Four Seasons Hotel, Room Dumbarton

Doc 0990/15 (Vers. 1.1.)

Doc 0990/158 October 2015

(Vers. 1.1.)NST

22nd WSBI GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Washington, 23 September 2015

15.30 – 18.00 hrs

Four Seasons Hotel, Room Dumbarton

Draft Minutes

I. Summary of main conclusions and action points

WSBI G20 Positions

The WSBI General Assembly endorsed the WSBI Institutional Positions to the G20 decision makers. Mr DE NOOSE encouraged members to advocate and transfer the WSBI messages to their national stakeholders.

WSBI workplan 2016

Mr DE NOOSE gave an overview of the general workplan of WSBI for 2015 (see Doc 0839/15 for more details) followed by presentations of the Regional Group Presidents on their priorities for the upcoming mandate period 2015 – 2018. Members endorsed and supported the 2016 workplan.

Membership situation

Members endorsed the changes in membership (new membership applications as well as terminations) and welcomed the new members to WSBI (SMBC, Japan; ASKI, the Philippines; Afrique Emergence & Investments, Côte d’Ivoire; bpost bank, Belgium).

Mr DE NOOSE called on members to support the WSBI Secretariat in approaching potential new members.

WSBI – World Bank Partnership

Members endorsed WSBI’s Numeric Commitment to the Universal Financial Access (UFA) Goals 2020 of 400 million new transaction accounts and 1.7 billion total customers by 2020. They also endorsed the Memorandum of Understanding between WSBI and the World Bank Group. A presentation by Mr DE NOOSE, WSBI Managing Director, was followed by remarks and a presentation from Mr Douglas PEARCE,World Bank’s Co-head of the Universal Financial Access initiative.

Washington Declaration

The members of the General Assembly endorsed the Washington Declaration that was issued at the occasion of the 24th World Congress of Savings and Retail Banks on 24 and 25 September in Washington D.C.

II.Summary of Discussion

1. Welcome & Quorum

President HAASIS welcomed all participants to the meeting of the 22ndWSBI General Assembly.

Mr DE NOOSE presented the Quorum by saying that:

According to Article 13 of the Statutes of the WSBI: “Decisions by the General Assembly shall only be valid if Members representing at least fifty percent of the votes are present or represented. They are taken by a simple majority of the votes present or represented at the meeting.”The total number of votes allocated to members, according to the calculation rule stated in Article 5 of the Internal Rules, is 178. The quorum today is 121 votes present or represented.Therefore, the General Assembly can take valid decisions, which will need to be taken with a majority of 89 votes, if ever a vote was called.

2. Welcome & approval of the draft agenda – Doc 0820/15

Mr DE NOOSE explained why there is no Budget Item on the statutory meetings agendas this time:The Budget for 2016 is in preparation and will be first presented to the members of ESBG as they cover 80 % of the budget of the Joint Office. The preparation of the figures and more in particular the calculation of the individual contributions has now become more complex because of the introduction of a new objective system of calculation since last year and there is a need of some data from our members to be able to make the calculation. The approval of the Budget item will be therefore only added to the agenda of the next Board (in 2016).

The accounts for WSBI for the year 2014 have been adopted by the Board of Directors at the occasion of the meeting in Istanbul on 16 April 2015 and have been submitted to the General Assembly for approval by written procedure with the letter dated 18 may 2015. As we received no remarks on the account statements the document was filed with the Belgian Authorities (Belgian Central Bank). This filing is an obligation to fulfil before end of June and is the reason why we requested the approval of the accounts by written procedure.

The General Assembly confirmed their approval of the Annual Accounts 2014.

The draft agenda was approved without amendments.

1. Approval of the minutes of the last meeting – Doc 0639/14

The minutes of the lastGeneral Assemblymeeting (San Salvador, July 2014) were approved without amendments.

1. Progress Report by the Managing Director– Doc 0838/15

Mr DE NOOSE presented the Progress Report of activitiesfor the period from April – August 2015 but also showcasing some highlights since the last General Assembly meeting such as high-level meetings in Washington D.C. in 2014 (see Doc 0838/15 and the PowerPoint which is uploaded onto Extranet for more details).

