GROUPAMA / 2020 UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT

6 EARNINGS AND FINANCIAL POSITION Management report of the Board of Directors

6.1.5

DEBT

expenditure of a technical, general or financial nature is in principle ordered by persons outside the Group Financial Control Department who are authorised up to a certain ceiling based on the type of expense; payment of these expenses is initiated by the Group Financial Control Departmentonly after a signature different from that of the authorising officer, monitoring of banking authorities: – delegation of signature authority for banking transactions, granted to some employees, is subject to administrative monitoring and regular updating; these functions have been the responsibility, since 1 July 2014, of the Group Legal Department,in close liaison with the Group Financial Control Department, within inventorymanagementand preparationof the financial ■ statements: regular review meetings between the Group Financial – Control Department and the other departments designed to provide an overview of all the flows for the year and anticipate their integration into the financial statements, measurement of the consistency between the parent – company statements and the estimated statements in collaborationwith the various teams of the Group Financial Control Department, building up a set of supporting documentation for the – year’s financial statements under the supervision of the reviewer’s direct superior, then the department head, review of parent company and Group tax income/expense – with the Group Tax Department, internal meetings within the Group Finance Department to – deal with different operational and functional views and thus to ensure the validity of the Groupama Assurances Mutuelles auxiliary and parent company financial statements, approval of the financial statements by the Executive – Management. As Group parent company, Groupama Assurances Mutuelles handles the accounting for a number of subsidiaries through its Shared Service Centre (operatingSCIs, GIE GroupamaSupport & Services, holding companies, and other subsidiaries) as well as investment accounting for the French subsidiaries. The Group Financial Control Department prepares the financial component of the financial statements (securities and real estate, plant and equipment) for the profit centres, using an auxiliary accounting system. For those entities in particular, it works with the Group Tax Department to calculate the financial taxable income/expense (securities and real estate) and drafts the statutory financial statements to be sent to the ACPR. The tools and procedures used to keep investment auxiliary accounts (back-office securities and accounting tool) and the accounting systemsof the entitieswithout the means to have their own Accounting Departments comply with the same internal control criteria as those described previously for the Groupama Assurances Mutuelles parent company statements (see above). With regard to the investment accounting system, it should be noted that standardised controls, which are subject to written procedures, can be used to guarantee the reliability of the information regarding investments.

The Group’s debt ratio is assessed at the combined scope level (ratio now calculated according to the method chosen by our rating agency) and was 26.9%at the end of 2020, comparedwith 27.2% at 31 December 2019.

6.1.6

RISK MANAGEMENT AND RELIABILITY OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Risk management is addressed in section 3 of the universal registration document.

Reliability of financial data The Group Financial Control Departmentwithin the Group Finance Department is responsible for preparing the financial statements and the notes to the shareholders,supervisoryauthoritiesand tax authorities. Groupama Assurances Mutuelles The parent company statements are prepared with an ongoing objectiveof identifyingall funds flows in detail, assigninga value to them and accounting for them in accordancewith the regulations in force. The types of internal control procedure implemented to that end are listed below: security procedures and internal checks: every area Manager ❯ guaranteesthe appropriatenessof the work load for the skills of his or her staff and ensures their compatibilitywhile at the same time ensuring the separation of duties among employees; integrated control and control tests: this refers to all operations ❯ guaranteeing the reliability and existence of an audit trail when data are charged to the accounting, tax and regulatory information system, notably: the functionsand applicationsused to perform reliability tests ■ and tests to check on the accuracy and consistency of accounting transactions, other non-electronic actions and tests, mainly focusing on ■ consistency checks carried out by random sampling on large-volume transactions, with very low unit amounts ( e.g. , balancing of policyholder balances, tax statements); hierarchical control: aimed at distributing information and ❯ allowing the cross-checking required for the reliability of the parent company financial statements. This is done through several routine management procedures and in inventory: within routine management: ■ separation of the functionsof commitmentand payment of – expenses: Corporate financial statements of 6.1.6.1

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Universal Registration Document 2020 - GROUPAMA ASSURANCES MUTUELLES