutions. Currently she is a member of the supervisory board at Achmea (until 15 April 2025), Royal Friesland Campina and Pon Holdings and is chair of the Nyenrode Foundation. Petri holds a master’s degree in Business Economics, Finance and Accounting from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, as well as a degree as chartered accountant.

Stuart Graham (British/German, 1967) has more than three decades of experience in the financial sector. He is the co-founder and prior CEO of Autonomous Research, a leading global financial services research firm. Before that, he was a banking analyst at JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch and was regularly ranked as a leading equity research analyst on European banks. He currently is consultant to Trade Republic. Stuart holds a master’s degree in Modern History from Cambridge University.

Karl Guha, chairman of the Supervisory Board of ING said: “The addition of Petri Hofsté and Stuart Graham to our board will allow ING to benefit greatly from their experience and insights as we execute our strategy to be the best European bank by accelerating growth, increasing impact and delivering value. I look forward to working with them.”

The AGM agenda also includes the proposals to reappoint Steven van Rijswijk and Ljiljana Čortan for a term of four years to the Executive Board, and to reappoint Lodewijk Hijmans van den Bergh for a term of four years and Margarete Haase for a term of two years to the Supervisory Board. All four were (re)appointed at the AGM in 2021. All proposed (re)appointments have been approved by the European Central Bank.

It will also be proposed to appoint Deloitte Accountants BV as the external auditor to provide assurance on the Sustainability Statement for a term of four years starting on 1 January 2026. At the 2024 AGM, Deloitte was appointed as external auditor for the audit of the financial statements for a term of four years starting on 1 January 2026.

Full details of all agenda items are included in the proxy materials for our AGM. The proxy materials also include the 2024 Annual Report of ING, including the Annual Accounts and the reports of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board, as published on 6 March 2025, as well as other information and documents as required by law. The proxy materials, including the agenda for the AGM, are available on our website (ing.com/agm).

Registered shareholders may attend the AGM starting at 2 p.m., either in person at Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ (Piet Heinkade 1, 1019 BR Amsterdam, the Netherlands) or remotely, by logging on to the electronic platform ‘Evote by ING’, available via ing.com/agm. The supporting materials published today provide further details on how to register, participate and vote. The AGM will also be webcast live via ing.com. Shareholders are advised to check the information on the website regularly for any updates, including details on admission requirements.

Note for editors
For more on ING, please visit www.ing.com. Frequent news updates can be found in the Newsroom. Photos of ING operations, buildings and its executives are available for download at Flickr.

ING PROFILE

ING is a global financial institution with a strong European base, offering banking services through its operating company ING Bank. The purpose of ING Bank is: empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business. ING Bank’s more than 60,000 employees offer retail and wholesale banking services to customers in over 100 countries.

ING Group shares are listed on the exchanges of Amsterdam (INGA NA, INGA.AS), Brussels and on the New York Stock Exchange (ADRs: ING US, ING.N).

ING aims to put sustainability at the heart of what we do. Our policies and actions are assessed by independent research and ratings providers, which give updates on them annually. ING’s ESG rating by MSCI was reconfirmed by MSCI as ‘AA’ in August 2024 for the fifth year. As of December 2023, in Sustainalytics’ view, ING’s management of ESG material risk is ‘Strong’. Our current ESG Risk Rating, is 17.2 (Low Risk). ING Group shares are also included in major sustainability and ESG index products of leading providers. Here are some examples: Euronext, STOXX, Morningstar and FTSE Russell. Society is transitioning to a low-carbon economy. So are our clients, and so is ING. We finance a lot of sustainable activities, but we still finance more that’s not. Follow our progress on ing.com/climate.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION

Elements of this press release contain or may contain information about ING Groep N.V. and/ or ING Bank N.V. within the meaning of Article 7(1) to (4) of EU Regulation No 596/2014 (‘Market Abuse Regulation’).
ING Group’s annual accounts are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (‘IFRS- EU’). In preparing the financial information in this document, except as described otherwise, the same accounting principles are applied as in the 2024 ING Group consolidated annual accounts. All figures in this document are unaudited. Small differences are possible in the tables due to rounding.
Certain of the statements contained herein are not historical facts, including, without limitation, certain statements made of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to diﬀer materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual results, performance or events may diﬀer materially from those in such statements due to a number of factors, including, without limitation: (1) changes in general economic conditions and customer behaviour, in particular economic conditions in ING’s core markets, including changes affecting currency exchange rates and the regional and global economic impact of the invasion of Russia into Ukraine and related international response measures (2) changes affecting interest rate levels (3) any default of a major market participant and related market disruption (4) changes in performance of financial markets, including in Europe and developing markets (5) fiscal uncertainty in Europe and the United States (6) discontinuation of or changes in ‘benchmark’ indices (7) inflation and deflation in our principal markets (8) changes in conditions in the credit and capital markets generally, including changes in borrower and counterparty creditworthiness (9) failures of banks falling under the scope of state compensation schemes (10) non- compliance with or changes in laws and regulations, including those concerning financial services, financial economic crimes and tax laws, and the interpretation and application thereof (11) geopolitical risks, political instabilities and policies and actions of governmental and regulatory authorities, including in connection with the invasion of Russia into Ukraine and the related international response measures (12) legal and regulatory risks in certain countries with less developed legal and regulatory frameworks (13) prudential supervision and regulations, including in relation to stress tests and regulatory restrictions on dividends and distributions (also among members of the group) (14) ING’s ability to meet minimum capital and other prudential regulatory requirements (15) changes in regulation of US commodities and derivatives businesses of ING and its customers (16) application of bank recovery and resolution regimes, including write down and conversion powers in relation to our securities (17) outcome of current and future litigation, enforcement proceedings, investigations or other regulatory actions, including claims by customers or stakeholders who feel misled or treated unfairly, and other conduct issues (18) changes in tax laws and regulations and risks of non-compliance or investigation in connection with tax laws, including FATCA (19) operational and IT risks, such as system disruptions or failures, breaches of security, cyber-attacks, human error, changes in operational practices or inadequate controls including in respect of third parties with which we do business and including any risks as a result of incomplete, inaccurate, or otherwise flawed outputs from the algorithms and data sets utilized in artificial intelligence (20) risks and challenges related to cybercrime including the eﬀects of cyberattacks and changes in legislation and regulation related to cybersecurity and data privacy, including such risks and challenges as a consequence of the use of emerging technologies, such as advanced forms of artificial intelligence and quantum computing (21) changes in general competitive factors, including ability to increase or maintain market share (22) inability to protect our intellectual property and infringement claims by third parties (23) inability of counterparties to meet financial obligations or ability to enforce rights against such counterparties (24) changes in credit ratings (25) business, operational, regulatory, reputation, transition and other risks and challenges in connection with climate change, diversity, equity and inclusion and other ESG-related matters, including data gathering and reporting and also including managing the conflicting laws and requirements of governments, regulators and authorities with respect to these topics (26) inability to attract and retain key personnel (27) future liabilities under defined benefit retirement plans (28) failure to manage business risks, including in connection with use of models, use of derivatives, or maintaining appropriate policies and guidelines (29) changes in capital and credit markets, including interbank funding, as well as customer deposits, which provide the liquidity and capital required to fund our operations, and (30) the other risks and uncertainties detailed in the most recent annual report of ING Groep N.V. (including the Risk Factors contained therein) and ING’s more recent disclosures, including press releases, which are available on www.ING.com.
This document may contain ESG-related material that has been prepared by ING on the basis of publicly available information, internally developed data and other third-party sources believed to be reliable. ING has not sought to independently verify information obtained from public and third-party sources and makes no representations or warranties as to accuracy, completeness, reasonableness or reliability of such information.
Materiality, as used in the context of ESG, is distinct from, and should not be confused with, such term as defined in the Market Abuse Regulation or as defined for Securities and Exchange Commission (‘SEC’) reporting purposes. Any issues identified as material for purposes of ESG in this document are therefore not necessarily material as defined in the Market Abuse Regulation or for SEC reporting purposes. In addition, there is currently no single, globally recognized set of accepted definitions in assessing whether activities are “green” or “sustainable.” Without limiting any of the statements contained herein, we make no representation or warranty as to whether any of our securities constitutes a green or sustainable security or conforms to present or future investor expectations or objectives for green or sustainable investing. For information on characteristics of a security, use of proceeds, a description of applicable project(s) and/or any other relevant information, please reference the offering documents for such security.
This docuent may contain inactive textual addresses to internet websites operated by us and third parties. Reference to such websites is made for information purposes only, and information found at such websites is not incorporated by reference into this document. ING does not make any representation or warranty with respect to the accuracy or completeness of, or take any responsibility for, any information found at any websites operated by third parties. ING specifically disclaims any liability with respect to any information found at websites operated by third parties. ING cannot guarantee that websites operated by third parties remain available following the publication of this document, or that any information found at such websites will not change following the filing of this document. Many of those factors are beyond ING’s control.
Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of ING speak only as of the date they are made, and ING assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or for any other reason.
This document does not constitute an oﬀer to sell, or a solicitation of an oﬀer to purchase, any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction.

Attachment
- ING to nominate Petri Hofsté and Stuart Graham as members of the Supervisory Board
The MIL Network –
March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Directions under Section 35A read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 – Pune Sahakari Bank Limited, Shivajinagar, Pune – Extension of Period

Source: Reserve Bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India, vide directive CO.DOS.SED.No.S8240/12-22-493/2022-2023 dated March 09, 2023, had placed Pune Sahakari Bank Ltd., Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra under Directions from the close of business on March 10, 2023, for a period of six months. The validity of the directions was extended from time-to-time, the last being up to March 10, 2025.

2. It is hereby notified for the information of the public that, the Reserve Bank of India, in exercise of powers vested in it under sub-section (1) of Section 35 A read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, hereby directs that the aforesaid Directions shall continue to apply to the bank from close of business on March 10, 2025, till close of business on June 10, 2025, as per the directive DOR.MON.D-108/12-22-493/2024-2025 dated March 04, 2025, subject to review.

3. All other terms and conditions of the Directives under reference shall remain unchanged. A copy of the directive dated March 04, 2025, notifying the above extension is displayed at the bank’s premises for the perusal of public.

4. The aforesaid extension and /or modification by the Reserve Bank of India should not per-se be construed to imply that Reserve Bank of India is satisfied with the financial position of the bank.

(Puneet Pancholy)
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2024-2025/2327

MIL OSI Economics –

March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI Video: ECB International Women’s Day 2025

Source: European Central Bank (video statements)

Closing the gender gap in financial literacy

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “Accelerate Action,” focusing on strategies designed to promote women’s advancement.

In conversation, President Lagarde and panellists will discuss the importance of financial literacy for central banks and banking supervision authorities and its impact on monetary policy transmission. They will focus on closing the gender gap and the potential for collaboration.

Programme:
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/conferences/html/20250307_intl_womens_day.en.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PVt512ulUY

MIL OSI Video –

March 7, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Asian Development Bank and Denmark: Fact Sheet

Source: Asia Development Bank

ADB is a leading multilateral development bank supporting sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth across Asia and the Pacific. Working with its members and partners to solve complex challenges together, ADB harnesses innovative financial tools and strategic partnerships to transform lives, build quality infrastructure, and safeguard our planet.

Founded in 1966, ADB is owned by 69 members—49 from the region.

Headquarters

6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550, Metro Manila, Philippines

MIL OSI Economics –

March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Directions under Section 35A read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 – National Mercantile Co-operative Bank Ltd., Lucknow – Extension of period

Source: Reserve Bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India issued Directions under Section 35A read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to National Mercantile Co-operative Bank Ltd., Lucknow vide Directive No. LKO.DOS.SED.No.S875/10-03-759/2022-2023 dated March 09, 2023, for a period of six months up to close of business on September 10, 2023, as modified from time to time, which were last extended up to close of business on March 10, 2025 vide Directive DOR.MON/D-81/12-28-015/2024-2025 dated December 05, 2024. The Reserve Bank of India is satisfied that in the public interest, it is necessary to further extend the period of operation of the Directive beyond close of business on March 10, 2025.

2. Accordingly, the Reserve Bank of India, in exercise of the powers vested in it under sub-section (1) of Section 35A read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, hereby extends the Directive for a further period of three months from close of business on March 10, 2025, to close of business on June 10, 2025, subject to review.

3. All other terms and conditions of the Directive under reference shall remain unchanged.

(Puneet Pancholy)
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2024-2025/2326

MIL OSI Economics –

March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Directions under Section 35A read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 – Sikar Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd., Sikar, Rajasthan – Extension of period

Source: Reserve Bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India issued Directions under Section 35A read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to Sikar Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd., Sikar, Rajasthan vide Directive DCBS.CO.BSD-I/D-2/12.27.215/2018-19 dated October 26, 2018, for a period of six months up to May 09, 2019 as modified from time to time, which were last extended up to March 09, 2025 vide Directive DOR.MON/D-77/12.27.215/2024-25 dated December 02, 2024. The Reserve Bank of India is satisfied that in the public interest, it is necessary to further extend the period of operation of the Directive beyond March 09, 2025.

