Annual General Meeting: Decisions Approved

The seventieth Annual General Meeting of the Bank for International Settlements was held in Basel today, 5 June 2000, under the chairmanship of Urban Bäckström, Chairman of the Board of Directors. The Meeting was attended by the Governors and other representatives of member central banks and other central banks associated with the BIS as well as representatives of many international institutions.

The Meeting received the Annual Report of the Bank, which had been distributed in the four official languages (English, French, German and Italian). It approved the audited Balance Sheet at 31 March 2000, totalling 74,835,665,711 gold francs, one gold franc being equivalent to 0.29032258... grammes of fine gold (or US$ 1.94149..., converted at US$ 208 per ounce of fine gold). The Meeting also approved the Profit and Loss Account for the financial year to that date, which showed a net profit of 307,824,257 gold francs after deduction of costs of administration.

On the recommendation of the Board of Directors, the Meeting decided to distribute a dividend of 340 Swiss francs per share in respect of the financial year ended 31 March 2000. The dividend will be payable on 1 July 2000 to shareholders whose names are registered in the books of the Bank on 20 June 2000. As shown in the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss Account, an amount of 54,658,243 gold francs has been set aside out of the net profit for this purpose.

The Meeting also decided to transfer 50,633,203 gold francs to the General Reserve Fund, 3,000,000 gold francs to the Special Dividend Reserve Fund and 199,532,811 gold francs to the Free Reserve Fund.

The members of the Board were discharged from all personal responsibility in respect of the past financial year.