Item 30. Indemnification:
The Trust (also referred to in this section as the Fund) is organized as a Delaware statutory trust and is operated pursuant
to an Amended and Restated Agreement and Declaration of Trust (the Declaration of Trust) that permits the Trust to indemnify its trustees and officers under certain circumstances. Such indemnification, however, is subject to the
limitations imposed by the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the 1933 Act), and the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the 1940 Act). The Declaration of Trust provides that officers and trustees of the Trust shall be
indemnified by the Trust against liabilities and expenses incurred or paid in connection with any claim, action, suit, or proceedings against them by reason of the fact that they each serve as an officer or trustee of the Trust or as an officer or
trustee of another entity at the request of the entity. This indemnification is subject to the following conditions:
(a) no trustee or
officer of the Trust is indemnified against any liability to the Trust or its security holders that was the result of any willful misfeasance, bad faith, gross negligence, or reckless disregard of the duties involved in the conduct of his office;
and
(b) officers and trustees of the Trust are indemnified only for actions taken in good faith that the officers and trustees believed were
in or not opposed to the best interests of the Trust.
The Declaration of Trust provides that if indemnification is not ordered by a court,
indemnification may be authorized upon determination by shareholders, or by a majority vote of a quorum of the trustees who were not parties to the proceedings or, if this quorum is not obtainable, if directed by a quorum of disinterested trustees,
or by independent legal counsel in a written opinion, that the persons to be indemnified have met the applicable standard.
The Amended and
Restated By-Laws provides that the Trust may purchase and maintain insurance on behalf of any Covered Person or employee of the Trust, including any Covered Person or employee of the Trust who is or was serving at the request of the Trust as a
trustee, officer, or employee of a corporation, partnership, association, joint venture, trust, or other enterprise, against any liability asserted against and incurred by such Covered Person or employee in any such capacity or arising out of his or
her status as such, whether or not the trustees would have the power to indemnify him or her against such liability. The Trust may not acquire or obtain a contract for insurance that protects or purports to protect any trustee or officer of the
Trust against any liability to the Trust or its Shareholders to which such trustee or officer otherwise would be subject by reason of willful misfeasance, bad faith, gross negligence, or reckless disregard of the duties involved in the conduct of
his or her office.
The Master Services Agreement provides that State Street will indemnify, defend and hold harmless the applicable Fund, its
Affiliates, and its respective officers, directors, employees, agents and permitted successors and assigns from any and all damages, fines, penalties, deficiencies, losses, liabilities (including judgments and amounts reasonably paid in settlement)
and expenses (including interest, court costs, reasonable fees and expenses of attorneys, accountants and other experts or other reasonable fees and expenses of litigation or other proceedings or of any claim, default or assessment)
(Losses) arising from or in connection with any third party claim or threatened third party claim to the extent that such Losses are based on or arising out of any of the following: (a) breach by State Street or any State Street
Personnel of any of its data protection, information security or confidentiality obligations hereunder or under a Service Module to which such Fund is a signatory; (b) any claim of infringement or misappropriation of any Intellectual Property Right
alleged to have occurred because of systems or other Intellectual Property provided by or on behalf of State Street or based upon the performance of the Services (collectively, the State Street Infringement Items), except to the extent
that such infringement or misappropriation relates to or results from; (i) changes made by any Fund or by a third party at the direction of a Fund to the State Street Infringement Items; (ii) changes to the State Street Infringement Items
recommended by State Street and not made due to a request from any Fund, provided that State Street has notified such Fund that failure to implement such recommendation would result in infringement within a reasonable amount of time for such Fund to
so implement following such notification; (iii) any Funds combination of the State Street Infringement Items with products or services not provided or approved in writing by State Street, except to the extent such combination arises out of any
Funds use of the State Street Infringement Items in a manner consistent with the applicable business requirements documentation; (iv) designs or specifications that in themselves infringe and that are provided by or at the direction of any
Fund (except in the event of a knowing infringement by State Street); or (v) use by a Fund of any of the State Street Infringement Items in a manner that is not consistent with the applicable business requirements documentation or otherwise not
permitted under the Master Services Agreement or any Service Module; (c) any claim or action by, on behalf of, or related to, any prospective, then-current or former employees of State Street, arising from or in connection with a Service Module to
which a Fund is a signatory, including: (i) any claim arising under occupational health and safety, workers compensation, ERISA or other applicable Law; (ii) any claim arising from the interview or hiring practices, actions or omissions of
employees of State Street; (iii) any claim relating to any violation by employees of State Street, or its respective officers, directors, employees, representatives or
agents, of any Law or any common law protecting persons or members of protected classes or categories, such laws or regulations prohibiting discrimination or harassment on the basis of a
protected characteristic; and (iv) any claim based on a theory that such Fund is an employer or joint employer of any such prospective, then-current or former employees of State Street; (d) the failure by State Street to obtain, maintain, or comply
with any governmental approvals as required under the Master Services Agreement and/or a Service Module to which such Fund is a signatory or such other failures as otherwise agreed by the Parties from time to time; (e) claims by third parties
arising from claims by governmental authorities against such Customer for fines, penalties, sanctions, late fees or other remedies to the extent arising from or in connection with State Streets failure to perform its responsibilities under the
Master Services Agreement or any Service Module (except to the extent a Fund is not permitted as a matter of public policy to have such an indemnity for financial penalties arising from criminal actions); (f) claims by clients of State Street
relating to services, products or systems provided by State Street or a Subcontractor to such client(s) in a shared or leveraged environment; (g) any claim initiated by an Affiliate or potential or actual Subcontractor of State Street asserting
rights in connection with a Service Module to which such Fund is a signatory; or (h) other claims as otherwise agreed by the Parties from time to time.