1. Towards the 2015 G20 Turkish Presidency Summit: WSBI Institutional Positions to the G20 Decision-Makers – Doc 0876/15

Mr DE NOOSE explained that Turkey will host the next G20 Leaders’ Summit in Antalya on 15-16 November 2015. WSBI has already issued first positions after they have been approved by the WSBI Board in Istanbul (April 2015) and shared them with the Turkish Central Bank Governor and Finance Minister. The new positions have been enhanced since then to incorporate experiences of our jurisdictions, based on advice received from our membership, both at European and global levels.The messages include 3 parts: i) summary with main priorities, ii) graph and visualisation which combines the Turkish Presidency’s priorities and WSBI’s key reflection (created for the first time – we believe it will make our positions more accessible to the G20 stakeholders as they can gain a quick understanding of how our positions relate to their priorities/ideas, iii) full detailed messages.

The messages will be sent to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors by mid-October in advance of the G20 Summit in November. They will also be distributed widely within the WSBI membership and sent to key stakeholders. WSBI will monitor the outcomes of this meeting, and will adapt its priorities according to their subsequent positions, as well as any ideas and priorities of its membership.

The WSBI General Assembly endorsed the WSBI Institutional Positions to the G20 decision makers.

Mr DE NOOSE encouraged members to advocate and transfer the WSBI messages to their national stakeholders (ACTION).

1. WSBI workplan 2016– Doc 0839/15

Mr DE NOOSE gave an overview of the general workplan of WSBI for 2015 (see Doc 0839/15 for more details) followed by presentations of the Regional Group Presidents on their priorities for the upcoming mandate period 2015 – 2018 (see Powerpoint uploaded on Extranet for more information). Presentations were given by:

• Mr MOSHINGI, President Africa Regional Group, CEO Tanzania Postal Bank;
• Mr MARYONO, President Asia Regional Group, President-Director BTN (P. T. Bank Tabungan Negara) Indonesia;
• Ms PEREZ MORA representing MrPRIETO, President GRULAC,President BCS (Banco Caja Social) Columbia.

Members endorsed the proposed WSBI workplan for 2016.

1. WSBI International & Institutional issues

7.1 Membership situation – Doc 0911/15

Members endorsedthe changes to the WSBI Membership (new membership applications as well as terminations) (see Doc 0917/15 for further information):

• One new application for full membership from SMBC, Japan
• Two applications for Associate Membership from ASKI, the Philippines, & Afrique Emergence & Investments, Côte d’Ivoire (approval of latter still pending)
• bpost bank, Belgium, a new ESBG member which automatically becomes a member of WSBI
• Four terminations of membership from Nampost Savings Bank, Nambia, ALNAP, the Dominican Republic, Postal Bank, Croatia and JSC Halyk Bank, Kazakstan

President HAASIS welcomed the new members, which consequently (presence of SMBC and ASKI at the meeting) gave some introductory remarks and a short presentation on their institutions.

The current status of membership after endorsement is 110 Members in 78 countries.

Mr DE NOOSE called on members to be “door openers” by supporting the WSBI Secretariat in approaching potential new members and in advocating for the advantages and services of WSBI to savings and retail banks. (ACTION).

1. WSBI Relations with the World Bank Group

Universal Financial Access (UFA) 2020 Goals and WSBI’s Numeric Commitment – Doc 0906/15

WSBI – World Bank Strategic Partnership – Doc 0904/15

Mr DE NOOSE explained that WSBI and the World Bank Group have maintained close relations over very many years at varying levels: Advocacy, speaking roles in each other’s conferences and events, and in performing technical assistance assignments in different parts of the world. NowWSBI is aiming to strengthen that relationship by joining with the World Bank as a strategic partner in a mission that is core to the values of all of us. This strategic partnership has two components: Numeric Commitment to UFA (Universal Financial Access) 2020 Goals andthe WSBI-World Bank Group MoU.

• Based on the responses received, WSBI – ESBG proposed the following projection on which to base its numerical commitment to the UFA 2020 Goal.

Baseline of 1.3 billion customers at the end of 2014

Baseline of 1.3 billion transaction accounts at the end of 2014

Total number of customers as at 31/12/ 2020= 1.7 billion

Total number of new transaction accounts as at 31/12 /2020 = 400 million

This numerical commitment of 400 million new transaction accounts by 2020 was approved by the WSBI General Assembly at its last meeting on 23 September 2015. It also forms an integral part of the Washington Declaration that was issued at the close of the WSBI World Congress in Washington on 24 & 25 September 2015. This commitment has been communicated to the World Bank Group in the following text.

