Independent Auditor's Report

To the General Meeting of Møre Boligkreditt AS

Independent auditor’s report

Report on the Audit of the Financial Statements

Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Møre Boligkreditt AS which comprise the balance sheet as at 31 December 2018, income statement, statement of comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity and 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, the accompanying financial statements are prepared in accordance with law and regulations and give a true and fair view of the financial position of the Company as at 31 December 2018, and its financial performance and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by EU.

Basis for Opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with laws, regulations, and auditing standards and practices generally accepted in Norway, including International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). 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 Company as required by laws and regulations, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

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.                         

Issued covered bonds – compliance with regulation

Refer to note 4 Risk Management, note 5 Credit risk, Note 10 Issued Covered Bonds and Report from the Board of Directors.

 

The Key Audit Matter

How the matter was addressed in our audit

The covered bonds are measured at amortized cost and the total liability is NOK 22 384 million.

 

Møre Boligkreditt AS issues covered bonds as their prime source of funding. To issue these bonds the company must be compliant with the Norwegian Financial Institutions Act, which set out detailed requirements to the assets included in and the value of the cover pool. Since such compliance is of significant importance for the funding and going concern of Møre Boligkreditt AS, we considered this a key audit matter.

 

 

We assessed management's process for acquiring loans that qualify as collateral for covered bonds. We tested operating effectiveness of selected internal controls that are set up to secure that only loans that fulfil legal requirements to serve as collateral, are transferred from Sparebanken Møre to Møre Boligkreditt AS.

 

For a number of loans included in the cover pool, our procedures, among others, include:

·         testing that the assets in the cover pool comply with the requirements in the Financial Institutions Act §11-8

·         agreeing collateral values with external valuations from Eiendomsverdi

·         testing the mathematical accuracy and corroborating the input of the calculation that management uses to establish the collateralization in percent.

 

We have also assessed management's process for keeping the register up to date and identifying movements in the underlying assets in the cover portfolio.

 

 

Other information

Management is responsible for the other information. The other information comprises information in the annual report, except the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon.

Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated.

If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Responsibilities of the Board of Directors and the Managing Director for the Financial Statements

The Board of Directors and the Managing Director (management) are responsible for the preparation in accordance with law and regulations, including fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU, and for such internal control as management determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, management is responsible for assessing the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless management either intends to liquidate the Company or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so.

 

Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with laws, regulations, and auditing standards and practices generally accepted in Norway, including ISAs will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

As part of an audit in accordance with laws, regulations, and auditing standards and practices generally accepted in Norway, including ISAs, we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit. We also:

  • identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. We design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
  • obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit 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 Company’s internal control.
  • evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by management.
  • conclude on the appropriateness of management’s use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the Company to cease to continue as a going concern.
  • evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.

    We communicate with the Board of Directors regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.

    We also provide the Board of Directors with a statement that we have complied with relevant ethical requirements regarding independence, and to communicate with them all relationships and other matters that may reasonably be thought to bear on our independence, and where applicable, related safeguards.

    From the matters communicated with the Board of Directors, we determine those matters that were of most significance in the audit of the financial statements of the current period and are therefore the key audit matters. We describe these matters in our auditor’s report unless law or regulation precludes public disclosure about the matter or when, in extremely rare circumstances, we determine that a matter should not be communicated in our report because the adverse consequences of doing so would reasonably be expected to outweigh the public interest benefits of such communication.

 

Report on Other Legal and Regulatory Requirements

Opinion on the Board of Directors’ report

Based on our audit of the financial statements as described above, it is our opinion that the information presented in the Board of Directors’ report and in the statement on Corporate Governance concerning the financial statements, the going concern assumption and the proposed allocation of the result is consistent with the financial statements and complies with the law and regulations.

Opinion on Registration and Documentation

Based on our audit of the financial statements as described above, and control procedures we have considered necessary in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000, Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information, it is our opinion that management has fulfilled its duty to produce a proper and clearly set out registration and documentation of the Company’s accounting information in accordance with the law and bookkeeping standards and practices generally accepted in Norway.

 

 

 

Ålesund, 4 February 2019

KPMG AS

 

 

 

Svein Arthur Lyngroth

State Authorised Public Accountant