Section 8.02 of the Distribution Agreement between Registrant and BRIL provides as follows:
The Distribution Agreement provides that BRIL agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Trust, each of its trustees, officers, employees and each person,
if any, who controls the Trust within the meaning of Section 15 of the 1933 Act (collectively, the
Company Indemnified Parties
) from and against any and all losses to which the Company Indemnified Parties become subject, arising
out of or based upon (i) any untrue statement or alleged untrue statement of a material fact contained in the Prospectus or the omission or alleged omission therefrom of a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the
statements therein not misleading, in reliance upon and in conformity with written information furnished to the Company by BRIL about BRIL expressly for use therein; (ii) any breach of any representation, warranty or covenant made by BRIL in the
Distribution Agreement; and (iii) the actions or omissions of any person acting under the supervision of BRIL in providing services under the Distribution Agreement; provided, however, that BRIL shall not be liable in any such case to the extent
that any loss arises out of or is based upon (A) the Trusts own willful misfeasance, willful misconduct or gross negligence or the Trusts reckless disregard of its obligations under the Distribution Agreement or (B) the Trusts
material breach of the Distribution Agreement.
The Authorized Participant Agreement provides that the Authorized Participant (the
Participant) agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Fund and its respective subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees and agents, and each person, if any, who controls such persons within the meaning of Section 15 of
the 1933 Act (each an Indemnified Party) from and against any loss, liability, cost and expense (including attorneys fees) incurred by such Indemnified Party as a result of (i) any breach by the Participant of any provision of the
Authorized Participant Agreement that relates to the Participant; (ii) any failure on the part of the Participant to perform any of its obligations set forth in the Authorized Participant Agreement; (iii) any failure by the Participant to comply
with applicable laws, including rules and regulations of self-regulatory organizations; or (iv) actions of such Indemnified Party in reliance upon any instructions issued in accordance with Annex II, III or IV (as each may be amended from time to
time) of the Authorized Participant Agreement reasonably believed by the distributor and/or the transfer agent to be genuine and to have been given by the Participant.
The Amended and Restated Securities Lending Agency Agreement provides that BTC shall indemnify and hold harmless each client, Lender, its Board of Trustees and its agents and BFA and any investment
adviser for the Funds from any and all loss, liability, costs, damages, actions, and claims (Loss) to the extent that any such Loss arises out of the material breach of this Agreement by or negligent acts or omissions or willful
misconduct of BTC, its officers, directors or employees or any of its agents or subcustodians in connection with the securities lending activities undertaken pursuant to this Agreement, provided that BTCs indemnification obligation with
respect to the acts or omissions of its subcustodians shall not exceed the indemnification provided by the applicable subcustodian to BTC.
Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the 1940 Act may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the Trust
pursuant to foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the Trust has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the 1940 Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In
the event that a claim for Fund expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the Fund in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection
with the securities being registered, the Trust will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question of whether such indemnification by it is
against public policy as expressed in the 1940 Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.
Item 31. Business
and Other Connections of the Investment Adviser:
The Trust is advised by BFA, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc., 400
Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. BFAs business is that of a registered investment adviser to certain open-end, management investment companies and various other institutional investors.
The directors and officers of BFA consist primarily of persons who during the past two years have been
active in the investment management business. To the knowledge of the Registrant, except as set forth below, none of the directors or executive officers of BFA is or has been at any time during the past two fiscal years engaged in any other
business, profession, vocation or employment of a substantial nature. Information as to the executive officers and directors of BFA is included in its Form ADV initially filed with the SEC (File No. 801-22609) on November 15, 1984 and updated
thereafter and is incorporated herein by reference.
BlackRock International Limited (BIL) acts as sub-adviser for a number of
affiliated registered investment companies advised by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. The address of each of these registered investment companies is 100 Bellevue Parkway, Wilmington, Delaware 19809. The address of BIL is 40 Torphichen Street, Edinburgh,
EH3 8JB, United Kingdom. The list required by this Item 31 about officers and directors of BIL, together with information as to any other business, profession, vocation or employment of a substantial nature engaged in by such officers and directors
during the past two years, is incorporated by reference to Schedule A and D of Form ADV, filed by BIL pursuant to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (SEC File No. 801-51087).