Report of the statutory auditor to the General Meeting of Liechtensteinischen Landesbank Aktiengesellschaft Vaduz

Report on the audit of the financial statements

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Liechtensteinische Landesbank Aktiengesellschaft (“the Company”), which comprise the balance sheet as at 31 December 2019, the income statement for the year then ended and the notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies.

In our opinion, the financial statements (pages 219 to 241) give a true and fair view of the consolidated financial position of the Company as at 31 December 2019 and its financial performance for the year then ended in accordance with Liechtenstein law and the Company’s articles of association.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with Liechtenstein law and International Standards on Auditing (ISA). Our responsibilities under those provisions and standards are further described in the “Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements” section of our report.

We are independent of the entity in accordance with the provisions of Liechtenstein law and the requirements of the Liechtenstein audit profession, as well as the IESBA Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Our audit approach

Materiality

The scope of our audit was influenced by our application of materiality. Our audit opinion aims to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement. Misstatements may arise due to fraud or error. They are considered material if, individually or in aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of the financial statements.

On the basis of our professional judgement, we determined certain quantitative thresholds for materiality, including the overall materiality for the financial statements as a whole as set out in the table below. These, together with qualitative considerations, helped us to determine the scope of our audit and the nature, timing and extent of our audit procedures and to evaluate the effect of misstatements, both individually and in aggregate, on the financial statements as a whole.

We agreed with the Group Audit Committee that we would report to them misstatements above CHF 0.19 million identified during our audit as well as any misstatements below that amount which, in our view, warranted reporting for qualitative reasons.

Audit scope

We designed our audit by determining materiality and assessing the risks of material misstatement in the financial statements. In particular, we considered where subjective judgements were made; for example, in respect of significant accounting estimates that involved making assumptions and considering future events that are inherently uncertain. As in all of our audits, we also addressed the risk of management override of internal controls, including among other matters consideration of whether there was evidence of bias that represented a risk of material misstatement due to fraud.

Key audit matters

Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgement, were of most significance in our audit of the financial statements of the current period. These matters were addressed in the context of our audit of the financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and we do not provide a separate opinion on these matters.

Valuation of loans

Key audit matter

The Company grants loans to private individuals, corporates and public entities located mainly in Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

As at 31 December 2019, loans amount to CHF 6.7 billion (2018: CHF 6.8 billion) and thus represent the largest asset category of the Bank. Mortgage-based loans form the majority of the loan portfolio (79% of total loans). In addition, the Bank grants corporate loans and Lombard loans.

Any impairments are recognised by means of individual loss allowances. Calculating the amount of individual loss allowances requires judgement. We focussed on the following two points:

• The methods used by the Bank to identify loans in the loan portfolio that may need a loss allowance, including loans that according to the Bank’s definition show indications of impairment.
• The appropriateness and consistent application of the policies and instructions issued by Group management relating to the calculation of the amount of individual loss allowances.

The recognition and valuation principles applied to accounts receivable from customers and the methods used to identify default risk, to determine the need for impairment and to evaluate collateral are described in the management report.

Please refer to page 224 (Accounting policies and valuation principles), page 227 (Notes to the balance sheet Type of collateral).

How our audit addressed the key audit matter

We tested the adequacy and effectiveness of the following key controls relating to the valuation of accounts receivable from customers:

• Credit processing and authorisation: Sample testing of the requirements and processes set out in the Group's internal policies and working instructions in relation to credit processing. We also tested that approvals were granted at the appropriate level of authority.
• Credit monitoring (periodic reviews): Sample testing of identified loans at risk and of the calculation of the potential amount of impairment.

Where significant judgement was required, we also challenged the decisions of those authorised to approve loans with our own critical opinion as part of our substantive tests of detail. Our tests of detail covered the following:

• Sample-based testing of new business and loans at risk in the loan portfolio (including loans with individual loss allowances or indications of impairment) to evaluate whether additional loss allowances were needed.
• Sample-based testing of the method used to calculate loss allowances on the loan portfolio in terms of its appropriateness and compliance with the policies and working instructions issued by the Group.

The tests of key controls and tests of detail give us sufficient assurance to assess the valuation of the loans as adequate.

The valuation estimates made by the Bank are in line with our expectations.

Other information in the annual report

The Board of Directors is responsible for the other information in the annual report. The other information comprises all information included in the annual report except for the consolidated financial statements and the stand-alone financial statements of Liechtensteinische Landesbank Aktiengesellschaft and our auditor’s reports thereon.

Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information in the annual report and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information in the annual report and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Responsibilities of the Board of Directors for the financial statements

The Board of Directors is responsible for the preparation of the financial statements that give a true and fair view in accordance with the requirements of Liechtenstein law and the Company’s articles of incorporation, and for such internal control as the Board of Directors determines is necessary to enable the preparation of consolidated financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the Board of Directors is responsible for assessing the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Board of Directors intends either to liquidate the entity or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with Liechtenstein law and ISAs will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

As part of an audit in accordance with Liechtenstein law and ISAs, we exercise professional judgement and maintain professional
scepticism throughout the audit. We also:

• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
• Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control.
• Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made.
• Conclude on the appropriateness of the Board of Directors’ use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the entity to cease to continue as a going concern.
• Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.

We communicate with the Board of Directors and the Group Audit Committee regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.

We also provide the Board of Directors and the Group Audit Committee with a statement that we have complied with relevant ethical requirements regarding independence, and communicate to them all relationships and other matters that may reasonably be thought to bear on our independence and, where applicable, related safeguards.

From the matters communicated with the Board of Directors and the Group Audit Committee, we determine those matters that were of most significance in the audit of the financial statements of the current period and are therefore the key audit matters. We describe these matters in our auditor’s report unless law or regulation precludes public disclosure about the matter or when, in extremely rare circumstances, we determine that a matter should not be communicated in our report because the adverse consequences of doing so would reasonably be expected to outweigh the public interest benefits of such communication.

Report on other legal and regulatory requirements

The management report (page 218) as at 31 December 2019 comply with Liechtenstein law and the articles of incorporation. Further, the management report accords with the financial statements and, in our opinion, does not contain any material inaccurate information.

We further confirm that the proposed appropriation of available earnings complies with Liechtenstein law and the Company’s articles of incorporation. We recommend that the financial statements submitted to you be approved.

PricewaterhouseCoopers AG

St. Gallen, 9 March 2020