In 2005, KBC set another milestone by merging with its parent company, Almanij, and changing its name to KBC Groep NV. Since then, the group has significantly expanded its activities, chiefly in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1998, the Kredietbank merged with two financial institutions originating from the Boerenbond (Vlaanderen) (E: Belgian Catholic Farmers Association), ABB-insurance (Assurances du Boerenbond Belge) and CERA (Centrale Raiffeisenkas) Bank, to form the 'KBC Bank and Insurance Holding Company'. The branch in Bremen was renamed to Kredietbank-Bankverein AG in 1990. Bruxelles acquired the main part of the shares from the Bankverein Bremen AG since 1982.
In 1970, together with six other European institutions, Kredietbank established the Inter-Alpha Group of Banks. In 1966, the bank began building a foreign-correspondent network and the establishment of foreign branches in a number of countries.
In the sixties, driven by increasing competition, the bank worked on the expansion of its branch network and improvement of consumer services. Due to the situation emerging after the independence of the Belgian Congo in 1960, the bank discontinued its Congolese operations in 1966. Then in 1954 it acquired Banque Congolaise pour l’Industrie, le Commerce, et l’Agriculture and renamed it Kredietbank-Congo, Ultimately it had four branches, one each in Léopoldville, Bukavu, Elizabethville and Stanleyville. It established a branch in Léopoldville in 1952. The Kredietbank also expanded into the Belgian Congo. Luxembourgeoise and into Wallonia with the establishment of the Crédit Général de Belgique in 1961. The bank expanded into Luxembourg in 1949 with the Kredietbank S.A. The postwar growth strategy of the bank emphasised foreign expansion and the development of portfolio-management services for investors. After the war, because of the economic recovery, the Kredietbank, now the third largest bank in Belgium, was able to increase the number of operating branches in Flanders. He defined the Kredietbank as an independent bank with a decidedly Flemish character which would be an instrument to further Flemish economic growth.ĭuring World War II, the bank would be able to expand its activities and grow its deposits from the Flemish middle class. Fernand Collin, who became president in 1938, conceived the business strategy which would lead to the growth of the bank. The Kredietbank would be the only Belgian financial institution under Flemish control which would survive the financial crisis of the great depression of the 1930s. In 1935, the banks Algemeene Bankvereeniging and Volksbank van Leuven merged with the Bank voor Handel en Nijverheid to create the Kredietbank. Another predecessor was the Bremer Vorschussverein, founded in 1889 and changed later into Bankverein Bremen AG. The Catholic Volksbank van Leuven, founded in 1889, was one of the earliest predecessors of the KBC Bank. 3.2 Kredietbank SA Luxembourgeoise - European Private Bankers (KBL).The private art collection of KBC is situated in the Rockox House in Antwerp. The group's overall ambition is to be the reference in bank-insurance in all its core markets. Its shares are traded on the Euronext exchange in Brussels.
Kbc bank ireland free#
The free float was chiefly held by a large variety of international institutional investors as of mid 2018. In the core shareholders, KBC Ancora controls 19%, MRBB (part of the Flemish farmers' association) controls around 12%, CERA (the largest cooperative in Flanders) 3% and a group of industrialist families controls another 8%. The group is controlled by a syndicate of core shareholders, and has a free float of approximately 60%. It is the 15th largest bank in Europe by market capitalisation and a major financial player in Central and Eastern Europe, employing some 41,000 staff (of which more than half in Central and Eastern Europe) and serving 12 million customers worldwide (some 7 to 8 million in Central and Eastern Europe). The parent company, KBC Group N.V., is one of the major companies and the second largest bancassurer in Belgium. KBC is an acronym for Kredietbank ABB Insurance CERA Bank (CEntrale RAiffeisenkas). Besides retail banking, insurance and asset management activities (in collaboration with daughter companies KBC Insurance NV and KBC Asset Management NV), KBC is active in, among other things, European debt capital markets, domestic cash equity markets and in the field of corporate banking, private banking, leasing, factoring, reinsurance, private equity and project and trade finance in Belgium, Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere (mainly in Europe). is a Belgian universal multi-channel bank-insurer, focusing on private clients and small and medium-sized enterprises in Belgium, Ireland, Central Europe and South-East Asia.