Remuneration Code

Alliance Finance Bank complies with the Prudential Regulation Authority's Remuneration Code. Alliance Finance Bank’s methodology for compliance is a framework where the responsibility for and implementation of the remuneration code is overseen by the Remuneration and Nominations Committee in conjunction with the Chief Executive Officer. The Board sanctions the material components of the compensation arrangements. Alliance Finance Bank provides employee compensation in the form of fixed and variable remuneration. The compensation arrangements are regularly reviewed by the Remuneration and Nominations Committee, and when deemed necessary benchmarked to market.

Fixed remuneration of all employees take into account several factors including the nature, scope and complexity of the role, level of responsibility and professional track record.

The approach and methodologies for determining the variable component are composed of financial and non-financial elements including performance assessments incorporating the balance of the risk and rewards of Alliance Finance Bank and consistently applied across all senior managers and other employees. The Board gives due consideration to the balance in composition between fixed and variable remuneration, if the variable component exceeds 100% it seeks shareholder approval. Any deferred compensation arrangements or planned schemes are structured to meet the Remuneration Code.

The Remuneration and Nominations Committee is responsible for reviewing the benefits structure applicable to all employees within Alliance Finance Bank. The Board approves all changes to the benefits structure.

All senior executives, including directors, senior management functions and material risk takers have contracts setting out their respective remuneration packages, entitlements and economic rewards. All remuneration components of senior executives are approved by the Board.

Non-executive Directors, including the Chairman, are paid fixed remuneration.

Nominations

The Remuneration and Nominations Committee monitors, reviews and considers the balance and composition of the Board, senior managers and key employees regularly. These reviews take into consideration the nature and scale of the business and the limitations arising from Alliance Finance Bank's size and scale. The Remuneration and Nominations Committee recommends the recruitment process for all directors and senior managers taking into consideration the needs and requirements of the Bank and the role and responsibilities. The Remuneration and Nominations Committee reviews the role criteria and receives advice and assessments on candidate suitability for recommendation to the Board.

Compliance with the Capital Requirements Directive – Governance

Section 4.3A.11R of the Prudential Regulation Authority’s manual, Senior Management Arrangements, Systems and Controls (“SYSC”), requires us to explain on our website how we comply with the requirements of SYSC 4.3A.1R to SYSC 4.3A.3R and SYSC 4.3A.4R to SYSC 4.3A.11R (governance arrangements).

Our explanation of how we meet these requirements can be found in Corporate Governance, which includes details matters reserved to the Board or the relevant Board Committees. Terms of reference for the committees can be obtained by writing to our company secretary. Further relevant details may be found in our annual reports.

Online Banking Security

Never disclose passwords or other personal information in response to an email, phone call or letter purporting to be from your bank or other financial institution. Banks will never send you emails asking you to divulge such information. Any communication from banks will use your actual name (not ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’) and possibly another verification of authenticity such as your postcode or part of your account number. If you are unsure if an email is genuine, contact your bank via other means.

Always make sure you are using a secure internet connection to connect to your bank. Never use free public Wi-Fi - however convenient - as this may not be secure and your online banking could be eavesdropped on

Look for ‘https’ at the beginning of the address and the padlock symbol in the browser

Use strong passwords and PINs.

Ensure you have effective and updated antivirus/antispyware software and firewall running before you log in to your bank account.

Do not reveal your passwords or PINs to anybody else or write them down to remember them.

Always check your statements, and if you notice any unusual transactions, report them immediately.

Always be aware of opening emails and attachments from sources that you are unsure about or look to good to be true

Be wary of any unexpected or suspicious looking ‘pop-up’ windows that appear during your online banking session.

Two- and Multi- Factor Authentication

Many banks use two factor authentication to obtain stronger evidence of who you are than simply using passwords. Two factors are ‘something you know’ (typically your user name and password) and ‘something you have’ which is either your bank card with a card reader. The code generated is personal to you, and different each time you log in.

Common Types of Phishing Scams

The term ‘Phishing’ relates to an action where fraudsters send you electronic emails or texts which look like they come from an official source, often from a payment institution (banks, PayPal etc.), asking for personal and security information. They are looking for you to divulge enough information for them to use to either take payments directly from your accounts or use information you give them to pay for items online.

Malware-Based Phishing

Refers to scams that involve running malicious software on users' PCs. Malware can be introduced as an email attachment, as a downloadable file from a web site, or by exploiting known security vulnerabilities--a particular issue for small and medium businesses (SMBs) who are not always able to keep their software applications up to date

Spear Phishing

In this type of attack, individuals or companies are being targeted. Gathering personal information about the victims from various mediums such as social media websites, attackers pose themselves as someone you are familiar with. This makes the victim less vigilant and takes action without giving much consideration.

Clone Phishing

This type of phishing attacks happens when a legitimate and previously delivered email is taken and used to create an identical email with malicious content. The email appears to come from the original sender and claims to be a resend or updated version to the original email.

Remuneration Code

Alliance Finance Bank Plc Annual Report 2019

Nominations

Compliance with the Capital Requirements Directive – Governance

Corporate Governance

Reports & Presentations