2. Accordingly, the Reserve Bank of India, in exercise of the powers vested in it under sub-section (1) of Section 35A read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, hereby extends the Directive for a further period of three months from close of business on March 09, 2025, to close of business on June 09, 2025, subject to review.

3. All other terms and conditions of the Directive under reference shall remain unchanged.

(Puneet Pancholy)
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2024-2025/2324

MIL OSI Economics –

March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI Australia: (WIP) APRA releases Discussion Paper on Governance, proposing more prescriptive requirements for banks, insurers and RSE licensees

Source: Allens Insights

Improvements required by APRA-regulated entities to make changes 5 min read

In the discussion paper released yesterday, APRA says that ‘well governed entities are more resilient in times of stress, more agile in times of change, and demonstrate more sophisticated risk judgement’. And yet, 32% of APRA-regulated entities have governance risks falling outside APRA’s risk appetite.

APRA’s proposed response is to impose more prescriptive requirements for the appointment and tenure of directors of banks, insurers and RSE licensees. There are eight specific proposals that are designed to increase the skills and capabilities of directors and reduce the potential for conflicts that might affect decision-making by directors. They are modest proposals premised on the basis that ‘better’ directors will lead to better governance. Governance is defined by APRA as the ‘principles, practices, processes and behaviours that determine how entities are directed and controlled’.

You have until 6 June 2025 to provide your feedback.

In this Insight, the eight proposals are set out below together with our comments.

1. Skills and capabilities

The skills and capabilities of boards and directors will be improved by prudential standards requiring entities to identify and document clearly defined, measurable and quantifiable skills and capabilities. The intention is to raise minimum standards ‘irrespective of nominations process or board structure’ (APRA is pre-empting the responses from some RSE licensees).

It might be noted that CPS 510 and SPS 510 already require as much and, therefore, this proposal appears to be nothing more than a restatement of the existing law. However, APRA says too many regulated entities have adopted vague and narrow skills and capability requirements and too many rely on director self-assessments. Hence the need for more prescription. This is a theme of the discussion paper.

2. Fitness and propriety

Prudential standards will prescribe higher minimum requirements for a responsible person (including a director) of a regulated entity to meet the fit and proper person standard.

Again, one might think the law already imposes a high standard. However, again APRA says the requirements ‘fail to generate meaningful outcomes’ because, among other things, a narrow view is taken of what constitutes fitness and propriety and, again, there is an excessive reliance on self-assessment. APRA is also concerned that entities do not have sufficient regard to the capacity of directors to balance multiple roles. And this goes to the next proposal.

3. Conflicts management

Prudential standards will extend the existing requirements for RSE licensees to have conflicts management frameworks to banks and insurers. The purpose is to mitigate the ‘common challenges’ of directors holding multiple roles within a group, directors having relationships with suppliers and directors’ personal financial interests and affiliations.

We make two observations about this proposal:

First, in order to satisfy the existing fit and proper person requirements a director should not have a conflict that would prevent them performing their duties. However, there is an exception where the entity is satisfied that, despite the conflict, it would be ‘prudent’ to conclude the conflict will not create a material risk that the director will not be able to perform their duties.

Second, an RSE licensee and its directors have statutory duties to act in the best financial interests of beneficiaries and to give the interests of their beneficiaries priority over their own interests and those of anyone else. Banks and insurers and their directors do not have the same obligations. These are differences of substance that may well mean it is appropriate for the management of conflicts for directors to be treated differently in the prudential standards (as they are today) according to whether they are directors of a bank, insurer or RSE licensee.

4. Independence

Prudential standards for banks and insurers will limit the number of directors who are members of more than one board in a group, among other even more modest proposals. The purpose of this proposal is to reduce intra-group conflicts of interests and strengthen the independence of regulated entity boards. Legislation contains independence requirements for directors of RSE licensees.

5. Board performance review

Prudential standards will require external expert independent performance reviews of boards, committees and individual directors every three years. Reports must be provided to APRA.

While this proposal seems sensible, it will be one more review undertaken by the consultants and we think there is a risk that too much weight is given to the expertise and independence of consulting firms.

6. Role clarity

APRA is worried that boards spend too much time on operational matters at the expense of strategic issues and risk oversight. To help, APRA proposes to amend the prudential standards to clearly articulate what should be done by whom.

There is nothing wrong with this proposal, although we do note there is a great deal of law and guidance describing the roles of the board on the one hand and senior management on the other.

7. Board committees

Reflecting the importance of risk management and the three lines of defence, RSE licensees that are significant financial institutions will be required to have separate audit and risk committees.

On the other hand, reflecting the cost of maintaining separate audit and risk committees (and, perhaps, lesser systemic importance), those APRA-regulated entities that are not significant financial institutions will not have to do so.

8. Director tenure and board renewal

One can’t help but hear APRA’s exasperation with this last proposal—a lifetime default tenure for non-executive directors at a related entity. This will be combined with a power for APRA to extend that tenure where special circumstances warrant an exception.

Conclusion

While APRA’s proposals to bolster the capability and independence of directors of regulated entities are modest, they provide a pretty clear picture of what APRA thinks are shortcomings now. What is also clear is that APRA has been talking about many of them over a long period. Perhaps it is fair to say APRA’s patience is coming to an end.

MIL OSI News –

March 7, 2025
MIL-OSI: Convocation of the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

The Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Šiaulių Bankas AB (the head office address: Tilžės str. 149, Šiauliai, Lithuania, the company code 112025254) (hereinafter referred to as the Bank) shall be convened on 31 March 2025.

Meeting location – at Head office (3 floor, Eglių meeting room), Šeimyniškių str. 1A, Vilnius.

Meeting starts at 15:00 (registration starts at 14:00) (Lithuanian time)

The Meeting’s accounting day – 24 March 2025 (the persons who are shareholders of the Bank at the end of accounting day of the General Meeting of Shareholders or persons authorized by them, or the persons with whom shareholders concluded the agreements on the disposal of voting right, shall have the right to vote at the General Meeting of Shareholders).

The day of accounting of rights – 14 April 2025 (shareholders will use the property rights arising from the decisions adopted at the general meeting of shareholders in proportion to the number of shares held at the end of the day of accounting of rights).

The Meeting is initiated and convened by the Management Board of the Bank.

Agenda of the Meeting
1. Presentation of the consolidated management report of Šiaulių bankas AB for 2024
2. Presentation of the conclusion of the independent auditor of Šiaulių bankas AB and the conclusion of the assurance of sustainability reporting
3. Comments and proposals of Šiaulių bankas AB Supervisory Council
4. Selection of the audit company to provide sustainability reporting assurance services for the period 2024-2025 and determination of payment terms
5. Approval of the set of audited financial statements of Šiaulių bankas AB and the group for 2024
6. Allocation of Šiaulių bankas AB profit for 2024
7. Determination of the procedure for the acquisition of Šiaulių bankas AB own shares
8. Approval of the new version of the Articles of Association of Šiaulių bankas AB
9. Approval of the reduction of the authorised capital of Šiaulių bankas AB and the amendment of the Articles of Association
10. Approval of the updated Remuneration Policy of Šiaulių bankas AB
11. Approval of the updated Rules for Granting Shares of Šiaulių bankas AB
12. Election of the member of Šiaulių bankas AB Supervisory Council
Reduction of authorised capital

Item 9 on the agenda is a proposal to reduce the Bank’s authorised capital The purpose and method of the reduction of the authorised capital is to cancel the shares acquired by the Bank – in total 10 597 749 ordinary registered uncertificated shares with a nominal value of EUR 0,29 each.

Draft resolutions and other information

Draft resolutions on the agenda of the meeting, documents to be submitted to the General Meeting of Shareholders and information related to the implementation of shareholders’ rights are published on the Bank’s website www.sb.lt in the section “Bank Investors” / “Meetings”. For the entire period starting no later than 21 days before the meeting the following information and documents will be available there:
- notice of the convening of the meeting;
- the total number of the Bank’s shares and the number of voting shares on the day of convening the meeting;
- draft resolutions on agenda issues and other documents to be submitted to the meeting;
- general ballot paper form (to be filled in .pdf);
- instructions for filling in and submitting the general ballot paper to the Bank;
- the form of a power of attorney to represent the shareholder.
Proposals to supplement the agenda

The shareholders holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes, shall have the right of proposing to supplement the agenda of the Meeting by providing the Meeting draft resolution on each additionally proposed issue or in case no resolution is required – the explanation. Proposals to supplement the agenda and any accompanying information must be submitted in writing. The proposals to supplement the agenda with the additional issues shall be submitted till the 19 March 2025, 17:00 (Lithuanian time). In case the agenda of the Meeting is supplemented the Bank will report on it no later than 10 days before the Meeting in the same ways as on the convening of the Meeting.

Proposals of draft resolutions

The shareholders holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes shall have the right of proposing new draft resolutions on the issues already included or to be included in the agenda of the Meeting. The proposals shall be submitted in writing. They may be submitted to the Bank by 31 March 2025 8:00 (Lithuanian time).

Questions on the agenda

The shareholders have the right to submit questions to the Bank in advance related to the agenda of the meeting. Questions may be submitted by shareholders no later than by 27 March 2025 17:00 (Lithuanian time). The Bank will answer the submitted questions to the shareholder prior to the meeting, except for those related to the Bank’s commercial secret and confidential information.

A power of attorney

The shareholders’ authorized persons shall submit a power of attorney confirmed by the established order. The power of attorney issued by the natural person shall be notarized. A power of attorney issued in a foreign country must be translated into Lithuanian and legalized in the manner prescribed by law. Representative can be authorized by more than one shareholder and shall have a right to vote differently under the orders of each shareholder.
The authorization of a shareholder to vote for another natural or legal person on behalf of the shareholder at the meeting may be granted by electronic means. Such power of attorney is not subject to notarizing. The power of attorney issued through electronic channels must be confirmed by the shareholder with a qualified electronic signature developed by safe signature equipment and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Bank on the power of attorney issued through electronic communication channels by e-mail info@sb.lt no later than by 17:00 (Lithuanian time) on the last business day before the meeting. The power of attorney and notification must be in writing.
A shareholder holding shares of the Bank acquired in his/her own name but in the interests of other persons must disclose to the Bank the identity of the final customer, the number of shares to be voted with and the content of the voting instructions submitted to him/her or another explanation regarding the participation and voting at the general meeting of shareholders agreed with the customer.

Participation and voting

Shareholders and authorized persons who will physically attend the meeting will vote with voting cards they would receive at the meeting registration.
The Bank recommends shareholders and shareholders’ authorized persons to take the opportunity to vote in advance in writing by completing a general ballot paper. The General ballot (fileable .pdf) and instructions will be available on the Bank’s website www.sb.lt in the section “Bank Investors” / “Structure and management” / “Additional Information” / “General Meetings of Shareholders” no later than 21 days before the meeting. The completed general ballot paper must be signed by the shareholder or a person authorized by him. If the general ballot paper is signed by a person authorized by the shareholder, a document confirming the right to vote must be attached to it. Duly completed ballot papers received by 11:00 (Lithuanian time) on the day of the meeting will be considered valid.

Document delivery
All documents submitted to the Bank by the shareholder or his/her authorized person (general ballot paper with attached documents (if such must be attached), proposals on the agenda, questions) may be submitted to the Bank in the following ways:
1. Paper documents (originals or certified copies) could be presented in writing to the Secretariat on business days or by sending them by mail at the address: Šiaulių Bankas AB, Tilžės street 149, LT-76348 Šiauliai, Lithuania
2. Physically signed, scanned documents could be transferred via the Bank’s internet bank (if the shareholder is its user). When logging in, choose Other Services / Messages / +New message / fill in fields Category: Securities, Subject: GSM, Message: Ballot paper / Upload the scanned document / Submit.
3. Electronic documents signed with a qualified electronic signature are submitted to the Bank (e.g., via Dokobit platform) indicating the Bank as a participant (recipient) according to the e-mail address info@sb.lt.
Scanned documents, submitted via internet bank (method 2) and electronic documents signed with an electronic signature through an electronic signature service provider (method 3) may be submitted only those, which are signed by the person providing it. In this way, for example, an authorized person cannot submit to the Bank a shareholder’s power of attorney or other document giving the right to vote for a shareholder.

