WHAT IS THE HOIST FINANCE SPAIN COMPLAINTS CHANNEL??
The Whistleblower Channel is the system that HOIST FINANCE SPAIN makes available so that any person can report breaches of the applicable legal regulations or the Code of Ethics occurring within the framework of the activities of HOIST FINANCE SPAIN, within the scope of application of the Law 2/2023, of 20 February, regulating the protection of persons who report breaches of regulations
and the fight against corruption.
HOIST FINANCE STATEMENT.
At HOIST we are committed to ensuring compliance with our values, ethical principles, transparency and good governance. Our priorities are based on enhancing the culture of compliance and integrating ethical principles as key elements of our organisation.
Crimes, such as fraud and harassment, committed at Hoist or otherwise related to Hoist can seriously jeopardise Hoist's reputation and other assets.
This Hoist Whistleblowing Channel Instruction sets out how any third party can raise concerns and how those concerns will be dealt with.
SCOPE OF APPLICATION AND DEFINITION.
This instruction shall apply, in accordance with article 3 of Law 2/2023, of 20 February, regulating the protection of persons who report regulatory and anti-corruption offences, to whistleblowers working in the private or public sector who have obtained information on offences in a work or professional context related to Hoist, who have any of the following conditions:
(a) Persons having the status of public employees or employees;
b) Self-employed persons;
c) Shareholders, members and persons belonging to the administrative, management or supervisory body of a company, including non-executive members;
(d) shareholders and persons belonging to the administrative, management or supervisory body of Hoist, including non-executive members;
e) Any person working for or under the supervision and direction of Hoist or its contractors, subcontractors and suppliers.
The term "whistleblowing" can be defined as raising concerns about wrongdoing within an organisation.
The information that can be reported through the Whistleblowing Channel is as follows:
- Infringements relating to breaches of the Hoist Code of Conduct.
- Any behaviour considered contrary to the principles and values of the Hoist Code of Conduct.
- Infringements referred to in Article 2 of Law 2/2023 of 20 February.
- Any acts or omissions that may constitute infringements of European Union law, provided that:
Fall within the scope of the acts of the European Union listed in the Annex to Directive (EU)
2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons reporting breaches of Union law, irrespective of their qualification under national law;
affect the financial interests of the European Union as referred to in Article 325 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU); or
affect the internal market, as referred to in Article 26(2) TFEU, including infringements of EU competition rules and aid granted by States, as well as infringements relating to the internal market in relation to acts in breach of corporate tax rules or practices aimed at obtaining a tax advantage that would defeat the object or purpose of corporate tax law.
Actions or omissions that may constitute a serious or very serious criminal or administrative offence. The complaint may also relate to:
- information relating to conduct aimed at concealing the violations identified above;
- unlawful activities which have not yet taken place but which the complainant reasonably believes could occur in the presence of precise and consistent factual elements.
However, whistleblowing other than the cases described above, in particular those which concern requests, claims or complaints of a commercial nature, cannot be considered relevant under the whistleblowing rules.
Furthermore, with this instruction we wish to underline that any whistleblower reporting in good faith will in any case be protected against possible retaliation and/or oppressive activities resulting from his/her initiative/whistleblowing.
PRINCIPLES.
The purpose of the whistleblowing channel is to ensure that anyone feels able to raise any concerns in a confidential, safe and secure manner. For this reason, Hoist has adopted the following
principles:
- One may choose to be anonymous when making a report.
- The complainant does not need to prove the facts reported - a reasonable belief that the facts are true is sufficient to make the report.
- The complainant has no responsibility to investigate the facts reported.
- All allegations and persons reported, as well as the fact reported, shall be treated confidentially, unless disclosure is required by national law in the context of subsequent
investigations or judicial proceedings.
- All communications received shall be taken seriously.
THE COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT PROCESS.
The process is divided into the following phases:
A) Receipt of reports;
- Preliminary assessment;
- Investigation and research;
- Closure of
a) Reception of reports:
Hoist Spain SL, in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the reporting process and to provide broad and indiscriminate access to all those who wish to file a report, offers the possibility of filing a report through the form provided on the Hoist Finance Spain website.
In addition, there are alternative channels to make your communication:
- Postal mail addressed to the Compliance Department Hoist Finance Spain, S.L. Sita en Avenida de Manoteras 44, 1ª planta 28050, Madrid, Spain.
- Request a face-to-face or online meeting with the staff authorised to manage the complaints channel. To do so, describe this option when creating your complaint.
The monitoring of the functioning of the above-mentioned communication channels is ensured by the local Compliance Department, which should be contacted in case of any malfunction.
Content of complaints.
Complaints are made by the complainant providing the information available to him/her on the basis of well-founded grounds and information that he/she believes to be true.
