Mizuho Bank Europe Annual Report 2018

74 MIZUHO BANK EUROPE N.V. Independent Auditor’s Report To the shareholder and the supervisory board of Mizuho Bank Europe N.V. 6.1 Report on the audit of the financial statements 2018 included in the Annual Report 6.1.1 Our opinion We have audited the accompanying financial statements 2018 of Mizuho Bank Europe N.V., based in Amsterdam. In our opinion the accompanying financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of Mizuho Bank Europe N.V. as at 31 December 2018, and of its result for 2018 in accordance with Part 9 of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code. The financial statements comprise: 1. The balance sheet as at 31 December 2018. 2. The profit and loss account for 2018. 3. The notes comprising a summary of the accounting policies and other explanatory information. 6.1.2 Basis for our opinion We conducted our audit in accordance with Dutch law, including the Dutch Standards on Auditing. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the “Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements” section of our report. We are independent of Mizuho Bank Europe N.V. in accordance with the EU Regulation on specific requirements regarding statutory audit of public-interest entities, the Wet toezicht accountantsorganisaties (Wta, Audit firms supervision act), the Verordening inzake de onafhankelijkheid van accountants bij assurance-opdrachten (ViO, Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, a regulation with respect to independence) and other relevant independence regulations in the Netherlands. Furthermore, we have complied with the Verordening gedrags- en beroepsregels accountants (VGBA, Dutch Code of Ethics). We believe the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. 6.1.3 Materiality Based on our professional judgement we determined the materiality for the financial statements as a whole at € 1.430.000. The materiality is based on 5% of operating result before taxation. We have also taken into account misstatements and/or possible misstatements that in our opinion are material for the users of the financial statements for qualitative reasons. We agreed with the supervisory board that misstatements in excess of € 71.500, which are identified during the audit, would be reported to them, as well as smaller misstatements that in our view must be reported on qualitative grounds. 6.1.4 Scope of the group audit Mizuho Bank Europe N.V. is at the head of a group of entities. The financial information of this group is included in the consolidated financial statements of Mizuho Bank Europe N.V. Our group audit mainly focused on significant group entities Mizuho Bank Europe N.V.