Dear Sir/Dear Madam,
During the conference call this morning on our press release of 12 October concerning the higher profit forecast and the upgrading of the Bank's computer systems, Floris Deckers, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors, promised to send you a breakdown showing the costs and savings from the upgrading activities for the next few years. The breakdown is enclosed with this letter and is also being sent to the analysts who were unable to attend the conference call.
Three comments are in order:
1. The impact on the profit and loss account is the effect of the project on the operating profit before taxation.
2. The total costs are stated as € 56.6 million, which is less than the € 61 million (€32 million plus € 29 million) mentioned in the press release. There are two reasons for this.
A. The amounts in the breakdown are indexed for inflation (upward effect).
B. The figure of € 61 million includes all internal staff costs. The figure of € 56.6 million includes only internal staff costs that are reported as additional costs in the profit and loss account (downward effect).
3. The breakdown shows only the costs incurred for the programme less the savings to be realised. For the record, we also expect the programme to generate significant benefits in the form of new clients and a higher cross-sales ratio. For reasons of prudence, we have not included these benefits in the breakdown.
Yours faithfully,
Arno Barens
Corporate Communications Director
