Proposed arrangements submitted to the Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on 8 January 2001

Proposed arrangements submitted to the Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on 8 January 2001

The Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), an international organisation headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, proposes to restrict, in future, the right to hold shares of the BIS exclusively to central banks (which already hold 100% of the voting rights and 86.27% of the property rights in those shares). This measure is intended to enable the BIS to pursue better its objectives of promoting international monetary and financial cooperation.

To this end, the Board has decided to call an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to be held on 8 January 2001 with a view to amending the Statutes of the BIS so as to exclude private shareholders against payment of compensation of CHF 16,000 per share. As soon as the EGM has approved the Board's proposals, the private shareholders registered in the books of the BIS will be sent a further note with all practical details concerning the surrender of share certificates and payment of compensation.

The purpose of the present note is to provide the Bank's private shareholders with the following information regarding the transaction:

  1. The BIS and the transaction
  2. Practical aspects of the transaction
  3. Tax treatment
  4. Assessment of the amount of compensation by JP Morgan
  5. Confirmation by the independent experts - Barbier Frinault & Associés (Arthur Andersen)
  6. Financing of the transaction
  7. Further information

In addition, the following is annexed to this note:

  • Annex 1: Extracts from the audited Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account at 31 March 2000
    This information has been extracted from the Bank's Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account at 31 March 2000, which was included in the Bank's 1999/2000 Annual Report. The Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account, which received an unqualified audit report dated 27 April 2000 from PricewaterhouseCoopers AG, Basel, is available on the Bank's internet site at www.bis.org .
  • Annex 2: General information on the Bank for International Settlements