Deutsche Börse Group Annual report 2020 Annual report 2020 Contents 3 Executive and 171 Consolidated financial Supervisory Board statements/notes 3 Letter from the CEO 172 Consolidated income statement 5 The Executive Board 173 Consolidated statement of 6 The Supervisory Board comprehensive income 8 Report of the Supervisory Board 174 Consolidated balance sheet 176 Consolidated cash flow statement 178 Consolidated statement of changes in equity 20 Combined 179 Basis of preparation 188 Notes on the consolidated income statement management report 204 Notes on the consolidated statement of financial position 21 Fundamental information about the Group 252 Other disclosures 32 Report on economic position 277 Responsibility statement by the 52 Report on post-balance sheet date events Executive Board 53 Combined non-financial statement 278 Independent Auditor’s Report 74 Risk report 105 Report on opportunities 109 Report on expected developments 112 Deutsche Börse AG (disclosures based on the HGB) 287 Acknowledgements/contact/ 118 Remuneration report registered trademarks 152 Corporate governance statement 288 About this report 289 Financial calendar Deutsche Börse Group | Annual report 2020 Executive and Supervisory Boards | Letter from the CEO Management report Financial statements Notes Further information Frankfurt/Main, 12 March 2021 Dear Shareholders, Ladies and Gentlemen, 2020 was an extraordinary year. It was defined by the coronavirus pandemic, which put a great strain on economies and companies around the world. In this difficult environment we at Deutsche Börse Group fulfilled all our growth targets. Deutsche Börse increased its net revenue by 9 per cent in 2020 compared with the previous year. Structural growth came to 5 per cent as planned. Exactly as forecast, this resulted in a higher adjusted net profit of €1.2 billion for the period. Our business model has thus proven its resilience once more. This is also demonstrated by the completion of our growth strategy, Roadmap 2020. It was a complete success in all three components of growth: growth in existing business; growth by acquisition; and expanding new technologies. We promised a great deal. And we have kept all our promises. In our existing business, we achieved a secular growth of 5 per cent as planned. We also increased net profit for the period by an average of 12 per cent – in the middle of the announced range of 10 to 15 per cent. We strengthened our business model by means of acquisitions. Just to mention the most important ones: the analytics provider Axioma, which we merged with STOXX to form Qontigo; UBS Fondcenter; and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a leading US-based provider of governance solutions, sustainability data and analytics, which is our biggest step to date. In technological terms, we have also made progress: we gained Google and SAP as new cloud partners in addition to Microsoft. And we advanced the cutting-edge blockchain technology, partly by means of our investment in HQLAx. Our employees all over the world made a decisive contribution to this success. They put in an excepti- onal performance in the Covid-dominated year 2020, with 98 per cent of our workforce working from home at times. And despite all the difficulties, they remained as dedicated and motivated as ever. Some 900 new colleagues have joined us over this period, and together we are looking to the future with confidence. 3 Deutsche Börse Group | Annual report 2020 Executive and Supervisory Boards | Letter from the CEO Management report Financial statements Notes Further information Where do we go from here? We are continuing the Roadmap: with Compass 2023. Our target of 5 per cent structural growth is still the same. We no longer expect to have any cyclical support for that, and so we are reinforcing our focus on acquisitions. For the first time, we are also defining a target here: an average of 5 per cent annual inorganic growth until 2023. That is ambitious but realistic. I am looking forward to more years of rapid growth ahead! Growth nowadays always means sustainable growth, too. The transition towards a sustainable economy is one of the most important tasks of our age. And we too consider it to be our responsibility. ESG is part of our corporate culture and our Group strategy. Not only are we continuously expanding our own sustainability reporting. We are also a member of the United Nations Global Compact and promote the implementation of its principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti- corruption. Our indices and ratings help companies to become more sustainable and at the same time support investors seeking to invest in these companies. This was also one reason for our takeover of ISS, which plays a leading global role in sustainability