Additional information:
Tomas Varenbergas, Head of Investment Management Division
tel. +370 5 203 22 00, tomas.varenbergas@sb.lt

The MIL Network –
March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI: Alliance Witan PLC – Final Results

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Alliance Witan PLC (‘the Company’)
LEI: 213800SZZD4E2IOZ9W55

7 March 2025

A landmark year

Annual results for the year ended 31 December 2024

Highlights

2024 was a landmark year for the Company, which was promoted to the FTSE 100 after the combination with Witan Investment Trust Plc (‘Witan’).
The Company’s share price was 1,244 pence (£12.44) as of 31 December 2024, representing a Share Price Total Return¹ of 14.3%.
The Company’s Net Asset Value Total Return¹ of 13.3%, while strongly positive, trailed our benchmark index, the MSCI All Country World Index (‘MSCI ACWI’), which returned 19.6%.
The Company’s average discount narrowed to 4.7% from 5.4% at the end of 2023, which compared favourably with the average discount for the Association of Investment Company’s Global Sector of 7.9%.
A fourth interim dividend 6.73p per share was declared on 28 January 2025, bringing the total dividend for the year ended 31 December 2024 to 26.70p per share. This is a 6% increase on the previous year, the 58th consecutive annual increase.

Dean Buckley, Chair of Alliance Witan, commented:

“The Company delivered strong outright gains for shareholders in 2024, although in common with most active global equity strategies, we underperformed our benchmark index, MSCI ACWI, where performance was concentrated in a handful of the largest US companies. Even so, the Company’s longer-term performance remains competitive, and demand for our shares was healthy last year, with the Company’s discount narrowing, bucking the industry trend towards widening discounts. We also increased our dividend for the 58^th consecutive year.

“Thanks to the support of both sets of shareholders, we achieved a historic combination with Witan, which places the Company in a strong position to realise economies of scale and offer better liquidity for our shares. With solid performance and a refreshed brand, supported by a marketing campaign that will continue in 2025, the Board is confident that the Company is well placed to continue delivering attractive returns for shareholders”.

About Alliance Witan PLC

Alliance Witan aims to be a core investment that beats inflation over the long term through a combination of capital growth and rising dividend. The Company invests in global equities across a wide range of different sectors and industries to achieve its objective. Alliance Witan’s portfolio uses a distinctive multi-manager approach. We blend the top stock selections of some of the world’s best active managers into a single diversified portfolio designed to outperform the market while carefully managing risk. Alliance Witan is an AIC Dividend Hero with 58 consecutive years of rising dividends.

https://www.alliancewitan.com

For more information, please contact:

For more information, please contact:
Mark Atkinson Senior Director Client Management, Wealth & Retail		Sarah Gibbons-Cook Director
Willis Towers Watson		Quill PR
Tel: 07918 724303		Tel: 07702 412680
mark.atkinson@wtwco.com		AllianceWitan@quillpr.com

1. Alternative Performance Measure. Share Price Total Return is the return to shareholders through share price capital returns and dividends paid by the Company and re-invested. Net Asset Value (NAV) Total Return is a measure of the performance of the Company’s NAV over a specified time period. It combines any change in the NAV and dividends paid.

Financial highlights as at 31 December 2024

Net Assets	Net Asset Value (‘NAV’) per Share
£5.2bn	1,304.9p
(2023: £3.3bn)	(2023: 1,175.1p)

NAV Total Return¹	Share Price
+13.3%	1,244.0p
(2023: +21.6%)	(2023: 1,112.0p)

Share Price Total Return¹	Discount to NAV¹
+14.3%	-4.7%
(2023: +20.2%)	(2023: -5.4%)

Earnings per Share (Revenue)	Total Dividend per Share
17.3p	26.7p
(2023: 18.6p)	(2023: 25.2p)

1. Alternative Performance Measure – see page 116 of the Annual Report for further information.
Notes:
NAV per Share including income with debt at fair value.
NAV Total Return based on NAV including income with debt at fair value and after all costs.
Source: Morningstar and Juniper Partners Limited (‘Juniper’).

Chair’s Statement

Landmark combination with Witan
Another strong year for equities
58th consecutive annual dividend increase
Discount narrower than the AIC Global Sector average
Named by the AIC as a top 20 best performing investment trust over ten years¹

2024 was a landmark year for your Company. I would like to begin by thanking you for your support for the combination of Alliance Trust and Witan to form Alliance Witan and by welcoming all shareholders who have joined us as a result. This was a pivotal moment in our history, achieving economies of scale and elevating the Company to the FTSE 100. Now, as one of the industry’s leaders, this status will provide better liquidity for our shares and, with good long term investment performance and a strong brand, help us attract new investors. We made a number of commitments to investors as part of the proposals, for example in respect of dividends and costs, and you will see as you read through the Annual Report how we have achieved each of these.

As I mentioned in the Interim Report for the six months ended 30 June 2024, there has been no change to the Company’s investment strategy, just a larger pool of assets for our Investment Manager, WTW, to manage with the same professionalism that it has brought to the job since April 2017.

1. https://www.theaic.co.uk/aic/news/press-releases/top-20-best-performing-investment-trusts-for-your-isa

Investment Performance

It was another good year for global equity markets, and your Company delivered strong absolute returns. NAV Total Return was 13.3% and, due to a narrowing of the discount, Share Price Total Return was 14.3%. However, we lagged our benchmark index, the MSCI All Country World Index (‘MSCI ACWI’ or ‘Index’), which returned 19.6%. We also marginally underperformed our peers in the AIC Global Sector, which is disappointing, but we were slightly ahead of the much wider, more representative Morningstar peer group of open and closed-ended global equity funds.

Simply put, our relative performance in 2024 suffered from not having enough exposure to the small number of very large companies that dominated market returns, especially in the US.

The narrowness of returns from global equity markets has been a common problem for all active managers in recent years, and we take comfort from the fact that, despite this persistent headwind, we are ahead of the Index and have significantly outperformed both peer groups over three years. You can read more about the contributors/detractors to the Company’s investment performance during 2024 in the Investment Manager’s Report on page 9 of the Annual Report.

Dividend increased for the 58^thconsecutive year

The Board declared a fourth interim dividend of 6.73p per share on 28 January 2025, resulting in a full year dividend of 26.70p, an increase of 6.0% on the prior year. This fulfils the promise we made at the time of the combination of Alliance Trust and Witan to increase dividends for the legacy shareholders of both companies. 2024’s increase marks the 58th consecutive annual increase, which is one of the longest track records in the investment trust industry. Dividends are well supported by revenue and reserves, and the Board is confident annual dividend increases can continue well into the future. Due to our steady approach, the Company has received a ‘Dividend Hero’ investment company award from the Association of Investment Companies (‘AIC’).

Narrowing discount

Many investment trusts continued to trade on large discounts to NAV throughout 2024, with the industry average widening to 14.7% from 12.7%.¹ I am pleased to report that your Company fared better than most, with its average discount falling to 4.7% from 5.4% over the year. This compared favourably with the average discount for the AIC Global Sector of 7.9%.

Your Board remains committed to the maintenance of a stable discount. We will continue to use share buybacks as appropriate and invest in promotional activity to widen our shareholder base, to support the management of the discount. During 2024, the Company bought back 4.7 million shares (1.2% of shares in issue²), versus 8.6 million repurchased in 2023. The shares bought back during the year were placed in Treasury. This level of buybacks was significantly below that of our peers, in a year in which industry-wide buybacks hit a record level of £7.5 billion³. The shares held in Treasury can be reissued by the Company at a premium to estimated NAV when there is market demand.

Board changes

Following the completion of the combination of Alliance Trust with Witan, we welcomed four new Non-Executive Directors to the Board: Andrew Ross, Rachel Beagles, Shauna Bevan and Jack Perry, all of whom were former directors of Witan.

Clare Dobie, having served for almost nine years, is retiring as a Director at the conclusion of this year’s Annual General Meeting (‘AGM’), as is Jack Perry, reducing the size of the Board to eight members.

On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Clare and Jack for their contributions.

Annual General Meeting

The Board looks forward to being able to meet shareholders again at this year’s AGM, which will be held at the Apex City Quay Hotel in Dundee on 1 May 2025. For those shareholders who are not able to attend in person, we will be live streaming the event. As well as the formal business of the meeting, there will be an investor forum afterwards featuring two of our Stock Pickers, Jennison and EdgePoint, as well as members of WTW’s investment team. There will be another in-person investor forum in London in the autumn. In addition, shareholders can engage with the Company and its Stock Pickers via online presentations during the year. Further details of how to attend all these events can be found on the website.

The Board would strongly encourage shareholders to use the opportunity to have their say and use their vote at the AGM. Further information on the arrangements for the AGM, including information on how to vote either directly through the Registrar or though different platforms, is on pages 134 and 135 of the Annual Report.

Keep up-to-date

In these unusual times, the website will provide timely updates to shareholders. Therefore, I would encourage you to visit the website which contains a vast amount of information on investment performance, details of shareholder meetings and investor forums, monthly factsheets, quarterly newsletters, and Stock Picker updates, as well as the Annual and Interim Reports.

As always, the Board welcomes communication from shareholders and I can be contacted through Juniper Partners (‘Juniper’), the Company Secretary at investor@alliancewitan.com.

Outlook

Since the start of President Trump’s second term of office in January, tariffs have created uncertainty about the outlook for equities. Diplomatic tensions over efforts to end the war in Ukraine and conflict in Gaza have also raised geopolitical risks. Furthermore, European bond markets are adjusting to the prospect of increased borrowing to fund higher levels of defence and infrastructure spending.

While there is a risk that heightened levels of uncertainty will impact on business and consumer confidence, global growth and corporate earnings forecasts are currently healthy, giving some grounds for cautious optimism, about further gains for shareholders, especially if there is a broadening out of market leadership.

While the Index is highly concentrated, your portfolio has broader exposure to many good businesses that have not yet received the market recognition our Stock Pickers believe they deserve.

The portfolio will not always outperform the market in every discrete period, but we believe it will continue to add significant value for shareholders in the long run.

I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the AGM in Dundee or the next investor forum in London.

1. Weighted average discount (excluding 3i Group). Source: Winterflood.
2. Percentage based on the Company’s issued share capital (excluding shares held in Treasury) as at 1 January 2025.
3. Source: AIC and Morningstar.

Dean Buckley
Chair
6 March 2025

Combination with Witan

The most significant development during the year under review was the combination of the Company with Witan.

Background

Following a comprehensive review of management arrangements, the Witan Board concluded that a combination with the Company was in the best interests of Witan’s shareholders. Amongst other things this allowed them continued exposure to a successful multi-manager approach.

The combination was undertaken by way of a scheme of reconstruction and members’ voluntary liquidation of Witan. The scheme required the approval of both the Company and Witan’s shareholders and took effect on 10 October 2024. It resulted in the Company acquiring approximately £1,539 million of net assets from Witan in consideration for the issue of new ordinary shares to Witan shareholders. The name of the Company became Alliance Witan and the stock exchange ticker ALW.

Outcome

The combination was expected to result in substantial benefits for all shareholders and future investors. The outcomes of the key elements of the proposals include:

Greater profile and FTSE 100 inclusion: the Company has assets of over £5 billion and is now a FTSE 100 Index constituent.
Lower management fees: WTW agreed a new management fee structure; this resulted in an even more competitive blended fee rate for all shareholders.
Lower ongoing charges: the new management fee structure and economies of scale have reduced ongoing charges to 0.56% (net of the management fee waiver).
No cost to either companies’ shareholders: the costs of the transaction were carefully managed, including the fee waiver from WTW, to ensure that the transaction was completed at no cost to all shareholders.
Attractive and progressive dividend policy: the third and fourth interim dividend payments of 2024 were increased to ensure that they were commensurate with Witan’s first interim dividend. It is expected that the dividend will continue to increase in the current year so that shareholders continue to see progression in their income.

Portfolio Transition

The Company received assets including cash and equities from Witan and the Witan loan notes were novated to the Company. Details are provided in note 13 to the Financial Statements.
BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited managed the portfolio transition. Direct costs of the portfolio transition and Manager changes were less than 0.04% of the Net Asset Value of the enlarged portfolio.

Investment Manager’s Report

Market backdrop: equities untroubled by politics

For the second year running, global equities delivered strong returns in 2024, with economics trumping politics. Despite a record number of elections, conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine reaching new heights, and a scary moment in Japan when the Nikkei Index of the top 225 blue-chip shares plunged 12% in a day at the beginning of August, investors focused on resilient global growth, falling inflation and interest rates, and healthy corporate profitability.

Hence, our benchmark index, the MSCI ACWI, returned 19.6% in 2024 following a return of 15.3% in 2023. Since 1987, the Index has returned an average of 8.4% per annum¹, so returns of this magnitude in two consecutive years are rare. The ebullient mood of equity investors was reflected in a surge in the prices of less established assets, such as cryptocurrency, with Bitcoin reaching all-time highs of over $100,000. Peanut the Squirrel Coin, a cryptocurrency named after the eponymous pet that New York environmental authorities seized and euthanised on 30 October 2024, at one point commanded a market cap of $1.7 billion.

