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We have audited the consolidated financial statements of Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG, Vienna, for the financial year from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2006. These consolidated financial statements comprise the consolidated balance sheet at 31 December 2006, the consolidated income statement, the cash flow statement of the Group and the statement of changes in equity of the Group for the financial year ended 31 December 2006, and a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.
Responsibility of management for the consolidated financial statements
Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union. This responsibility includes: designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of consolidated financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies; and making estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.
Auditors’ responsibility
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with laws and regulations applicable in Austria and in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (ISAs), issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). Those standards require that we comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the consolidated financial statements are free from material misstatement.
An audit involves performing audit procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditors’ judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the auditors consider internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the consolidated financial statements 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 Group’s internal control. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of the accounting policies used and the reasonableness of significant accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements.
We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
Opinion
Our audit did not give rise to any objections. Based on the results of the audit, in our opinion, the consolidated financial statements comply with the laws and regulations and present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Group as at 31 December 2006 and of its financial performance and its cash flows for the financial year from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2006 in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union. Without qualifying our opinion we draw attention to Note 3, paragraph 2, to the consolidated financial statements outlining the impact of changing the consolidation system, particularly on certain comparative financial information, in the context of adapting to group reporting standards to better meet the future requirements.
Report on other legal and regulatory requirements
Laws and regulations applicable in Austria require us to perform audit procedures to ascertain whether the management report of the Group is consistent with the consolidated financial statements, and whether the other disclosures made in the management report of the Group do not give rise to misconception of the position of the Group.
In our opinion, the management report of the Group is consistent with the consolidated financial statements.
Vienna, 5 March 2007
Savings Bank Auditing Association
Auditing Board
(Bank Auditors)
Erich Kandler Friedrich O. Hief
KPMG
Wirtschaftsprüfungs- und Steuerberatungs GmbH
Walter Reiffenstuhl Bernhard Gruber
Deloitte
Wirtschaftsprüfungs GmbH
Peter Bitzyk Gottfried Spitzer