ratings. Our own ESG product portfolio for trading completes the picture and continues to grow. We at Deutsche Börse have proved to be a pillar of stability in the Covid-dominated year 2020, a time of great uncertainty and ensuing volatility. In the heat of the moment, there were some calls for radical political intervention in market mechanisms, but we refuted them calmly and knowledgeably, and so kept markets stable. That is our duty as a provider of market infrastructure. It also shows that policy- makers acknowledge the importance of capital markets and our role in them. That is something we appreciate, not least because we rely on political support to hold our ground in competition with the USA and Asia. Dear shareholders, last year was a real test of character for all of us. I therefore thank you all the more for the trust that you have placed in us. In this context, I am particularly pleased that, for 2020, we can again propose an increase in the dividend – to €3.00 per share from €2.90 the previous year. This distribution leaves us enough scope to prepare the ground in 2021 for further growth by means of investment, mergers and acquisitions – from which you will benefit, too. Please do come with us on our journey – I am counting on you. Thank you! Yours sincerely, Theodor Weimer Chief Executive Officer 4 Deutsche Börse Group | Annual report 2020 Executive and Supervisory Boards | The Executive Board Management report Financial statements Notes Further information The Executive Board Theodor Weimer, *1959 Heike Eckert, *1968 Dr. rer. pol. Graduate degree in Economics Wiesbaden (Diplom-Volkswirtin) Nationality: German Oberursel Chief Executive Officer, Nationality: German Deutsche Börse AG Member of the Executive Board, Deutsche Börse AG, Christoph Böhm, *1966 responsible for HR (Director of Dr.-Ing. Labour Relations) & Compliance Hamburg Nationality: German Stephan Leithner, *1966 Member of the Executive Board Dr. oec. HSG and Chief Information Officer/ Bad Soden am Taunus Chief Operating Officer, Nationality: Austrian Deutsche Börse AG Member of the Executive Board, Deutsche Börse AG, Thomas Book, *1971 responsible for Pre- & Post-Trading Dr. rer. pol. Kronberg im Taunus Gregor Pottmeyer, *1962 Nationality: German Graduate degree in Member of the Executive Board, Business Administration Deutsche Börse AG, (Diplom-Kaufmann) responsible for Trading & Clearing Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe Nationality: German Member of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer, Deutsche Börse AG Former members of the Executive Board Hauke Stars, *1967 (until 30.06.2020) Engineering degree in applied computer science (Diplom-Ingenieurin Informatik), MSc by research in Engineering Königstein im Taunus Nationality: German Member of the Executive Board, Deutsche Börse AG, responsible for Cash Market, Pre-IPO & Growth Financing and Human Resources/Director of Labour Relations As at 31 December 2020 (unless otherwise stated) Detailed information about the members of the Executive Board and their appointments to super visory bodies of other companies or comparable control bodies, as well as their CVs can be found on the internet under: www.deutsche-boerse.com/execboard 5 Deutsche Börse Group | Annual report 2020 Executive and Supervisory Boards | The Supervisory Board Management report Financial statements Notes Further information The Supervisory Board Martin Jetter, *1959 Dr. Andreas Gottschling, *1967 Michael Rüdiger, *1964 Chairman Member of the Board of Directors Independent Management Senior Vice President & of Credit Suisse Group AG, Consultant, Utting am Ammersee Chairman IBM Europe, Zurich, Switzerland Nationality: German Madrid, Spain Nationality: German Board member Nationality: German Board member since 19 May 2020 Board member since 1 July 2020 since 24 May 2018 Carsten Schäfer,1) *1967 Susann Just-Marx,1) *1988 Expert, staff member in Jutta Stuhlfauth,1) *1961 Head of Sales Clearing Non-Financial Risk Deputy Chairwoman European Energy Deutsche Börse AG, Lawyer, M.B.A. (Wales) Exchange AG, Leipzig Frankfurt/Main Staff member in the Group Nationality: German Nationality: German Organisational Services Board member Board member Deutsche Börse AG, since 15 August 2018 since 28 August 2018 Frankfurt/Main Nationality: German Achim Karle,1) *1973 Charles G.T. Stonehill, *1958 Board member Staff member in the Equity & Green & Blue Advisors LLC, since 16 May 2012 Index Sales EMEA Founding Partner, New York Eurex Frankfurt AG, Frankfurt/Main Nationality: British, US-American Nadine Absenger,1) *1975 Nationality: German Board member Head of Legal and Legal Policy Board member since 8 May 2020 ver.di federal administration, since 28 August 2018 Berlin Clara-Christina Streit, *1968 Nationality: German Cornelis