However, regional equity market performance was mixed. US markets once again led the way, with the S&P 500 delivering a 27% return when measured in British pounds. Chinese equities rallied briefly following government stimulus, but concerns over the country’s property market and trade tensions persisted. Together with a strong US dollar, these worries led to more subdued returns from emerging markets, which rose about 9%. In Japan, August’s technically driven decline proved temporary, and the Nikkei resumed its ascent to close the year at a record high, although the yen’s depreciation reduced returns for UK-based investors when converted into British pounds. The UK and European markets were more muted, with the FTSE All Share Index and the MSCI Europe ex UK Index returning 9.5% and 1.9% respectively.

Gains driven by US tech giants

Giant US technology related stocks were the standout performers, fuelled by investor excitement about generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) and, from November onwards, hopes that Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election would weaken regulatory scrutiny. The share prices of the so called “Magnificent Seven” – Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla – increased by 60% on average and were responsible for 43% of MSCI ACWI’s gains. This was less than 2023 when they contributed 53%, but still a huge number emphasising the extreme concentration of index returns in a small number of companies.

Even so, from mid-year onwards, returns were no longer quite as skewed to the performance of a handful of shares. Although NVIDIA and Tesla returned a massive 176% and 65% respectively, giant tech was not the only game in town. Financial stocks returned 26.5%, and returns from the consumer discretionary, industrial and utility sectors were also well into double figures, pointing to the potential broadening out of market returns as stock-specific drivers came to the fore.

1. https://www.msci.com/documents/10199/8d97d244-4685-4200-a24c-3e2942e3adeb

Portfolio performance: strong absolute gains but lagged benchmark index

Our portfolio’s NAV Total Return was a robust 13.3% but, as with most active managers, it lagged the Company’s benchmark index. The portfolio does, however, remain ahead of the Index over three years (28.0% vs 26.8%), albeit behind over five years (64.7% vs 70.8%). Disappointing though it was not to beat the MSCI ACWI in 2024, we were not alone. AJ Bell calculated that, to the end of November, just 18% of active global equity funds outperformed their passive peers, largely due to their inability to match high Index weightings in the “Magnificent Seven”. The sheer size of these companies in the Index is mind boggling. NVIDIA, Microsoft and Apple, for example, represent 13% of the MSCI ACWI as at 31 December 2024 and, together, are bigger than the entire stock markets of several sizeable countries.

The skew of the Index towards mega-cap companies has been a challenge, to varying degrees, since the start of our multi-manager strategy in April 2017. As a broadly diversified strategy, with capital spread between 8-12 Managers, all with different approaches to investing, our portfolio naturally has a structural bias away from stocks that on rare occasions represent such a large proportion of our global benchmark. While we have some exposure to most of the “Magnificent Seven”, it would require a lot of the Managers to choose them as one of their best ideas for us to be at Index weight, never mind be overweight.

The Index may have been hard to beat in recent years, but market concentration poses significant risks for passive strategies. At the end of 2024, the Index on average allocated around 150 times as much capital to each of Apple, NVIDIA and Microsoft as it did to the average stock, akin to us placing about 95% of the portfolio in one manager’s hands and 0.5% each in the other ten.

We do not believe this is the right way to manage risk for shareholders, bearing in mind that index trackers are not investing lots of money in these companies because they are good businesses trading at good valuations, but because they are very big. If US large-cap stocks continue to dominate, tracker funds may continue to outperform active funds. But if sentiment on the technology sector turns sour, passive funds with big stakes will be hit much harder.

Not owning enough NVIDIA was painful

The strong outperformance of our portfolio versus our benchmark in 2023 continued into the first quarter of 2024, when the biggest contribution came from not owning, at that time, poorly performing Tesla and Apple. But thereafter stock selection became more challenging, particularly within the “Magnificent Seven”. Although we benefitted from owning Amazon and Microsoft, we moved from an overweight to an underweight position in NVIDIA in the first quarter after its extraordinary outperformance, which then made it our biggest single detractor last year as that outperformance continued. Having helped us in the first quarter, the lack of exposure to Tesla and Apple, which both recovered strongly as the year progressed, counted against us from then on. Overall, our positions in the “Magnificent Seven” accounted for a third of the portfolio’s underperformance versus the Index in 2024.

The remainder of the portfolio’s underperformance came from a combination of being underweight in large-cap stocks in general and stock specific issues elsewhere, in some cases due to partial reversals of performance in 2023. For example, stock selection in financials detracted in large part due to our relative lack of exposure to strongly performing US banks such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. In the consumer discretionary sector, the share price of UK-based drinks company Diageo, owned by Veritas Asset Management (‘Veritas’) and Metropolis Capital (‘Metropolis’), continued to suffer from a post-Covid cyclical downturn, falling 8.5%, although both Managers believe the company will eventually recover lost ground when structural trends reassert themselves. Novo Nordisk, the Danish weight loss drugs company, was another notable detractor, as its shares fell 14% after disappointing test results. Our Stock Pickers see this as a temporary decline in a growing market in which Novo Nordisk has a leading position. Hence, it was one of our biggest purchases in 2024 (see table below).

Indeed, our Stock Pickers express a high degree of confidence in the latent value of many of their holdings. By far the most important long run ingredient underpinning share price performance is strong fundamentals, such as market-leading products or services, solid profit margins, plentiful cashflow and strong management.

Top 10 purchases and sales

Top 10 purchases	Value £m	Top 10 sales	Value £m
UnitedHealth Group	50.2	Alphabet	84.3
Novo Nordisk	48.8	NVIDIA	71.3
Synopsys	47.5	Fiserv	39.0
Microsoft	45.0	Aena	37.9
Netflix	41.5	Ebara	36.1
Philip Morris	41.4	TotalEnergies	35.0
Enbridge	39.4	PayPal	33.8
AT&T	39.0	Bureau Veritas	33.4
American Electric Power	37.3	KKR	33.2
Eli Lilly	36.6	Taiwan Semiconductor	32.2

Source: Juniper.
The purchases and sales are calculated by taking the net value of all transactions (buy and sells) for each holding held within the portfolio over the period. The tables exclude any non-equity holdings such as ETFs and any transfers from the combination with Witan.

Even so, in the short run, market sentiment can have a larger impact on share prices than fundamentals. When we break down the portfolio performance against the Index into fundamentals and sentiment, the portfolio’s strong absolute performance has been mainly as a result of company fundamentals, whereas the Index’s absolute performance has been more driven by market sentiment.

A full breakdown of the contributors to our Total Return in 2024 is shown in the following table.

Contribution analysis

Contribution to Return in 2024	%
Benchmark Total Return	19.6
Asset Allocation	-1.1
Stock Selection	-5.3
Gearing and Cash	0.6
Investment Manager Impact	-5.8
Portfolio Total Return	13.8
Share Buybacks	0.1
Fees/Expenses	-0.6
Taxation	-0.1
Change in Fair Value of Debt	0.4
Timing Differences	-0.2
NAV Total Return including Income, Debt at Fair Value	13.3
Change in Discount	1.0
Share Price Total Return	14.3

Source: Performance and attribution data sourced from WTW, Juniper, MSCI Inc, FactSet and Morningstar as at 31 December 2024. Percentages may not add due to rounding.

In the table below, we also list the top five contributors and detractors to portfolio performance during the year relative to the portfolio’s benchmark.

Sands, Vulcan and Lyrical were the top performers

As we would expect from such a diverse line up, performance among our Managers was mixed. This is by design, as we do not want the portfolio to be biased towards any one approach of investing, which might make returns vulnerable to a sudden switch from one style to another. This happened in 2022 when growth stocks began to suffer significantly as central banks raised interest rates to combat inflation. Sands Capital (‘Sands’), Vulcan Value Partners (‘Vulcan’), and Lyrical Asset Management (‘Lyrical’) were the top performers last year. Sands and Vulcan both benefitted from owning tech giants. Sands held NVIDIA while Vulcan held Amazon, but Sands’ largest contributor to relative performance was Axon Enterprise, an industrial business which makes tasers, body cameras and other software products. Its share price surged by 134% last year.

Top five stock contributors to performance

Stock	Sector	Country	Average Active Weight (%)	Total Return in Sterling (%)	Attribution Effect Relative to Benchmark (%)
Amazon	Consumer Discretionary	United States	1.0	47.0	0.2
Axon Enterprise	Industrials	United States	0.2	134.2	0.2
Salesforce	Information Technology	United States	0.4	29.8	0.2
NRG Energy	Utilities	United States	0.4	80.6	0.2
Nestle	Consumer Staples	Switzerland	-0.4	-25.9	0.2

Bottom five stock detractors to performance

Stock	Sector	Country	Average Active Weight (%)	Total Return in Sterling (%)	Attribution Effect Relative to Benchmark (%)
NVIDIA	Information Technology	United States	-1.8	176.1	-1.2
Broadcom	Information Technology	United States	-0.5	113.4	-0.6
Novo Nordisk	Health Care	Denmark	0.8	-14.0	-0.6
Tesla	Consumer Discretionary	United States	-0.8	65.4	-0.6
Apple	Information Technology	United States	-3.9	32.8	-0.4

Source: WTW.

The tables above illustrate the top five contributors and detractors to returns relative to benchmark in 2024. It aims to explain at a stock level which companies drove relative returns. For example, the Alliance Witan portfolio was underweight relative to benchmark in NVIDIA, Broadcom, Tesla and Apple. These stocks had very strong returns, which hurt our portfolio’s relative performance. Conversely, not having an exposure to Nestle helped our relative performance given the stock was held in the benchmark and was down over the year. Our overweight position in Amazon, Axon Enterprise, Salesforce and NRG Energy contributed positively to relative returns given their strong performance. The average active weight is the arithmetic simple average weight of the stock in the portfolio minus the arithmetic simple average weight of the stock in the benchmark over the period.

Vulcan’s largest contributor to our performance was KKR, the US-based private equity group, which returned 82%, prompting Vulcan to take profits. Its holding in Salesforce also did well, rising nearly 30%.

Lyrical, a deep-value style investor, benefitted from owning several less talked-about US-based companies, which all rebounded from cheap valuations. These included NRG Energy, Ameriprise Financials and eBay.

Of our Managers, the most notable laggard was Sustainable Growth Advisors (‘SGA’), which was disappointing given its focus on large cap growth stocks which, as a group, had the strongest price momentum. SGA suffered from holding Novo Nordisk, and two of its other positions, ICON and Synopsys also stood out as detractors. The recent poor performance of SGA follows a long period of outperformance, so returns since we appointed SGA remain strong. Value Managers Metropolis and ARGA Investment Management (‘ARGA’), the latter replacing Jupiter Asset Management (‘Jupiter’) in April, also struggled in the recent market environment, which has generally favoured growth managers.

Portfolio changes: two new Managers added after combination with Witan

As well as adding ARGA for Jupiter in the first half of the year, following Ben Whitmore’s decision to leave Jupiter to set up his own business, there were two further changes to the Manager line-up during the integration of Witan’s portfolio. Altogether, this contributed to an unusually high level of turnover of 98.5% of the portfolio in 2024. Both Alliance Trust and Witan already had GQG Partners (‘GQG’) and Veritas in common, which meant that there were some in-specie transfers of stocks. Additionally, the combination of Alliance and Witan presented us with an opportunity to introduce Jennison Associates (‘Jennison’) to the portfolio at a low cost.

Based in the US, Jennison specialises in investing in innovative, fast-growing businesses. It had been one of Witan’s most successful managers and blending it with our other Managers increased the diversity of holdings in growth companies. We also took the opportunity to replace Black Creek Investment Management (‘Black Creek’) with EdgePoint Investment Group (‘EdgePoint’), while we were using a transition manager to keep costs down to a minimum.

This change was prompted by succession planning at Black Creek. We had been monitoring Black Creek for some time due to the departure of a senior team member for health reasons and the uncertainty surrounding the timing of founder Bill Kanko’s retirement. With a similar investment style to Black Creek, EdgePoint seeks to buy good, undervalued businesses and hold them until the market fully realises their potential.

Through the combination, we inherited a small number of investment trust and private equity fund holdings, representing less than 3% of the combined portfolio. These are specialist funds with portfolios focused on, among other things, early-stage life sciences, valuable intellectual property, innovative internet platforms and renewable infrastructure assets. Collective investments such as these are not normally part of our investment strategy. However, they are all trading at prices we believe are well below their intrinsic value, so rather than sell them at a loss, we will hold them until we can achieve attractive values.

