Despite the numerous challenges caused by the Corona crisis, Hauck & Aufh?user has recorded an extraordinary positive development. With a result of EUR 45.7 million after tax - compared to EUR 27.9 million in the previous year - Hauck & Aufh?user closed a very successful financial year 2020.

All business segments contributed to the 24% year-on-year increase in gross income to EUR 229.1 million. Assets under Service & Management increased from EUR 141.6 billion to EUR 167.4?billion at the end of the financial year. The core capital ratio was further strengthened and now stands at 19.3%. Net interest income increased by EUR 7.1 million year-on-year to EUR 34.3 million in the reporting year, while net fee and commission income developed well above plan to EUR 165.8 million, compared with EUR 140.9 million in the previous year. General administrative expenses increased by EUR 12.4 million year-on-year to EUR 167.6 million. The increase mainly reflects investments in digitization projects and the expansion of the workforce. The Group's total assets amount to EUR 6,655 million.

Now, it is more than a year since we went into the first lock down. At that time, Hauck & Aufh?user were looking into an uncertain future. A rapid cost-cutting program had to be put in place and we were very cautious, especially when it came to hiring staff. What can a bank do against such a pandemic? The most important thing was to ensure the safety and protection of employees and to quickly take the step of relocating workplaces to home offices. The anxious question was: Does a bank function operationally from a home office?

 Today we are sure: It works! All employees continued to do their jobs in an extremely professional manner and helped the bank remain fully functional even in home office mode.

Now the focus is on the questions regarding the long-term consequences of the pandemic: What are the opportunities and risks?

1.The most obvious will be the form of our working methods: Home office will be part of the future working life. As Hauck & Aufh?user, we want to try to allow an average of two days of home office. We will see how this works out in the long term. The number of business trips is also likely to be significantly lower in the future. Video conferencing will become an integral part of the working world and will also be accepted as a medium for customer events.

2.What we have also learned is how fast massive changes can be implemented. We have to move a bit away from a culture of avoiding mistakes to one of daring to do something. In doing so, we also have to accept that not every change will be successful and that we also have to allow mistakes to be corrected. This gives us confidence that we will continue to implement major changes in a short space of time.

3.It has become clear that investing in technology is more important than ever before. It was and is technological progress that has saved us. So we will certainly continue to invest massively in digitalization and automation. Working remotely and interacting with the customer will remain an important element. In addition, artificial intelligence will make massive inroads into all industries in the next decade, including the banking industry. Whether it's credit ratings, customer analysis, product development or simply administrative processes that will be faster, more in-depth and more precise in the future - they will become part of future working life. We have to keep pace with developments here.

4.E-commerce has experienced a boost. We now have up to five times more e-commerce transactions than before the pandemic, depending on the region. Many customers will continue to prefer this digital route in the future. Telemedicine for example has become dramatically more popular. And it would be strange if this trend did not also have an impact on the banking industry. In this environment, how must the support and acquisition strategy for a bank change? What is certain is that a hybrid approach will be part of the solution. At this point, the target concept must be worked out even more clearly as part of a future private banking strategy.

5."Necessity is the mother of invention" - It means that periods of crisis are times when innovation and new business models emerge. Coupled with almost unbelievable financial and political support from the state and central bank, anything other than a very strong economy in the next few years would be a surprise. After growing just under 4% in Germany this year, it is not presumptuous to assume a similar growth rate in 2022. Regions in Asia and America will achieve even higher growth rates. Economics teaches that debt is "inflated away" over time by strong growth. It would not be surprising if countries did not support growth substantially in the coming years. Again, the question is - what does this mean for us as a bank? In all likelihood, the equity markets in particular are likely to benefit in the long term. The decisive factor, however, will be whether interest rates will rise due to emerging inflation fears. Should this happen, the attractiveness of "real assets" will diminish and the boom in this asset class will fade.

6.Therefore it is important to set the right accents today within our various business areas, selecting the right segments in the right region with the right customers for the future. It is a stroke of luck that with Asset Servicing, Hauck & Aufh?user has a business area that today manages ten times as many assets as ten years ago and generates five times as much gross income as ten years ago. This was possible because the bank did better than the competitors and thus secured above-average organic growth. This attitude has to be continued.

7.It is also important that we continue to grow through M&A transactions and suitably strengthen our business areas. The acquisition of the Sal. Oppenheim units has shown how we can scale and thus significantly improve our cost structures.

8.At least, the need to build up new business, such as currently our digital asset services, is an important building block. We established HAAS more than ten years ago, re-initiated Real Assets half a decade ago, and relaunched Investment Banking in 2009. All this three examples make major contributions to our great results today. That is why it is so important that we continue to launch the right initiatives to secure gross earnings for the next decade. We have continued to do this in recent years with Zeedin, with asset management of real estate funds, with our comprehensive activities with Chinese colleagues, with securities lending, with a holistic offering in private banking and many other initiatives. Further constant improvement to meet customer needs is the task we face together as a bank.

The pandemic has demanded a lot from all colleagues around the world. But despite the distance, we have grown closer together - just as you do in a Fosun family. With all the experiences and developments in the past months, we enter the second half of the year stronger than before.