Hamburg, 29^th March 2018 - After Mr. Alexander Koerner resigned from his position as Supervisory Board member, the District Court of Hamburg legally appointed Mr. Vasil Stefanov from Sofia (Bulgaria) as a member of the Supervisory Board by resolution of 21st March 2018 upon request of the Management Board. Mr. Stefanov is Member of the Board of Directors at Euro-Finance AD and Head of M&A at Euroins Insurance Group. Because of his professional expertise, Mr. Stefanov possesses special experiences at international finance and capital markets. We are delighted to have welcomed him at Varengold Bank AG's Supervisory Board as of 28^th March 2018.
 
During the last year, Varengold Bank consistently developed its business activities, invested in additional growth, while adjusting the strategic direction to achieve a sustainable and dynamic development of the bank. The customer focus primarily lies on the support of market places (peer-to-peer platforms) that are dealing with the financing of enterprises and consumers. Varengold Bank is thereby not confining its product portfolio to funding but offers additional products such as debt and equity capital markets products, international payment transactions services or fronting services of bank license only products.
 
According to preliminary non-attested numbers Varengold Bank AG finished the business year 2017 with an annual surplus in the amount of TEUR 23 (preceding year: TEUR -1.486). In sum the outcome of the ordinary business activity of Varengold Bank AG amounted to TEUR 556 (preceding year: TEUR -2.523). The comparably high tax result was dominated by high amounts of tax attribution during the tax calculation of fund investments, as well as the non-deductible write-off of a participation. TEUR 444 of the tax expenditure are not cash effective, as they are the dissolution of deferred taxes.
 
The bank's interest revenue increased from TEUR 4.442 in 2016 to TEUR 5.311 in 2017, while the interest expenses were almost divided in half because of the decreased interest rate level, so that an interest surplus of TEUR 3.841 (preceding year: TEUR 1.578) could be achieved. A considerable reduction of the commission expenses led to an increase of the commission surplus amounting to TEUR 10.122 (preceding year: TEUR 5.716). The net return of the trading portfolio resulted from the Prime Brokerage division (TEUR 149). The general administration expenses of the company could be reduced by TEUR 2.126 to the amount of TEUR 13.421.
 
As a bank that must persist in competition sustainably, process optimisation is an ongoing topic, to which Varengold Bank devoted itself intensively once again during the last business year. In addition to the already existing branch in London, Varengold Bank decided in the 4th quarter of 2017 to open another branch in Sofia, Bulgaria, to expand Varengold's activities to the south-east European area, acting in the sense of its growth-oriented business strategy. The necessary regulatory steps were concluded, and the projected branch is currently in its registration process.
 
Based on the latest evaluation the Management Board sees a sustainable and dynamic growth potential for Varengold Bank AG during the remaining year. Varengold Bank AG will disclose its attested annual financial statement in June 2018.



Contact:
Ms. Sanja Szabo (Head of Corporate Development)