Beyond that, the combination did not lead to any change in our investment approach. We retain high conviction in our line-up of Managers and their ability to pick winning stocks, although we keep them under constant review for any red flags and have access to a deep bench of talented replacements should these be needed.

Gearing: remaining cautious

Our gross gearing stood at 8.4% at the end of 2024 (4.9% net of underlying Manager and central cash), slightly above the level of 7.1% at the start of the year, reflecting the improving outlook for equities as the year progressed. However, given the strong performance from equity markets, it is still towards the lower end of the typical range of 7.5 to 12.5%.

Market outlook: multiple risks warrant diversification

As 2025 began, the mood among investors was upbeat, with many hoping President Trump’s promises of deregulation and tax cuts would be supportive of equity markets. If returns can spread beyond a narrow group of highly valued US mega-cap technology stocks, it could provide firmer foundations for another good year for shares. The strong start to the year for European equities certainly offered hope for geographical diversification.

However, on-off tariffs and geopolitical tensions loom large, creating considerable uncertainty. This was reflected in an increase in equity market volatility in February.

In the first 2 months of 2025, the benchmark index rose by 2.2% suggesting that investors were still willing to look through some of the risks while forecast global growth and corporate earnings remain healthy. But confidence is fragile and, with valuations in the US still close to a record high despite February’s pullback, the market is vulnerable to setbacks.

In this environment, we believe bottom-up stock picking, based on company fundamentals, should be a more reliable way to add value for shareholders in the long term than making bold, top-down market calls. So, we will continue to position the portfolio to maintain balanced regional, sector and style exposures, that are similar to the Index weightings by periodically adjusting Manager allocations. This should provide stability and reduce risk, while we rely on our Managers to add value by seeking out the best companies in each market segment.

While retaining some exposure to US mega-cap tech stocks that may continue delivering attractive returns, our portfolio is not reliant on them. It also contains many stocks that have remained in the shadows but have been performing well operationally and have excellent prospects not yet reflected in their share prices.

Hidden gems: stock picks with high potential

We asked our eleven Stock Pickers for examples of strong but underappreciated companies in the portfolio

Lyrical highlighted five of its US holdings that have underperformed the S&P 500 Index since the start of 2024 but, at the same time, have grown their forecast earnings per share by more than the Index. These are healthcare providers Cigna and HCA, WEX and Global Payments, which both provide business-to-business payment technology, and Gen Digital, which is a leading provider of cyber security and identity protection.

“Interestingly, even on this list there is inconsistency by the market,” says Lyrical. “Cigna has the worst stock performance, but the second-best earnings per share (‘EPS’) growth. Gen Digital has the slowest EPS growth in the group, but the best performance”.

ARGA cited Accor, the global hotel business, which has transitioned to an “asset light” business model by selling most of its hotels, while maintaining the lucrative franchise and management agreements attached to these properties. While Sands Capital sees potential in the share prices of Sika, a maintenance and building refurbishment specialist.

“Investment results have been weak despite solid fundamental results,” says Sands. “We believe that investors have focused on slower than historical organic growth, caused by several factors, including the real estate crisis in China, slowdown in electric vehicle production, and a pause in green building incentives.”

Sands Capital also mentioned Roper Technologies, a diversified industrial technology company, and Keyence, a leading designer of high-end factory automation based in Japan, as attractive businesses with share price appreciation potential.

Vulcan highlighted CoStar Group, an information provider to the commercial and residential real estate industries, and Everest Group, a global insurance and reinsurance business, while GQG mentioned the UK-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, the Brazil-based oil and gas company Petrobras, Bank Mandiri in Indonesia, and the Indian tobacco company ITC.

SGA backed Danaher, the US industrial group, Intuit, which provides do-it-yourself accounting software for small businesses, and HDFC Bank in India. Jennison highlighted Reddit, the online social media platform.

“Reddit is targeting 49% growth in the third quarter of 2024 and consensus is at 41% in Q4, but then market estimates are fading down to around 20% in 2025, which we think is overly conservative and creates an opportunity for investment today.”

Veritas’s nominations for underappreciated businesses were Amadeus, the Spanish software company focusing on air travel, The Cooper Companies, which makes contact lenses, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world’s largest scientific equipment provider.

Japan specialist Dalton’s best stocks included Bandai Namco, a multinational that publishes video games and makes toys, Shimano, the bicycle equipment manufacturer, and Rinnai, one of the global leaders in water heaters. Metropolis highlighted Andritz, the Austrian headquartered business supplying industrial equipment to the pulp and paper, metals and hydropower industries, Crown Holdings, which makes aluminium drinks cans, and Admiral, the UK insurer.

Finally, EdgePoint, the newest addition to our Manager line-up, pointed to Dayforce, a global human resources software company, Nippon Paints Holdings in Japan, Franco-Nevada, a gold-focused royalty company in Canada, and Qualcomm, which invented significant pieces of the underlying technology required for mobile phones.

“The market looks at Qualcomm as a handset supplier and the stock moves in relation to expected handset sales over the following quarters,” says EdgePoint. “We consider Qualcomm to be one of the world’s leading designers of energy-efficient processors at a point in time when demand for energy-efficient processing is growing rapidly across a wide range of industries. Some of the major opportunities for Qualcomm over the next 5 years include artificial intelligence, automobiles, personal computers and smartphones.”

Altogether, these fundamentally strong businesses combine with others to create a robust, multi-manager portfolio that offers attractive long-term growth with lower risk than a single manager strategy, and therefore a more comfortable ride through the ups and downs of the market. Such companies may have remained below the radar in 2024, when investors became giddy with the stellar returns from the US technology shares, but we look forward to their attributes receiving the recognition from the market that they deserve.

Craig Baker, Stuart Gray, Mark Davis
Willis Towers Watson
Investment Manager

The securities referred to above represent the views of the underlying managers and are not stock recommendations.

Summary of Portfolio
As at 31 December 2024

A full list of the Company’s Investment Portfolio can be found on the Company’s website, www.alliancewitan.com

Top 20 holdings

Name	£m	%
Microsoft	236.3	4.3
Amazon	197.4	3.6
Visa	156.2	2.8
UnitedHealth Group	116.4	2.1
Alphabet	107.7	1.9
Diageo	92.4	1.7
Meta	88.6	1.6
NVIDIA	82.7	1.5
Aon	75.1	1.4
Novo Nordisk	73.1	1.3
Netflix	70.9	1.3
Mastercard	70.7	1.3
Eli Lilly	69.9	1.3
Salesforce	61.5	1.1
HDFC Bank	58.2	1.1
Safran	53.3	1.0
Taiwan Semiconductor	49.9	0.9
Petrobras	48.1	0.9
State Street	48.0	0.9
Philip Morris	47.6	0.9

The 20 largest stock positions, given as a percentage of the total assets. Each Stock Picker selects up to 20 stocks.*
Top 20 holdings 32.9%
Top 10 holdings 22.2%

* Apart from GQG Partners, which also manages a dedicated emerging markets mandate with up to 60 stocks.

Dividend

We have paid our shareholders a rising dividend for 58 consecutive years. Providing that level of reliability is something of which we are extremely proud. We carefully manage the Company’s dividend. For instance, should there be a year in which income is unexpectedly high, we may retain some of that income to help fund future dividends. Due to our steady approach, the Company has received a ‘Dividend Hero’ investment company award from the Association of Investment Companies (‘AIC’).

Our dividend policy

Subject to market conditions and the Company’s performance, financial position and outlook, the Board will seek to pay a dividend that increases year on year. The Company expects to pay four interim dividends per year, on or around the last day of June, September, December and March, and will not, generally, pay a final dividend for a particular financial year.

While shareholders are not asked to approve a final dividend, given the timing of the payment of the quarterly payments, each year they are given the opportunity to share their views when they are asked to approve the Company’s Dividend Policy.

Fourth interim dividend

As previously announced, a fourth interim dividend of 6.73p per ordinary share will be paid on 31 March 2025 to those shareholders who were on the register at close of business on 28 February 2025.

Increased dividend

The Company has increased its total dividend for the year ended 31 December 2024 to 26.7p per ordinary share (2023: 25.2p), a 6.0% increase on the previous year.

Dividend	2024 (p)	2023 (p)	% increase
1^st Interim	6.62	6.18	7.1
2^nd Interim	6.62	6.34	4.4
3^rd Interim	6.73	6.34	6.2
4^th Interim	6.73	6.34	6.2

Reserves

It is the Board’s intention to utilise distributable reserves as well as portfolio income to fund dividend payments. Further details of the dividend payments for the year to 31 December 2024 and information on distributable reserves can be found in notes 7 and 2(b)(x) of the Financial Statements, respectively.

Ongoing Charges and Discount

Ongoing charges¹

The Company’s ongoing charges ratio (‘OCR’) decreased to 0.56% (including the impact of the investment management fee waiver) (2023: 0.62%). Total administrative expenses were £3.9m (2023: £2.9m) and investment management expenses were £18.4m (2023: £16.3m). Further details of the Company’s expenses are provided in note 4 of the Financial Statements on page 90 of the Annual Report. The Company’s costs remain competitive for an actively managed multi-manager global equity strategy.

Maintaining a stable discount¹

One of the Company’s strategic objectives is to maintain a stable share price discount to NAV. The Company has the authority to buy back its own shares in the market if the discount is widening and to hold these shares in Treasury.

During the year under review, the Company’s share price traded at an average discount of 4.7% (2023: 6.0%). As at 31 December 2024, the Company’s share price discount was 4.7% (2023: 5.4%). The average discount (unweighted) for the AIC Global Sector was 7.9%.

Share issuance and buybacks

As a result of the combination with Witan, 120,949,382 new ordinary shares were issued for assets valued at £1.5bn implying an effective issue price of £12.7459246 per share.

The Company bought back 1.2%* (2023: 3.0%) of its issued share capital during the year, purchasing 4,722,000 shares which were placed in Treasury. The total cost of the share buybacks was £57.0m (2023: £86.6m). The weighted average discount of shares bought back in the year was 5.7%. Share buybacks contributed a total of 0.1% to the Company’s NAV performance in the year.

1. Alternative Performance Measure – see page 116 of the Annual Report for details.
* Percentage based on the Company’s issued share capital (excluding shares held in Treasury) as at 31 December 2024.

What We Do

How WTW manages the portfolio

WTW as Investment Manager has overall responsibility for managing the Company’s portfolio. It is the Investment Manager’s job to select a diverse team of expert Stock Pickers, each of whom invest in a customised selection of 10-20 of their ‘best ideas’. WTW then allocates capital to them, relative to the risks the Stock Picker represents. For example, small-cap stocks are typically more risky than large-cap stocks, so on average a small-cap specialist would tend to receive less capital than a Stock Picker who focuses on large-cap stocks. However, the allocations do not remain static; WTW keeps them under constant review and varies them over time according to market conditions, with the goal of keeping our exposures to different parts of global stocks markets well balanced.

Stock Pickers are encouraged to ignore the benchmark and only buy a small number of stocks in which they have strong conviction, while WTW manages risk through the Stock Picker allocations. On their own, each of the Stock Picker’s high-conviction mandates has the potential to perform well. This is supported by WTW’s experience of managing high-conviction portfolios and academic evidence¹. But concentrated selections of stocks can be volatile and risky, so WTW mitigates these dangers by blending Stock Pickers with complementary investment approaches or styles, which can be expected to perform differently in different market conditions. This smooths out the peaks and troughs of performance associated with concentrated single-manager strategies.

Several of the Stock Pickers in the current portfolio have been with the Investment Manager since inception of the multi-manager strategy, though it does actively monitor and rearrange the line-up where necessary.

WTW invests a lot of time and effort on identifying skilled Stock Pickers for the Company’s portfolio, undertaking extensive qualitative and quantitative analysis. This due diligence process focuses on:

The investment processes, resources and decision-making that make up the Stock Picker’s competitive advantage;
The culture and alignment of the organisation that leads to sustainability of that competitive advantage;
Their approach to responsible investment. WTW aims to appoint Stock Pickers who actively engage with the companies in which they invest and have an effective voting policy. When necessary, they challenge the Stock Pickers and guide them towards better practices; and
The operational infrastructure that minimises risk from a compliance, regulatory and operational perspective.

1. Sebastian & Attaluri, Conviction in Equity Investing, The Journal of Portfolio Management, Summer 2014.

The Investment Manager’s views are formed over extended periods from multiple interactions with the Managers, including regular meetings. They look beyond past performance numbers to try to understand the ‘competitive edge’. This involves examining and interrogating processes for selecting stocks, adherence to this process through different market conditions, team dynamics, training and experience. Performance track records are just a single data point, and, without the context of the additional information, they are unlikely to persuade WTW that a Stock Picker is skilled.

