INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT
To the General Assembly of Türkiye Halk Bankası A.Ş.
- Report on the Audit of the Financial Statements
- Qualified Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Türkiye Halk Bankası A.Ş. ("the Bank"), which comprise the unconsolidated balance sheet as at 31 December 2022, and the unconsolidated statement of profit or loss, unconsolidated statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, unconsolidated statement of changes in shareholders' equity and unconsolidated statement of cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies.
In our opinion, except for the effects of the matters on the unconsolidated financial statements described in the basis for the qualified opinion paragraphs, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Bank as at 31 December 2022, and its financial performance and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with "the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency ("BRSA") Accounting and Reporting Regulations" including the regulation on "The Procedures and Principles Regarding Banks' Accounting Practices and Maintaining Documents" published in the Official Gazette dated 1 November 2006 with No. 26333, and other regulations on accounting records of banks published by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Board and circulars and pronouncements published by the BRSA and provisions of Turkish Financial Reporting Standards (TFRS) for the matters not legislated by the aforementioned regulations.
- Basis for Qualified Opinion
The Bank reclassified the government bonds amounting to TRY 18.965.006 thousand, which were previously classified under financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income according to the business model prepared in accordance with Turkish Financial Reporting Standard ("TFRS") 9, into financial assets measured at amortised cost and reversed the marketable securities revaluation fund accumulated under other comprehensive income or loss to be reclassified through profit or loss amounting to TRY 2.229.977 thousand on 23 May 2018. The reclassification constitutes a departure from TFRS 9. The government bonds reclassified into financial assets measured at amortised cost as at 31 December 2022 amounted to TRY 31.249.779 thousand. If such classification were not made, total assets and shareholders' equity, excluding tax effect, would be lower by TRY 3.501.034 thousand as at 31 December 2022.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the regulation on "Independent Auditing of Banks" published in the Official Gazette dated 2 April 2015 with No. 29314 and Standards on Independent Auditing ("SIA") which is a part of Turkish Auditing Standards published by the Public Oversight Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority ("POA"). Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Statements section of our report. We are independent of the Bank in accordance with the Code of Ethics for Independent Auditors ("Code of Ethics") published by the POA, together with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements
1
and the Code of Ethics. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
- Emphasis of Matter
As detailed in Section Six Note One, we draw attention to the following:
On October 15, 2019, the US Department of Justice, United States Attorney Southern District of New York indicted the Bank in the Southern District of New York Court ("District Court") for the violations of Iranian sanctions. This criminal case is pending at the District Court. The proceedings are stayed as the Bank requests an appeal under the "Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act" ("FSIA"). The process is currently at the stage of appealing in the US Supreme Court.
In addition, a civil case was filed against the Bank on March 27, 2020 with a claim for damages by plaintiffs in the Southern District of New York Court "on the grounds that they (plaintiffs) could not collect their judgments from Iran due to the violations of sanctions." District Court dismissed the case. Plaintiffs have appealed the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ("Second Circuit"). The Court's decision is pending.
At this stage, the Bank's Management stated that there is no penalty, compensation, sanction or other measure arising from the pending criminal and civil cases against the Bank. There is an uncertainty if any decisions will be made by the US authorities that may adversely affect the financial position of the Bank. No provision has been made in the financial statements of the Bank related to these matters. However, the above mentioned matters do not affect the opinion provided by us.
- Key Audit Matters
Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgment, were of most significance in our audit of the financial statements of the current period. These matters were addressed in the context of our audit of the financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and we do not provide a separate opinion on these matters. In addition to the matter explained in the Basis for Qualified Opinion section, the issues described below have been identified as key audit matters and are disclosed in our report.
Key Audit Matter | How the matter was addressed in the audit |
Impairment of loans in accordance with | |
TFRS 9 "Financial Instruments Standard" | |
Impairment of loans is a key area of | As part of our audit work, the following |
judgement for the management. The Bank | procedures were performed: |
has the total loans amounting to TRY | |
842.617.528 thousand, which comprise 61% | We assessed and tested the design, |
of the Bank's total assets in its | implementation and operating effectiveness of |
unconsolidated financial statements and the | key controls applied by the Bank with respect |
total provision for expected credit loss | to classification of loans and determination and |
amounting to TRY 53.309.206 as at 31 | calculation of impairments. Our information |
December 2022. | system experts have also participated to |
perform these procedures. | |
2 |
Key Audit Matter | How the matter was addressed in the audit | |||
Valuation of Pension Fund Obligations | ||||
Defined benefit pension plan that the Bank | Our audit work included the following | |||
provides to its employees is managed by | procedures: | |||
Türkiye Halk Bankası AŞ Emekli Sandığı | ||||
Vakfı and T.C. Ziraat Bankası ve T. Halk | We involved internal experts (actuary) in our | |||
Bankası Çalışanları Emekli Sandığı Vakfı | audit team to evaluate the assumptions used in | |||
("Plan") which were established by the 20th | the calculation of the pension obligations and | |||
provisional article of the Social Security Law | the appropriateness of the estimates. | |||
numbered 506 (the "Law"). | ||||
As disclosed in the Section III Note XVII to | It has been tested whether the plan assets meet | |||
plan obligations in accordance with the | ||||
the unconsolidated financial statements, the | methods and assumptions used. | |||
Plan is composed of benefits which are | ||||
subject to transfer to the Social Security | In addition, reconciliations and tests were | |||
Foundation ("SSF") as per the Social | carried out through sampling of the accuracy | |||
Security Law no.5510 provisional article 20, | of the data provided to the Bank's actuary. | |||
and other social rights and pension benefits | ||||
provided by the Bank that are not transferable | We have assessed whether there is a significant | |||
to the SSF. The Council of Ministers has been | ||||
change in the actuarial assumptions, methods, | ||||
authorized | to | determine | the | transfer date. |
legal regulations and legislation used in the | ||||
Following | the | transfer, | the | funds and the |
calculations and whether the assumptions are | ||||
institutions that employ the funds' members | ||||
reasonable. In addition, we have reviewed the | ||||
will cover the non-transferable social rights | ||||
sufficiency of disclosures prepared with this | ||||
and pension benefits provided under the Plan | ||||
regard. | ||||
even if it is included in foundation deed. | ||||
As of 31 December 2022, the Bank's transferrable liabilities are calculated by an independent actuary using the actuarial assumptions regulated by the Law, and in accordance with the Decision of the Council of Ministers announced in the Official Gazette dated 15 December 2006 and No.26377. The valuation of the Plan liabilities requires judgment in determining appropriate assumptions such as defining the transferrable social benefits, discount rates,
salary increases, inflation levels, demographic assumptions, and the impact of changes in the Plan. Management uses expert opinion of the independent actuary in assessing uncertainties related to these underlying assumptions and estimates.
As described in Section Five Note II.9.f considering the subjectivity of key judgments and assumptions, plus the uncertainty around the transfer date and basis of the transfer
4
Attachments
- Original Link
- Original Document
- Permalink
Disclaimer
Türkiye Halk Bankasi AS published this content on 07 July 2023 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 07 July 2023 15:42:12 UTC.