NATIXIS - 2018 Registration document and annual financial report

5 FINANCIAL DATA

Parent company financial statements and notes

Employee benefits 8. Employee benefits are recognized in “Payroll costs”. They fall into four categories:

In the event of changes to an existing plan or the implementation of a new plan, past service cost is recognized in income over the period until the benefits become vested. Insurance contracts taken up with a related party to Natixis and intended to finance all or part of Natixis’ defined-benefit plan commitments are recorded in the asset side of the balance sheet as “Other assets”. The amount recognized as a provision in the balance sheet represents the present value of the obligation under defined-benefit plans at the closing date: minus any past service cost not yet recognized in income; j plus or minus any unrecognized actuarial gains or losses in j accordance with the corridor principle arising from: experience adjustments linked to demographic variables, j changes in actuarial assumptions, j differences between expected returns on plan assets and j reimbursement rights and their actual returns; minus the market value of plan assets at the closing date. j The annual payroll costs recognized in respect of a defined-benefit plans consist of: rights vested by beneficiaries over the period; j the interest cost reflecting the impact of unwinding the j discount on the obligation; the expected return on plan assets; j amortization of actuarial gains and losses and past service j costs; the effects of plan curtailments and settlements. j “Other long-term benefits” including long-service awards and deferred compensation payable in cash under Employee Retention and Performance Recognition plans are valued using the same actuarial method as that applied to post-employment benefits under defined-benefit plans, except that actuarial gains and losses are not subject to the corridor method and past service costs are recognized directly as an expense. The estimated amount of the expense related to cash-settled variable compensation, subject to the employee’s continued service in accordance with the Employee Retention and Performance Recognition plans, is recognized over the vesting period. performance recognition plans Since 2010, Natixis has granted share-based payment plans to certain categories of staff. Some plans are settled in Natixis shares, while others are settled in cash indexed to the Natixis share price. Each plan is a three-year plan, with one-third of the plan settled each year, with the exception of “short-term” plans settled in cash indexed to the Natixis share price, which are settled in the year of granting. All of these plans are contingent on satisfying service and/or performance requirements. Share-based employee retention and 9.

“Short-term benefits” including salaries, social security contributions, annual leave, employee profit-sharing, incentive plans, top-up contributions and bonuses payable in the 12 months after they are attributed are expensed in the period in which the corresponding services were rendered. “Termination benefits” granted to employees upon the termination of their employment and prior to retirement. A provision is accrued for these benefits. “Post-employment benefits” such as pensions, other supplementary retirement benefits applicable to the banking industry, end-of-career awards and other contractual benefits payable to retirees. Natixis distinguishes between two types of post-employment benefits: defined-contribution plans , which mainly consist of the social a security basic pension scheme and the supplementary schemes Agirc and Arco, under which an entity has no obligation to pay a specified benefit amount. Contributions paid under defined contribution plans are expensed in the corresponding period; defined-benefit plans under which Natixis has a legal or a constructive obligation to pay a specified benefit amount are valued and funded. A provision is set aside for defined-benefit plans based on an actuarial assessment of the benefit obligation using the projected unit credit method. This method draws on demographic and financial assumptions. The value of plan assets is deducted from the actuarial debt. This valuation is carried out on a regular basis by independent actuaries. Actuarial assumptions are reviewed annually. Differences resulting from changes in actuarial assumptions and experience adjustments (impact of differences between actuarial assumptions and actual experience) give rise to actuarial gains and losses. In accordance with recommendation No. 2013-02 of the Autorité des Normes Comptables (ANC—French accounting standards authority) on rules for measuring and recognizing retirement and similar commitments, dated November 7, 2013 (which allowed the partial adoption of revised IAS 19 as adopted by the European Union in June 2012), Natixis chose to maintain the corridor method approach in the parent company financial statements. Under this method, Natixis does not recognize the portion of net cumulative actuarial gains and losses that is lower than the greater of (i) 10% of the present value of the defined-benefit obligation and (ii) 10% of the fair value of any plan assets at the end of the previous reporting period. The portion of actuarial gains and losses outside the 10% “corridor” is therefore recognized over the average remaining working lives of the employees participating in the relevant plan.

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Natixis Registration Document 2018