Handling conflicts of interest
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Diligence and honesty
By law VP Fund Solutions (Liechtenstein) AG (hereinafter: VPFSLI) has an obligation to give information on conflicts of interest and to disclose any that exist. For that reason, VPFSLI offers information here on the wide-ranging measures and arrangements it has put in place to handle conflicts of interest.
For instance, conflicts of interest can arise between VPFSLI and other VP Bank Group companies, our executive managers, our employees or other persons associated with us and our clients or indeed between our clients.
In particular, conflicts of interest can arise:
- in asset management from our own (turnover-based) interest in selling financial instruments, especially the Group's own products;
- when receiving or paying financial inducements from or to third parties;
- as a result of the performance-related remuneration of employees;
- when paying financial inducements to our employees;
- through the acquisition of information not in the public domain;
- from personal relationships between our employees or executive managers or persons associated with them, or
- through the functions exercised by these persons on supervisory boards or other governing bodies.
Our measures
To avoid extraneous interests influencing (for example) the advice we give or our order execution, asset management or financial analysis, VPFSLI has committed to upholding rigorous ethical standards. At all times VPFSLI expects diligence and honesty, lawful and professional conduct, compliance with market standards and, in particular, consideration of the client's best interests.
More specifically, the measures VPFSLI has taken to avoid conflicts of interest include the following:
- creation of organisational processes and procedures;
- arrangements governing the granting and acceptance of financial inducements as well as their disclosure;
- creation of confidentiality zones through the erection of information barriers, the division of responsibilities and/or spatial separation;
- maintenance of an ongoing register of conflicts of interest;
- disclosure to the Legal & Compliance department of the securities transactions of those employees for whom conflicts of interest might arise in the course of their work;
- training courses for our employees;
- continuous monitoring and reporting of identified conflicts of interest by the Legal & Compliance department.