P age 3 It is our opinion that BNY Mellon has establish e d ap prop riate systems for the collection, aggrega tion and an al ys i s of qu antitative data for det ermination of the se GHG emissions for t he stated period and bound a rie s. St at ement of independence, imp artiality and competence Apex is an indepen d ent profession a l se rvic es company that speci alizes in Health, Sa fety, Socia l an d Enviro nmental man agement s erv ices including as surance with over 3 0 y ears history in providing t hes e ser vi ces. No member of the ver ification team has a business relationship w ith BNY Mellon , i ts Director s or Managers be yond that required o f this assignment . W e conducted t his ver ification i ndependen tly and to our knowled ge there ha s been no confl i ct of in terest. Apex has implemented a Co de of Ethics across the business to maintain h igh ethic a l st andards a mong staff in th eir d ay - to - day busin ess activities. T he v e rification t eam has extensive experienc e in conducting assura nce over environmental, so c ial, eth ical an d health and safety inform ation, systems and processes, has over 20 yea r s combine d e xp erience i n this field and an excellent unders tanding of Apex’s s ta n dard methodo logy fo r the verif ication o f greenhouse gas emiss ions data. Attestation: Mary E. Armstrong - Friberg , Lea d Verifier David Re illy , Technical Revi ewer Senior Project Man ager Senior Project Manager APEX Companies, LLC A PEX Com pa nies, LLC Cleveland, Ohio Santa Ana , California May 10 , 2022 T his verification opinion declaration , including th e opinion expressed he rein, is provided to BNY Mellon a n d is solely f or t he benefit of BNY M ellon i n acco rdance wi th the terms of our a greement. W e consent to the release o f this opinion by you to CDP in order to satisfy the terms of CDP dis closure r equirements but withou t accepting or assuming an y re s p ons ibili ty or liabi l i t y on our part to CDP or to any ot her par ty who may have access to this opinion .