Once selected, the Investment Manager tends to form long-term partnerships with the Stock Pickers, generally only taking them out of the portfolio if something fundamental changes, such as the departure of a key individual from the business or a change in business strategy or fortunes. With highly active, concentrated portfolios, periods of short-term underperformance are to be expected and are not a reason to doubt a Stock Picker if they are adhering to their philosophy and process. WTW does, however, keep a constant eye out for talent and may bring new Managers into the portfolio at the expense of an incumbent if they are a better fit.

Responsible investment

WTW believes that Environmental, Social and Governance (‘ESG’) factors have the potential to impact financial risk and return. As long-term investors, WTW aims to incorporate these factors into its investment process.

As stewards of the Company’s assets, WTW seeks to integrate responsible investment into its process for managing the portfolio. ESG factors can influence returns, so these risk factors are taken into account in WTW’s investment processes, including assessing how Managers evaluate ESG risk in their decisions over what stocks to purchase. Climate change poses potential significant risks to investment returns from many companies, which is why both WTW and the Company have stated an intention to manage the assets with a goal of achieving Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions from the portfolio by 2050, with an interim intention of reducing portfolio emissions by approximately 50% by 2030, relative to 2019.

In 2024, we saw an increase in the portfolio’s weighted average carbon intensity (which measures carbon emissions as a proportion of revenue) from 71.9tCO2e/$M sales to 117. 9tCO2e/$M sales. Over the year, some higher-emitting stocks came into the portfolio including, industrial company Alaska Air and materials company Alcoa Ord, and our allocation to the higher-emitting Utilities sector went up slightly with purchases of companies such as Southern Ord and American Electric Power. We are monitoring our progress against our Net Zero goal, and our Managers and EOS at Federated Hermes (‘EOS’) continue to engage with the companies in the portfolio on climate related issues.

Progress towards Net Zero will not be linear. Emissions from the portfolio are dependent on holdings, which can change from year to year as WTW’s Stock Pickers seek value for investors. If companies are perceived as being at higher financial risk by being slow to adapt to a Net Zero world, we expect to use stewardship, such as voting and engagement, to encourage positive changes to business practices. WTW believes this is preferable to excluding companies from the portfolio, since exclusion merely passes the responsibility of ownership to other investors who may be less scrupulous about adherence to ESG standards or regulation.

As well as engaging with companies on climate change, WTW’s Stock Pickers, together with stewardship provider EOS, focused on a wide range of other issues last year.

Overall, EOS engaged with 97 companies in the portfolio on 515 issues and objectives throughout the year. Key areas of engagement included board effectiveness, climate change, human and labour rights and human capital, biodiversity, digital rights and AI. Of these engagements, the environmental category accounted for 29% of the total number of engagements, with 63% of environmental engagements relating to climate change. Meanwhile the Stock Pickers cast votes at 3,346 resolutions in 2024. Of these resolutions, they voted against company management on 386 and abstained from voting on 38 occasions.

How We Manage Our Risks

In order to monitor and manage risks facing the Company, the Board maintains and regularly reviews a risk register and heat map. The risk register details all principal and emerging risks thought to face the Company at any given time. The principal risks facing the Company, as determined by the Board, are Investment, Operational and Legal and Regulatory Non-Compliance.

As part of its review process, the Board considers input on the principal and emerging risks facing the Company from its key service providers WTW and Juniper. Any risks and their associated risk ratings are then discussed, and the risk register and heat map updated accordingly, with additional measures put in place to monitor, manage and mitigate risks as required. During the period the Board carefully reviewed the risks associated with the implementation of the combination and the post transaction integration risks.

Principal risks

The principal risks facing the Company, how they have changed during the year and how the Board aims to monitor and manage these risks are detailed below.

Risk and potential impact	Risk rating	How we monitor and manage the risk
Market risk: loss on the portfolio in absolute terms, caused by economic and political events, interest rate movements and fluctuation in foreign exchange rates.	Increased due to geopolitical and macro-economic uncertainty	The Board sets investment guidelines and the Investment Manager selects Stock Pickers and styles to provide diversification within the portfolio. The Board receives regular updates from the Investment Manager and monitors adverse movements and impacts on the portfolio. An explanation of the different components of market risk and how they are individually managed is contained in note 18 to the Financial Statements.
Investment performance: relative underperformance makes the Company an unattractive investment proposition.	Stable	The Company’s investment performance against its investment objective, relevant benchmark and closed and open ended peer group are reviewed and challenged where appropriate by the Board at every Board meeting. The Board receives regular reporting from the Investment Manager to allow it to review the approach to ESG and climate risk factors embedded within the investment process from the Company’s perspective.
Strategy and market rating: demand for the Company’s shares decreases due to changes in demand for the Company’s strategy or secular changes in investor demand.	Stable	The Board regularly reviews the share register and receives feedback from the Investment Manager and broker on all marketing and investor relations and shareholder meetings, to keep informed of investor sentiment and how the Company is perceived in the market. The Board monitors the Company’s share price discount and, working with the broker undertakes periodic share buybacks as appropriate to meet its strategic objective of maintaining a stable discount. The proposed combination with Witan and the benefits to ongoing investors in terms of scale and investor proposition were reviewed and thoroughly considered to ensure the enlarged Company would be an attractive proposition for both current and prospective shareholders.
Capital structure and financial risk: inappropriate capital or gearing structure may result in losses for the Company.	Stable	The Board receives regular updates on the capital structure of the Company including share capital, borrowings, structure of reserves, compliance with ongoing covenants and shareholder authorities, to allow ongoing monitoring of the appropriate structure. The Board reviews and manages the borrowing limits under which the Investment Manager operates. As part of the Witan combination, additional borrowing was novated to the Company. These additional facilities provide an increased blend of interest rates and maturity dates. Shareholder authority is sought annually in relation to share issuance and buybacks to facilitate ongoing management of the share capital.
Operational
All of the Company’s operations are outsourced to third party service providers. Any failure in the operational controls of the Company’s service providers could result in financial, legal or regulatory and reputational damage for the Company. Operational risks include cyber security, IT systems failure, inadequacy of oversight and control, climate risk and ineffective disaster recovery planning.	Stable	The Board monitors the services provided by the key services suppliers and formally reviews the performance of each on an annual basis, including the review of audited internal control reports where appropriate. No material issues were raised as part of the evaluation process in 2024. Cyber security continues to be a key focus for the Board. Reports on the cyber security, IT testing environment and disaster recovery testing of each key service provider are reviewed by the Board annually. Any breaches in controls which have resulted in errors or incidents are required to be immediately notified to the Board along with proposed remediation actions.
Legal and regulatory
Failure to adhere to all legal and regulatory requirements could lead to financial and legal penalties, reputational damage and potential loss of investment trust status.	Stable	The Board has contracted with its key service suppliers, including the Investment Manager and Juniper, in relation to its ongoing legal and regulatory compliance. The Board receives quarterly reports from each supplier to monitor ongoing compliance. The Company has complied with all legal and regulatory requirements in 2024. Any breaches in controls which have resulted in errors or incidents are required to be immediately notified to the Board, along with proposed remediation actions. The review of the Annual Report by the independent auditors provides additional assurance that the Company has met all legal and regulatory requirements in respect of those disclosures.

Emerging risks

Emerging risks are typified by having a high degree of uncertainty and may result from sudden events, new potential trends or changing specific risks where the impact and probable effect is hard to assess. As the assessment becomes clearer, the risk may be added to the risk matrix of ‘known’ risks.

The Board is currently monitoring a number of emerging risks: geopolitical tension continues to be an emerging risk for the Company due to ongoing conflicts across the world. Along with increased populism and nationalism, these risks may impact individual economies and global markets. Although covered in the operational risk section above, the Board recognises the increased risk that cybercrime and the misuse of AI poses to the Company.

Geopolitical events such as the conflicts in the Middle East region, coupled with the potential breakdown of post war alliances and potential new trade tariffs and changes to US economic and international policies introduced by President Trump, could bring uncertainty and fragility to capital markets in 2025, including persistent or reacceleration of inflationary pressures.

Stakeholder Engagement – Section 172 Statement

The Directors have a number of obligations including those under section 172 of the Companies Act 2006. These obligations relate to how the Board takes account of various factors in making its decisions – including the impact of its decisions on key stakeholders. The Board is focused on the Company’s performance and its responsibilities to stakeholders, corporate culture and diversity, as well as its contributions to wider society, and it takes account of stakeholder interests when making decisions on behalf of the Company.

As an externally-managed investment trust, the Board considers the Company’s key stakeholders to be existing and potential new shareholders and its service providers.

Full details on the primary ways in which the Board engaged with the Company’s key stakeholders can be found on pages 30 to 35 of the Annual Report.

Dean Buckley
Chair
6 March 2025

Viability and Going Concern Statements

Viability Statement

The Board has assessed the prospects and viability of the Company beyond the 12 months required by the Going Concern accounting provisions.

The Board considered the current position of the Company and its prospects, strategy and planning process as well as its principal and emerging risks in the current, medium and long term, as set out on pages 27 to 29 of the Annual Report. After the year-end but prior to approval of these Accounts, the Board reviewed its performance against its strategic objectives and its management of the principal and emerging risks facing the Company.

The Board received regular updates on performance and other factors that could impact on the viability of the Company.

The Board has concluded that there is a reasonable expectation that the Company will be able to continue in operation and meet its liabilities as they fall due for at least the next five years; the Board expects this position to continue over many more years to come. The Company’s Investment Objective, which was approved by shareholders in April 2019, is to deliver a real return over the long term, through a combination of capital growth and a rising dividend, and the Board regards the Company’s shares as a long-term investment. The Board believes that a period of five years is considered a reasonable period for investment in equities and is appropriate for the composition of the Company’s portfolio.

In arriving at this conclusion, the Board considered:

Financial strength: As at 31 December 2024 the Company had total assets of £5.6bn, with net gearing of 4.9% and gross gearing of 8.4%. At the year-end the Company had £182.7m of cash or cash equivalents.
Investment: The portfolio is invested in listed equities across the globe. The portfolio is structured for long-term performance; the Board considers five years as being an appropriate period over which to measure performance.
Liquidity: The Company is closed-ended, which means that there is no requirement to realise investments to allow shareholders to sell their shares. The Directors consider this structure supports the long-term viability and sustainability of the Company, and have assumed that shareholders will continue to be attracted to the closed-ended structure due to its liquidity benefit. During the year, WTW carried out a liquidity analysis and stress test which indicated that around 93% of the Company’s portfolio could be sold within a single day and a further 6% within 10 days, without materially influencing market pricing. WTW performs liquidity analysis and stress testing on the Company’s portfolio of investments on an ongoing basis under both current and stressed conditions. WTW remains comfortable with the liquidity of the portfolio under both of these market conditions. The Board would not expect this position to materially alter in the future.
Dividends: The Company has significant accumulated distributable reserves which together with investment income can be used to support payment of the Company’s dividend. The Board regularly reviews revenue forecasts and considers the long-term sustainability of dividends under a variety of different scenarios. The Company has sufficient funds to meet its Dividend Policy commitments.
Reserves: The Company has large reserves (at 31 December 2024 it had £3.7bn of distributable reserves and £1.5bn of other reserves).
Discount: The Company has no fixed discount control policy. The Company will continue to buy back shares when the Board considers it appropriate, to take advantage of any significant widening of the discount and to produce NAV accretion for shareholders.
Significant Risks: The Company has a risk and control framework which includes a number of triggers which, if breached, would alert the Board to any potential adverse scenarios. The Board has developed and reviewed various scenarios based on potentially adverse events as set out in note 18 on pages 100 to 107 of the Annual Report.
Borrowing: In consideration of the combination with Witan, the Company’s borrowing facilities were reviewed to ensure they remained appropriate. The Company’s available bank borrowing facilities were consequently increased by £50m; and £155m of fixed rate loan notes were novated from Witan as part of the combination. The Company’s weighted average borrowings costs have reduced by 0.3%. All borrowings are secured by floating charges over the assets of the Company. The Company comfortably meets its banking covenants.
Security: The Company retains title to all assets held by the Custodian which are subject to further safeguards imposed on the Depositary.
Operations: Throughout the year under review, the Company’s key service providers continued to operate in line with service level agreements with no significant errors or breaches having been recorded.

Going Concern Statement

In view of the conclusions drawn in the foregoing Viability Statements, which considered the resources of the Company over the next 12 months and beyond, the Directors believe that the Company has adequate financial resources to continue in existence for at least the period to 31 March 2026. Therefore, the Directors believe that it is appropriate to continue to adopt the Going Concern basis in preparing the financial statements.

