4.1. A specific function in charge of defining and updating accounting policies (accounting policies area or Department) and of settling doubts or conflicts arising from the construction thereof, which is in regular communication with those in charge of operations within the organization as well as an updated manual on accounting policies disclosed to the units through which the entity operates

The External Reporting area within the Planning and Management Control department is responsible for drafting, publishing, implementing and updating the Manual of Accounting Policies of the Group. Such area has, among others, the following duties associated to accounting policies:

• Defining the accounting treatment of the transactions which make up the business of the Group.
• Defining and updating the accounting practices of the Group .
• Addressing accounting doubts raised by any company of the Group.
• Homogeneizar las prácticas contables del Grupo.

Standardizing the accounting practices of the Group.

As previously stated, the Group relies on a manual of Accounting Policies of the Group drafted by the Consolidation and Reporting area. Such manual covers transactions inherent in the Groups´ business.

The manual is regularly updated. For such updating procedure, the Consolidation and Reporting area includes all accounting changes arisen during the fiscal year which were already advanced to those in charge of drafting the financial statements.

The manual and the remaining documentation are available on the corporate intranet.

In February 2013, an update version of the manual on accounting policies has been published.

4.2. Mechanisms for the capture and preparation of financial information in standard format, which are enforced and used by all the units of the Company or the Group, supporting the main financial statements and the notes thereto, as well as the disclosure concerning SCIIF

The process for the capture and preparation of consolidated financial statements is centralized, falling on the External Reporting area which reports to the Planning and Management Control Department.

The Group relies on IT systems for the drafting of financial information of individual companies, which on the one hand allow the automatic recording of the different transactions, with the standard configuration of individual financial statements of each company within the Group, and on the other hand, provides the information required to draft the consolidated financial statements.

For the purposes of reporting financial information, the subsidiaries of the Group resort to a specific application whereby they include their financial statements and carry out the reconciliation of transactions and inter-group balances. The remaining part of the consolidation process (removal, adjustment, etc.,) is carried out through another tool, specific to the Group.

Financial information reported to CNMV is drafted based upon consolidated financial statements gathered through the above referred tool, and based upon certain supplementary information reported by the subsidiaries, required to prepare the annual/half-year report. Contemporaneously, certain specific controls are exerted to confirm integrity of such information.