Annual General Meeting: Decisions Approved

11 June 2001

The 71st Annual General Meeting of the Bank for International Settlements was held in Basel today, 11 June 2001, 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 2001, totalling 76,054.0 million 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 271.7 million gold francs after deduction of costs of administration.

On the recommendation of the Board of Directors, the Meeting decided to distribute a dividend of 360 Swiss francs per share in respect of the financial year ended 31 March 2001. The dividend will be payable on 1 July 2001 to shareholders whose names are registered in the books of the Bank on 20 June 2001. As shown in the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss Account, an amount of 48.6 million gold francs has been set aside out of the net profit for this purpose.

The Meeting also decided to transfer 44.6 million gold francs to the General Reserve Fund, 3.0 million gold francs to the Special Dividend Reserve Fund and 175.5 million 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.