Directors’ Responsibilities

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the Financial Statements in accordance with UK-adopted international accounting standards and applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the Directors to prepare Financial Statements for each financial year. Under that law the Directors are required to prepare the Financial Statements in accordance with UK-adopted international accounting standards. Under company law the Directors must not approve the Financial Statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company and of the profit or loss for that period.

In preparing these Financial Statements, the Directors are required to:

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
Make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
State whether they have been prepared in accordance with UK-adopted International Accounting Standards, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the Financial Statements;
Prepare the Financial Statements on the Going Concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Company will continue in business; and
Prepare a Directors’ Report, a Strategic Report and Directors’ Remuneration Report which comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

The Directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company’s transactions, and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and enable them to ensure that the Financial Statements comply with the Companies Act 2006.

They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. The Directors are responsible for ensuring that the Annual Report and Financial Statements, taken as a whole, are fair, balanced and understandable and provides the information necessary for shareholders to assess the Company’s position, performance, business model and strategy.

Website publication

The Directors are responsible for ensuring the Annual Report and the Financial Statements are made available on a website. Financial Statements are published on the Company’s website in accordance with legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of Financial Statements, which may vary from legislation in other jurisdictions. The maintenance and integrity of the Company’s website is the responsibility of the Directors. The Directors’ responsibility also extends to the ongoing integrity of the Financial Statements contained therein.

Report of Directors and Responsibility Statement

The Report of the Directors on pages 36 to 69 of the Annual Report (other than pages 61 to 63 which form part of the Strategic Report) of the Annual Report and Accounts has been approved by the Board. The Directors have chosen to include information relating to future development of the Company and relationships with suppliers, customers and others, and their impact on the Board’s decisions on pages 30 to 35 of the Annual Report.

Each of the Directors, who are listed on pages 37 to 40 of the Annual Report, confirm to the best of their knowledge that:

The Financial Statements, prepared in accordance with the applicable set of UK adopted International Accounting Standards, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the Company;
The Annual Report includes a fair view of the development and performance of the business and the position of the Company, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties that the Company faces; and
In the opinion of the Board, the Annual Report and Financial Statements taken as a whole, are fair, balanced and understandable and provides the information necessary to assess the Company’s position, performance, business model and strategy.

On behalf of the Board

Dean Buckley

Chair

6 March 2025

Statement of Comprehensive Income for the year ended 31 December 2024
	Year to 31 December 2024				Year to 31 December 2023
	Revenue	Capital		Total	Revenue	Capital	Total
£000
Income	72,463	354		72,817	69,591	1,678	71,269
Gains on investments held at fair value through profit or loss	–	449,551		449,551	–	578,715	578,715
Losses on derivatives	–	(206)		(206)	–	–	–
Gains/(losses) on fair value of debt	–	16,708		16,708	–	(11,371)	(11,371)
Total	72,463	466,407		538,870	69,591	569,022	638,613
Investment management fees	(5,381)	(13,058)		(18,439)	(5,074)	(11,228)	(16,302)
Administrative expenses	(3,661)	(281)		(3,942)	(2,558)	(344)	(2,902)
Finance costs	(3,221)	(9,662)		(12,883)	(2,380)	(7,141)	(9,521)
Foreign exchange losses	–	(1,010)		(1,010)	–	(3,737)	(3,737)
Profit before tax	60,200	442,396		502,596	59,579	546,572	606,151
Taxation	(6,545)	(5,348)		(11,893)	(6,231)	(251)	(6,482)
Profit for the year	53,655	437,048		490,703	53,348	546,321	599,669
All profit for the year is attributable to equity holders.

Earnings per share (pence per share)	17.30		140.95	158.25	18.55	189.98	208.53

All revenue and capital items in the above statement derive from continuing operations.

The ‘Total’ column of this statement is the profit and loss account of the Company and the ‘Revenue’ and ‘Capital’ columns represent supplementary information prepared under guidance issued by the Association of Investment Companies. The Company does not have any other comprehensive income and hence profit for the year, as disclosed above, is the same as the Company’s total comprehensive income.

Statement of Changes in Equity for the year ended 31 December 2024
				Distributable reserves
£000	Share capital	Share premium account	Capital redemption reserve	Realised capital reserve	Unrealised capital reserve	Revenue reserve	Total distributable reserves	Total equity

At 1 January 2023	7,314	–	11,684	2,669,933	103,754	102,334	2,876,021	2,895,019
Total comprehensive income:
Profit for the year	–	–	–	75,430	470,891	53,348	599,669	599,669
Transactions with owners, recorded directly to equity:
Ordinary dividends paid	–	–	–	–	–	(71,378)	(71,378)	(71,378)
Unclaimed dividends returned	–	–	–	–	–	14	14	14
Own shares purchased	(208)	–	208	(86,636)	–	–	(86,636)	(86,636)
Balance at 31 December 2023	7,106	–	11,892	2,658,727	574,645	84,318	3,317,690	3,336,688
Total comprehensive income:
Profit for the year	–	–	–	458,122	(21,074)	53,655	490,703	490,703
Transactions with owners, recorded directly to equity:
Issue of ordinary shares in respect of the combination with Witan	3,024	1,535,877	–	–	–	–	–	1,538,901
Costs in relation to the combination	–	(4,947)	–	–	–	–	–	(4,947)
Ordinary dividends paid	–	–	–	–	–	(82,414)	(82,414)	(82,414)
Unclaimed dividends returned	–	–	–	–	–	9	9	9
Own shares purchased	–	–	–	(56,987)	–	–	(56,987)	(56,987)
Balance at 31 December 2024	10,130	1,530,930	11,892	3,059,862	553,571	55,568	3,669,001	5,221,953

The £553.6m (2023: £574.6m) of unrealised capital reserve arising on the revaluation of investments is subject to fair value movements and may not be readily realisable at short notice, as such it may not be entirely distributable. The unrealised capital reserve includes unrealised gains on borrowings of £22.8m (2023: £5.5m) and gains on unquoted investments of £3.5m (2023: £nil) which are not distributable.

Balance Sheet as at 31 December 2024
	2024	2023
£000
Non-current assets
Investments held at fair value through profit or loss	5,402,381	3,482,329
	5,402,381	3,482,329
Current assets
Outstanding settlements and other receivables	11,282	9,321
Cash and cash equivalents	182,725	84,974
	194,007	94,295
Total assets	5,596,388	3,576,624
Current liabilities
Outstanding settlements and other payables	(13,057)	(9,792)
Bank loans	(45,245)	–
	(58,302)	(9,792)

Total assets less current liabilities	5,538,086	3,566,832

Non-current liabilities
Fixed rate loan notes held at fair value	(299,276)	(215,144)
Bank loans	(15,000)	(15,000)
Deferred tax provision	(1,857)	–
	(316,133)	(230,144)
Net assets	5,221,953	3,336,688

Equity
Share capital	10,130	7,106
Share premium account	1,530,930	–
Capital redemption reserve	11,892	11,892
Capital reserve	3,613,433	3,233,372
Revenue reserve	55,568	84,318
Total equity	5,221,953	3,336,688
All net assets are attributable to equity holders.

Net asset value per ordinary share attributable to equity holders (£)	£13.05		£11.75

The Financial Statements were approved by the Board of Directors and authorised for issue on 6 March 2025.

They were signed on its behalf by:

Jo Dixon
Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee

Cash Flow Statement for the year ended 31 December 2024
	2024	2023
£000
Cash flows from operating activities
Profit before tax	502,596	606,151

Adjustments for:
Gains on investments	(449,551)	(578,715)
Losses on derivatives	206	–
(Gains)/losses on fair value of debt	(16,708)	11,371
Foreign exchange losses	1,010	3,737
Finance costs	12,883	9,521
Operating cash flows before movements in working capital	50,436	52,065
(Increase)/decrease in receivables	(2,274)	1,599
Decrease in payables	(43)	(36)
Net cash inflow from operating activities before tax	48,119	53,628
Taxes paid	(10,701)	(6,654)
Net cash inflow from operating activities	37,418	46,974

Cash flows from investing activities
Proceeds on disposal of investments	4,697,547	1,600,165
Purchases of investments	(4,702,449)	(1,489,643)
Settlement of derivative financial instruments	(206)	–
Net cash (outflow)/inflow from investing activities	(5,108)	110,522
Net cash inflow before financing	32,310	157,496

Cash flows from financing activities
Dividends paid – equity	(82,414)	(71,378)
Unclaimed dividends returned	9	14
Net cash acquired following the combination with Witan	177,581	–
Costs paid in relation to the combination with Witan	(4,947)	–
Purchase of own shares	(56,987)	(88,060)
Repayment of bank debt	(59,000)	(63,500)
Drawdown of bank debt	104,874	15,000
Issue of loan notes	–	60,632
Finance costs paid	(12,033)	(10,357)
Net cash inflow/(outflow) from financing activities	67,083	(157,649)

Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents	99,393	(153)
Cash and cash equivalents at the start of the year	84,974	88,864
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes	(1,642)	(3,737)
Cash and cash equivalents at end of the year	182,725	84,974

The financial information set out above does not constitute the Company’s statutory Financial Statements for the years ended 31 December 2024 or 2023, but is derived from those Financial Statements. Statutory accounts for 2023 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and those for 2024 will be delivered following the Company’s Annual General Meeting. The auditors have reported on those accounts; their reports were unqualified, did not draw attention to any matters by way of emphasis without qualifying their report and did not contain statements under s498(2) or (3) Companies Act 2006.

The same accounting policies, presentations and methods of computation are followed in these Financial Statements as were applied in the Company’s last annual audited Financial Statements, other than those stated in the Annual Report.

Basis of accounting

The Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with UK-adopted international accounting standards (‘IASs’).

The Financial Statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis, except that investments and fixed rate notes are stated at fair value through the profit and loss. The Association of Investment Companies (‘AIC’) issued a Statement of Recommended Practice: Financial Statements of Investment Companies (‘AIC SORP’) in July 2022. The Directors have sought to prepare the Financial Statements in accordance with the AIC SORP where the recommendations are consistent with International Financial Reporting Standards (‘IFRS’). The Company qualifies as an investment entity.

1. Income
An analysis of the Company’s revenue is as follows:

£000	2024	2023
Revenue:
Income from investments
Listed dividends – UK	10,125	12,836
Listed dividends – Overseas	60,838	55,761
	70,963	68,597
Other income
Bank interest	1,475	987
Other income	25	7
	1,500	994
Total allocated to revenue	72,463	69,591

Capital:
Income from investments
Listed dividends – UK	23	–
Listed dividends – Overseas	331	1,678
Total allocated to capital	354	1,678
Total income	72,817	71,269

2. Dividends
Dividends paid during the year

£000	2024	2023
2022 fourth interim dividend 6.00p per share	–	17,498
2023 first interim dividend 6.18p per share	–	17,849
2023 second interim dividend 6.34p per share	–	18,028
2023 third interim dividend 6.34p per share	–	18,003
2023 fourth interim dividend 6.34p per share	18,003	–
2024 first interim dividend 6.62p per share	18,799	–
2024 second interim dividend 6.62p per share	18,676	–
2024 third interim dividend 6.73p per share	26,936	–
	82,414	71,378

Dividends payable for the year We also set out below the total dividend payable in respect of the financial year, which is the basis on which the requirements of Section 1158/1159 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 are considered.
£000	2024	2023
2023 first interim dividend 6.18p per share	–	17,849
2023 second interim dividend 6.34p per share	–	18,028
2023 third interim dividend 6.34p per share	–	18,003
2023 fourth interim dividend 6.34p per share	–	18,003
2024 first interim dividend 6.62p per share	18,799	–
2024 second interim dividend 6.62p per share	18,676	–
2024 third interim dividend 6.73p per share	26,936	–
2024 fourth interim dividend 6.73p per share, payable 31 March 2025	26,933	–
	91,344	71,883

3. Earnings per share
The calculation of earnings per share is based on the following data:

	2024			2023
£000	Revenue	Capital	Total	Revenue	Capital	Total
Ordinary shares
Earnings for the purpose of earnings per share being net profit attributable to equity holders	53,655	437,048	490,703	53,348	546,321	599,669

Number of shares
Weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year		310,079,630			287,573,436

The Company has no securities in issue that could dilute the return per ordinary share. Therefore the basic and diluted earnings per ordinary share are the same.

4. Related party transactions

There are amounts of £1,222 (2023: £1,222) and £34,225 (2023: £34,225) owed to AT2006 and The Second Alliance Trust Limited, respectively, at year-end.

There are no other related parties other than those noted below.

Transactions with key management personnel

Details of the Non-Executive Directors are disclosed on pages 37 to 40 of the Annual Report.

For the purpose of IAS 24 ‘Related Party Disclosures’, key management personnel comprised the Non-Executive Directors of the Company.

Details of remuneration are disclosed in the Remuneration Report on pages 55 to 60 of the Annual Report.