“The World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) remains fully committed to the ‘Account for Everyone’ goal adopted by our members in May 2012 when reaffirming a deep commitment to financial inclusion set out in our Marrakech Delaration. An international banking association, WSBI brings together savings and retail banks from around 80 countries representing the interests of approximatley 6,000 banks in all continents. As at year-end 2014, members served a baseline total of 1.3 billion customers, which includes providing accounts for the poor worldwide. Based on the current membership, WSBI aims to reach 1.7 billion customers and 400 million new transaction accounts by 2020.”

The WSBI numerical commitment to creating 400 million new transaction accounts by 2020 is a strong and ambitious contribution to the WBG’s goal of providing universal financial access to 1.5 billion of the estimated total of 2 billion unbanked persons worldwide. Together, we envisage that they will act as vehicles for WSBI to raise funding in support of projects for a range of investment and capacity building initiatives that benefit WSBI members and complement our common goals of full financial access, and ultimately, an account for everyone.

Mr DE NOOSE noted that the presented numbers are based on conservative calculations and that he is confident they are realistic projections.

Mr Douglas PEARCE, World Bank’s Co-head of the Universal Financial Access initiative, gave a presentation and providedmembers with some more detail about the Universal Financial Access 2020 Goal and how stakeholders such as WSBI and its members can contribute concretely to the achievement of this goal. (See presentation uploaded to Extranet for more information).

Members voiced their support for this initiative, especially Mr CHAUHAN and Mr NAJM EDDINE highlighted once more their commitment to engage in financial inclusion activities and in supporting the WSBI Numeric Commitment while giving examples from their home countries on the wide array of access to finance initiatives.

Members of the WSBI General Assembly endorsed WSBI’s Numeric Commitment to the Universal Financial Access (UFA) Goals 2020 of 400 million new transaction accounts and 1.7 billion total customers by 2020.

WSBI and its members have responsibilities under the UFA Partner Engagement as key contributors to a high visibility global goal. WSBI members were therefore invited to:

• Work towards accelerating financial access in their countries;
• Measure progress and report regularly, at least once a year, on the number of new transaction accounts and new customers;
• Share with WSBI best practice examples of accelerating the achievement of financial access and financial inclusion goals from different parts of the world for peer-to-peer learning and networking purposes.

Members endorsed the Memorandum of Understanding between WSBI and the World Bank Group.

(See background document for more information and the final MoU version which has been uploaded to Extranet.)

1. Approval of the “Washington Declaration” – Doc 0912/15

Mr DE NOOSE explained that at the occasion of the World Congresses of Savings and Retail Banks that are organised every three years, WSBI issues a “Declaration” that summarises the main strategic advocacy goals of WSBI for the next three years. The declaration is thus a lobbying tool as well as a kind of summarised work plan that lists the goals and priorities for WSBI and its members

The Washington Declaration that will be issued at the occasion of the Congress focuses on WSBI members’ biggest priority for the coming years: the digitisation and its consequences for retail banking. We focus not only on the challenges but also on the opportunities offered by new technologies for customer relationship management. The motto of the Declaration is “Taking the digital path, keeping a human touch”.

The declaration wraps up with a re-commitment to the 2012 Marrakech declaration: enhanced proximity through digitalization, keeping close to the customer who share our values, while reaching out to new customers and strengthening ties with existing ones.

The members of the General Assembly endorsed the Washington Declaration that was consequently issued at the occasion of the 24th World Congress of Savings and Retail Banks on 24 and 25 September in Washington D.C.

1. Change of WSBI Mandates 2015-2018 – Doc 0775/15 & 1025/15

10.1 Election of the new Board of Directors for the mandate period 2015 – 2018

Mr DE NOOSE explained the procedures of approving the new WSBI mandates (see Doc 0775/15 for a detailed outline of procedures regarding the change of WSBI mandates). He added that members of the WSBI PC agreed on the proposal for WSBI mandates as outlined by the WSBI Secretariat (Doc 0775/15)but made the suggestion to add Banrural Guatemala in the “free Board seat” as they have shown interest in wanting to be active again and they are an important regional institution.

Members appointed the new WSBI Board of Directors for the upcoming mandate period (2015 – 2018):

1. Board of Directors for the mandate period 2015-2018

1. WSBI President

Mr Heinrich Haasis as President of WSBI.

1. WSBI Board members

From EUROPE:

From ASIA:

From AFRICA:

From LATIN AMERICA/CARIBBEAN:

Representatives of other members:

1. Miscellaneous & next meetings – Doc 0929/15

President HAASIS thanked all members for their active participation and support in the last three years and congratulated the newly elected Board while looking forward to the next 3 years in working together to position WSBI as the voice of savings and (responsible) retail banking.