THI developed the insolvency protection under German law and operates it on an ongoing basis: separate trust accounts for contributions and collateral, anti-money laundering checks on every participant with continuously updated release lists, monthly accounting and reporting, half-yearly settlement of the share purchases including currency conversion and monitoring of the plan’s maximum limits, and defined processes for departures and cases of inheritance. THI determines the security event independently – including on the basis of the group’s US capital market disclosures. Employees are protected twofold: in addition to the claim against THI, they have a direct claim against the account-holding bank under a contract for the benefit of third parties together with a pledge of the account receivables. The language of the procedure is English; the participant documents are available in German.