£000	2024	2023
Total emoluments	337	350

ANNUAL REPORT

The Annual Report will be available in due course on the Company’s website www.alliancewitan.com. It will also be made available to the public at the Company’s registered office, River Court, 5 West Victoria Dock Road, Dundee DD1 3JT and at the offices of the Company’s Registrar, Computershare Investor Services PLC, Edinburgh House, 4 North St Andrew Street, Edinburgh EH2 1HJ after publication.

In addition to the full Annual Report, up-to-date performance data, details of new initiatives and other information about the Company can be found on the Company’s website.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

This year’s AGM will be held on 1 May 2025 at 11.00 a.m. at the Apex City Quay Hotel & Spa, 1 West Victoria Dock Road, Dundee DD1 3JP.

The Board remains committed to maintaining a physical AGM, with shareholders and Directors present in person. However, the AGM will also be streamed live to shareholders. A web link will be provided for those shareholders wishing to join the AGM via the live stream. Information on how to obtain the link will be published on the Company’s website in due course.

The MIL Network –

March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI: Šiaulių Bankas Announces Strategic Rebranding Proposal: Change to Artea Bankas

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

The Management Board of Šiaulių Bankas has submitted a draft decision to approve a new version of the Articles of Association of Šiaulių Bankas, which, among other things, proposes the change of the bank’s name to Artea Bankas, to the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders to be held on 31 March 2025.

If approved by the General Meeting of Shareholders, the Articles of Association will be deemed to be amended as of the date of registration of the new version in the Register of Legal Entities of Lithuania – expected by this summer.

“For more than three decades, we have been a trusted financial partner to a large number of Lithuanian businesses and residents. We have grown rapidly both in terms of business volume and competences. The rebranding is a strategic initiative – part of the fundamental transformation of the bank that we have announced last year,” says Vytautas Sinius, CEO of Šiaulių Bankas.

Artea, our new brand, reinforces our dedication to the Lithuanian people, their needs, and their goals, aiming to become the top choice for residents and businesses.

“As a Lithuanian bank, we are already more accessible, flexible, and expert, enabling us to make decisions faster to better meet the expectations of residents and businesses and to make a more significant contribution to the country’s prosperity. Those values remain unchanged. With our new brand we are entering a new stage of a modern bank, while maintaining our Lithuanian identity and our ambition to be closer to every person,” says V. Sinius.

The name Artea combines elements that convey the bank’s vision and commitment. It sounds like Lithuanian word, the modern outlook is expressed through the contemporary form of the word, the graphic elements of the identity and the logo, and the message encoded in the name speaks of the bank’s commitment to being closest to its customers. Take a look at the new branding here, please.

Šiaulių Bankas last year announced its updated strategy to become the best bank in Lithuania by 2029. The bank aims to significantly grow the number of both private and corporate customers and become one of the leaders in customer experience and one of the most loved brands in the Lithuanian financial sector.

In addition to the brand refresh, the bank is currently implementing a highly modern cloud-based core banking platform that will provide an even better customer experience and more efficient operations. The new banking platform is scheduled to be rolled out next year.

Šiaulių Bankas Group currently manages the bank, the asset management company SB Asset Management, the life insurance company SB draudimas and the leasing company SB lizingas. The rebranding will bring all the group’s companies together under one brand, Artea.

Šiaulių Bankas invites shareholders, investors, analysts and all interested parties to a webinar on its rebranding on 18 March 2025 at 9:00 am (EET). The webinar will be held in English. Please register here.

If you would like to receive Šiaulių Bankas’ news for investors directly to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.

Additional information:
Tomas Varenbergas
Head of Investment Management Division
tomas.varenbergas@sb.lt

The MIL Network –

March 7, 2025
MIL-OSI: Isabel Faragalli and Sergei Anikin proposed to join Inbank Supervisory Board

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

At the Annual General Meeting on 31 March 2025, the Supervisory Board of AS Inbank will propose the election of Isabel Margaret Anne Faragalli and Sergei Anikin to the Supervisory Board for a three-year term, effective 1 April 2025.

According to Jan Andresoo, Chairman of the Inbank Supervisory Board, the addition of strong finance sector and tech expertise, along with increasing the proportion of independent members, is aimed at supporting Inbank’s journey toward becoming a public company.

“As Inbank and the complexity of the business continue to grow, we need to further strengthen our governance structure which is why I’m very excited to welcome Isabel Faragalli and Sergei Anikin to the Supervisory Board. Isabel brings deep expertise in capital markets, while Sergei contributes strong leadership in technology. Together, they will help bolster and internationalize our governing bodies,” said Jan Andresoo.

“I am delighted to join the Inbank Supervisory Board. With almost 30 years of experience in the European capital markets, I have advised many European banks and consumer finance companies on their funding and growth strategy and I very much look forward to sharing such experience with Inbank and supporting them with their international expansion,” commented Isabel Faragalli.

“I am thrilled to join the Inbank Supervisory Board and collaborate with an exceptional team of professionals. In today’s world, technology is the key driver of success for any business, and I firmly believe that its strategic application can unlock new growth opportunities. My passion lies in leveraging technology to drive business transformation, and I look forward to helping Inbank scale its operations, expand internationally, and strengthen its position as a leader in financial technology,” said Sergei Anikin.

The Inbank Supervisory Board will consist of seven members, including Jan Andresoo, Roberto de Silvestri, Triinu Bucheton, Raino Paron, and Erkki Raasuke, alongside the newly proposed members Isabel Faragalli and Sergei Anikin.

Isabel Faragalli and Sergei Anikin do not hold Inbank shares.

Isabel Margaret Anne Faragalli brings extensive experience in investment banking, asset management, and structured finance, having held senior leadership roles across global financial institutions. She currently serves as Head of Investments Europe at Spectrum Principal Asset Management, where she leads investment strategy, asset origination, and business development across Europe. Previously, she spent over six years at Credit Suisse, driving capital market solutions and credit structuring within the Debt Capital Markets division, working with large European corporates and banks. Her career spans over two decades in leading financial firms, including EFG Bank, Swiss Re, Man Investments, and Credit Suisse First Boston, specializing in capital markets, investment consulting, and structured credit solutions. Isabel holds an MSc in Finance & Financial Law from the University of London and is a qualified English lawyer (non-practicing). Fluent in English, German, Italian, and Spanish, she also lectures at Hochschule Luzern’s MBA programs.

Sergei Anikin is a seasoned technology leader, angel investor, and board member with extensive experience in scaling startups, fostering innovation, and driving business growth. He is currently the Chairman of the Board at Bisly and Katana MRP, as well as an active investor and advisor focused on SaaS, deep tech, and company scaling. Previously, he served as Chief Technology Officer at Pipedrive, where he played a pivotal role in scaling the company from a 20-person startup to its acquisition by Vista Equity Partners, growing the engineering team from 10 to over 400 professionals and increasing annual recurring revenue from $1 million to $100 million. He has also held leadership roles at Tuum, Microsoft, Skype, and Hansabank, with expertise in software architecture, engineering management, and business transformation. Sergei holds a Master’s degree in Data Processing from TalTech and is known for his ability to align technology with business goals, making him a key player in driving innovation and scaling businesses globally.

Inbank is a financial technology company with an EU banking license that connects merchants, consumers and financial institutions on its next generation embedded finance platform. Partnering with more than 6,000 merchants, Inbank has 872,000+ active contracts and collects deposits across 7 markets in Europe. Inbank bonds are listed on the Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange.

Additional information:
Styv Solovjov
AS Inbank
Head of Investor Relations
+372 5645 9738
styv.solovjov@inbank.ee

The MIL Network –

March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Result of the 14-day Variable Rate Repo (VRR) auction held on March 07, 2025

Source: Reserve Bank of India

Tenor	14-day
Notified Amount (in ₹ crore)	50,000
Total amount of bids received (in ₹ crore)	8,375
Amount allotted (in ₹ crore)	8,375
Cut off Rate (%)	6.26
Weighted Average Rate (%)	6.26
Partial Allotment Percentage of bids received at cut off rate (%)	NA

Ajit Prasad
Deputy General Manager
(Communications)

Press Release: 2024-2025/2323

MIL OSI Economics –

March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI USA: Lummis: Trump Executive Order Creating Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is a Huge Victory for America’s Financial Future

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Wyoming Cynthia Lummis

March 7, 2025

Washington, D.C. —U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets Chair, issued the following statement after President Trump issued a historic executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve:
“President Trump promised to lead the most pro-digital asset administration in U.S. history, and today he is fulfilling that promise,” said Lummis. “By embracing bitcoin as a strategic asset, President Trump has charted a path to addressing our national debt and securing America’s position as the world leader in financial innovation. The American people will look back on this decision as the moment we reclaimed our financial future, and I look forward to partnering with President Trump to get this across the finish line.”

MIL OSI USA News –

March 7, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Announcement on Open Market Operations No.45 [2025]

Source: Peoples Bank of China

Announcement on Open Market Operations No.45 [2025]

(Open Market Operations Office, March 7, 2025)

In order to keep the liquidity adequate in the banking system, the People’s Bank of China conducted reverse repo operations in the amount of RMB185 billion through quantity bidding at a fixed interest rate on March 7, 2025.

Details of the Reverse Repo Operations

Maturity

Volume

Rate

7 days

RMB185 billion

1.50%

Date of last update Nov. 29 2018

2025年03月07日

MIL OSI China News –

March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Result of the Daily Variable Rate Repo (VRR) auction held on March 07, 2025

Source: Reserve Bank of India

Tenor	3-day
Notified Amount (in ₹ crore)	25,000
Total amount of bids received (in ₹ crore)	3,970
Amount allotted (in ₹ crore)	3,970
Cut off Rate (%)	6.26
Weighted Average Rate (%)	6.26
Partial Allotment Percentage of bids received at cut off rate (%)	N.A.

Ajit Prasad
Deputy General Manager
(Communications)

Press Release: 2024-2025/2322

MIL OSI Economics –

March 7, 2025

MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Workshop held to equip prosecutors combat corruption and money laundering
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

World news story

Workshop held to equip prosecutors combat corruption and money laundering

A 3-day workshop on enhancing use of financial intelligence tools in equipping prosecutors for combating corruption and money laundering concluded successfully in Honiara last month.
Group photo of the participants with Deputy High Commissioner Emma Davis.

The workshop aimed to address specific, demand-driven needs of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Solomon Islands by providing a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical mentoring.

Supported by the UK government, the workshop aimed to address the specific, demand-driven needs of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Solomon Islands by providing a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical, hands-on mentoring.

It focused on enhancing the use of financial intelligence tools to better equip prosecutors in their efforts to combat corruption and money laundering.

British Deputy High Commissioner to Solomon Islands and Nauru, Emma Davis opened the workshop on Monday 24 February saying:

As prosecutors you are key and must be professional and competent and for corruption cases this is essential. Prosecutors often come under closer scrutiny, and it is important that you operate with integrity, fairness, be accountable for your actions and have an open mind.

The challenge is immense. Corruption and money laundering are not just financial crimes; they are threats to stability, economic development, and public trust. Those who engage in these illicit activities seek to exploit vulnerabilities, obscure illicit gains, and undermine justice. As prosecutors, your role is pivotal in ensuring that these crimes are detected, investigated, and prosecuted effectively.

Workshop outcomes include knowledge sharing, exchange of experiences, sharing of best practices based on the knowledge products developed under the previous phases of the Pacific Anti-Corruption project, and adopting innovative approaches to tackling corruption among Pacific integrity institutions.

Capacity-building was among the workshop outcomes in terms of strengthening the technical and operational capabilities of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Solomon Islands to be able to effectively and efficiently prioritise and prosecute corruption and money laundering cases.

Partnerships were also fostered because of the workshop, enhancing regional collaboration and solidarity among key integrity institutions including financial intelligence units and prosecutorial agencies.

Staff of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Solomon Islands including resource personnel from the Central Bank of Solomon Islands Financial Intelligence Unit and UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji took part in the three-day workshop.

The Anti-Corruption Project is a UNDP initiative funded by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and seeks to strengthen whole-of-society commitment to addressing corruption through increased support from officials, communities and civil society for tackling corruption and by strengthening national policy frameworks, institutions, processes and capacities to prevent and address the effects of corruption across multiple sectors.

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Updates to this page

Published 7 March 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
March 7, 2025

Maturity	Volume	Rate
7 days	RMB185 billion	1.50%

Category: Banking

Interview with Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Patricia Hecht and Beate Willms on 5 February 2025

Interview with Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Patricia Hecht and Beate Willms on 5 February 2025

Headquarters

Improvements required by APRA-regulated entities to make changes 5 min read

Workshop held to equip prosecutors combat corruption and money laundering

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