The subsequent preliminary stages of verification and assessment are facilitated by reports with precise and detailed contents, such as, for example:
Description of the reported facts, with an indication of the known circumstances (manner, time, place);
Identification of elements of the reported person (or persons reported) insofar as known; Indication of other persons who can provide information on the reported facts.
Indication or, where appropriate, provision of any documents supporting the complaint, as well as, of course, the complainant's identification details (e.g. personal details and contact details), in cases
where the option of anonymity has not been chosen.
It is specified that in the event of unfounded reports, made in bad faith or with gross negligence, Hoist Finance Spain reserves the right to act to defend its interests and protect the injured parties. In the case of a non-anonymous report, the person reporting the report will receive a notice of receipt of the report within seven days of the date of receipt. Within seven days of the date of receipt.
b) Preliminary assessment.
The allegations received are analysed and:
- if the report has accurate, detailed and verifiable content, and refers to relevant facts, starts the corresponding investigation;
- if the report has unsubstantiated and/or unverifiable content and the complainant cannot be contacted to provide the necessary additions, as well as if the report was not
made in good faith or is malicious, file the complaint;; or
- if the report refers to facts that, although affecting Hoist Finance Spain SL, do not fall within the scope of this document (by way of example and not limited to, complaints of
a commercial nature, commercial proposals, marketing), refer it to the competent function of the Company for management.
- if it is aware of ongoing investigations by Public Authorities (e.g. judicial authorities, independent administrative authorities, etc.) into the facts reported, it refrains from
dealing with the investigation;
- if the report refers to facts already known and fully verified and without the new complaint having added or allowed to add additional elements or aspects to those
already known (so-called stale reports), close the complaint.
The local Compliance Department may, if necessary, make requests for clarification, always guaranteeing the confidentiality of the complainant.
c) Investigation.
The purpose of the investigation is to conduct in-depth investigations aimed at objectively verifying the validity or otherwise of the reported facts.
A reported problem will never be handled by anyone who may be involved or in any related capacity. with it.
Information contained in reports is treated in strict confidence by those responsible.
Without prejudice to the protection of the privacy of the reported person and all issues relating to his or her confidentiality, a non-anonymous reporting person will be kept informed about the progress of the investigation and the results of the subsequent management phases.
d) Closure of reports.
It examines the results of the investigation phase and:
- if the content of the complaint is confirmed, defines the necessary measures, delegating their implementation to the competent functions in accordance with the
system of delegations and empowerment in force;
- The complaint will be responded to within three months of the date of
acknowledgement of receipt or, in the absence of such notification, within three months
of the expiry of the seven-day period following the submission of the complaint.
- Access to the content of complaints received is limited to persons expressly authorised to handle complaint cases. Where necessary, persons who can add additional useful
information may be included in the investigation process. The latter will therefore have access to the necessary information, but will at the same time be bound by confidentiality.
DATA PROTECTION.
The processing of personal data in the context of the complaints will be carried out in accordance with the current applicable legislation on personal data protection, including the European Regulation EU 2016/679 ("GDPR"), as well as any other applicable law and/or regulation.
The legal basis that legitimises the processing of personal data provided through the Whistleblowing Channel is the fulfilment of a legal obligation by Hoist within the regulatory framework of data protection that regulates the whistleblowing channels, including the duties of prevention and control in terms of prevention of criminal liability and regulatory compliance
applicable to the Entity.
The information on the processing of personal data is made available to interested parties through publication on the Hoist Finance Spain S.L. website.
In order to comply with the principle of data minimisation, as referred to in art. 5 of the GDPR, only personal data that are adequate, relevant and necessary with respect to the purposes of this instruction may be processed. Therefore, all personal data (of the complainant, where the complaint is nominative, of the respondent and of any other natural person) contained in the complaint or otherwise collected during the investigation phase that are not strictly necessary to determine and verify the validity will be deleted or rendered anonymous.
Data subjects may exercise the rights provided for by the GDPR and the applicable legal provisions by contacting the Personal Data Protection Officer at the following e-mail address: protecciondatos @ hoistfinance.com.
Personal data contained in complaints and relating to subsequent investigative activities shall be deleted at the end of the entire process, unless their retention is required by law or is necessary to know, exercise and/or defend a right in court.
Protection of the identified whistleblower.
In cases of suspected criminal offences, the whistleblower will be informed that it may be necessary to disclose his or her identity during legal proceedings.
The rights of individuals specified in a whistleblowing report are subject to the applicable data protection laws. Data subjects have the right to access the data concerning them and, in the event that the information is incorrect, incomplete or out of date, to request that their data be amended or deleted.
These rights are subject to all necessary safeguards to prevent the destruction of evidence or other obstacles to the processing and investigation of the complaint.
EXTERNAL REPORTING CHANNEL CONTACT
The HOIST Whistleblowing Channel will be the preferred channel for reporting serious or very serious criminal or administrative offences subject to protection in accordance with Law 2/2023 of 20 February.
However, the following external channels may be used to report such breaches:
