Ameriprise 2009 Annual Report Download - page 36

impact of, and insuring compliance with, the EU Financial Risks Relating to Our Business
Conglomerates Directive, which contemplates that certain Our financial condition and results of operations may
financial conglomerates involved in banking, insurance and be adversely affected by market fluctuations and by
investment activities will be subject to a system of supplementary economic and other factors.
supervision at the level of the holding company constituting the
Our financial condition and results of operations may be
financial conglomerate. The directive requires financial
materially affected by market fluctuations and by economic and
conglomerates to, among other things, implement measures to
other factors. Many such factors of a global or localized nature
prevent excessive leverage and multiple leveraging of capital and
include: political, economic and market conditions; the
to maintain internal control processes to address risk
availability and cost of capital; the level and volatility of equity
concentrations as well as risks arising from significant intragroup
prices, commodity prices and interest rates, currency values and
transactions. We have designated the OTS as our global
other market indices; technological changes and events; the
consolidated supervisory regulator under the EU Financial
availability and cost of credit; inflation; investor sentiment and
Conglomerates Directive.
confidence in the financial markets; terrorism events and armed
conflicts; and natural disasters such as weather catastrophes and
Securities Exchange Act Reports and widespread health emergencies. Furthermore, changes in
Additional Information consumer economic variables, such as the number and size of
We maintain an Investor Relations website at ir.ameriprise.com personal bankruptcy filings, the rate of unemployment, decreases
and we make available free of charge our annual, quarterly and in property values, and the level of consumer confidence and
current reports and any amendments to those reports as soon as consumer debt, may substantially affect consumer loan levels and
reasonably practicable following the time they are electronically credit quality, which, in turn, could impact the results of our
filed with or furnished to the SEC. To access these and other banking business. These factors also may have an impact on our
documents, click on the ‘‘SEC Filings’’ link found on our Investor ability to achieve our strategic objectives.
Relations homepage.
Although U.S. and global capital markets demonstrated signs of
You can also access our Investor Relations website through our improvement and stabilization in the second half of 2009, current
main website at ameriprise.com by clicking on the ‘‘Investor market conditions remains precarious and any further declines or
Relations’’ link, which is located at the bottom of our homepage. volatility in U.S. and global market conditions would impact our
Information contained on our website is not incorporated by businesses. Our businesses have been and in the future may be
reference into this report or any other report filed with the SEC. adversely affected by U.S. and global capital market and credit
crises, the repricing of credit risk, equity market volatility and
Segment Information and Classes of decline, and stress or recession in the U.S. and global economies
generally. In addition, since the second half of 2007, difficulties in
Similar Services
the mortgage and broader capital markets in the United States and
You can find financial information regarding our operating elsewhere, coupled with the repricing of credit risk, have created
segments and classes of similar services in Note 26 to our extremely difficult and uncertain market conditions. Each of our
Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of segments operates in these markets with exposure for ourselves
this Annual Report on Form 10-K. and our clients in securities, loans, derivatives, alternative
investments, seed capital and other commitments. It is difficult to
Item 1A. Risk Factors. predict how long and to what extent the aforementioned
Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks conditions will exist, which of our markets, products and
and uncertainties, including those described below, that could businesses will be directly affected in terms of revenues,
have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition management fees and investment valuations and earnings, and to
or results of operations and could cause the trading price of our what extent our clients may seek to bring claims arising out of
common stock to decline. Based on the information currently investment performance. As a result, these factors could
known to us, we believe that the following information identifies materially adversely impact our results of operations. Certain of
the material factors affecting our company. However, the risks and our insurance and annuity products and certain of our investment
uncertainties our company faces are not limited to those described and banking products are sensitive to interest rate fluctuations,
below. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to and our future costs associated with such variations may differ
us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also adversely from our historical costs. In addition, interest rate fluctuations
affect our business. could result in fluctuations in the valuation of certain minimum
guaranteed benefits contained in some of our variable annuity
ANNUAL REPORT 2009 21