Approaching a billion euros in profit in 2021, the public banking and insurance group has recorded the best net result since its creation in 2012.
On the eve of its tenth anniversary, on March 1, Belfius is having a record year in 2021. Still 100% controlled by the state, the banking and insurance group published this Thursday a final result of 935 million euros, against 532 million a year earlier. That is a spectacular increase of 76% over 12 months, and the best profit ever recorded by the bank-insurer since its takeover by the Belgian State in 2012.
Solid rebound
Admittedly, the comparison is a little biased since, as we know, 2020 was an atypical year following the health crisis. However, “these figures are no coincidence: they are the result of a successful long-term strategy, combined with rigorous balance sheet management, excellent commercial dynamics and a constant obsession with customer satisfaction”, underlines Marc Raisière, the CEO of the group, in a press release explaining this historic performance by lower risk provisions, but also by the resilience of the activities, which benefited all the businesses.
Rising credits
Despite the persistently low interest rates, revenues thus increased by 3.4% compared to 2020, to reach 2.7 billion euros. For the third consecutive year, the bar of 20 billion new long-term loans granted to the Belgian economy (individuals and businesses) has been crossed, with more than 11 billion granted to customers alone business and corporate (+10%). The mortgage machine is also running at full speed : +20% more loans to individuals. In total, the overall volume of outstanding loans increased by 5% to exceed, for the first time in the history of the bank with the red and white logo, the 100 billion euro mark.
Good start for Rebel
Another niche, same trend: funds entrusted to the bank by wealthy clients _ private and wealth _ now reach 53.4 billion, a sharp increase compared to 2020 (+20%). Capital growth even amounts to 64% in this segment of the wealth management. Since its launch last July, the new Rebel stock market trading platform has already attracted 40,000 customers (half of whom are first investors at Belfius), recording just over 100,000 transactions for a total amount of 348 million euros. As for the insurance division, the amount of premiums collected in non-life via banking channels also experienced double-digit growth of 11% to reach 296.4 million euros.
Nice dividend
On the cost side, the latter remain more or less stable, which results in a ratio cost-income (ratio between costs and revenues) which has never been so low (at 54.6%). So that in terms of financial structure, “Belfius remains one of the best capitalized bancassurance companies in Europe with a capital ratio (CET 1) of 16.4%”, indicates the group, specifying that the funds equity reached 11 billion euros. Finally, the icing on the cake, the group led by Marc Raisière will again this year pay a nice dividend to its shareholder: 368.5 million euros. Since its takeover in 2012, Belfius will have distributed a total of nearly 1.7 billion euros in cumulative dividends to the Belgian State.
On the eve of its tenth anniversary, on March 1, Belfius is having a record year in 2021. Still 100% controlled by the state, the banking and insurance group published this Thursday a final result of 935 million euros, against 532 million a year earlier. That is a spectacular increase of 76% over 12 months, and the best profit ever recorded by the bank-insurer since its takeover by the Belgian State in 2012. Admittedly, the comparison is a little biased since, as we know, 2020 was a year atypical following the health crisis. However, “these figures are no coincidence: they are the result of a successful long-term strategy, combined with rigorous balance sheet management, excellent commercial dynamics and a constant obsession with customer satisfaction”, underlines Marc Raisière, the group’s CEO, in a press release explaining this historic performance by lower risk provisions, but also by the resilience of activities, which benefited all businesses.Despite the persistence of low interest rates, revenues thus increased by 3.4% compared to 2020, to reach 2.7 billion euros. For the third consecutive year, the bar of 20 billion new long-term loans granted to the Belgian economy (individuals and companies) has been crossed, with more than 11 billion granted to business and corporate customers alone (+10%) . The mortgage machine also ran at full speed: +20% more loans to individuals. In total, the overall volume of outstanding loans increased by 5% to exceed, for the first time in the history of the bank with the red and white logo, the 100 billion euro mark. Another niche, same trend: the funds entrusted to the bank by wealthy clients _ private and wealth _ now reach 53.4 billion, up sharply compared to 2020 (+ 20%). Capital growth even amounts to 64% in this segment of wealth management. Since its launch last July, the new Rebel stock exchange trading platform has already attracted 40,000 customers (half of whom are first investors at Belfius), recording just over 100,000 transactions for a total amount of 348 million euros. euros. As for the insurance division, the amount of premiums collected in non-life via banking channels also experienced double-digit growth of 11% to reach 296.4 million euros. , which results in a cost-income ratio (ratio between costs and income) that has never been so low (at 54.6%). So that in terms of financial structure, “Belfius remains one of the best capitalized bancassurance companies in Europe with a capital ratio (CET 1) of 16.4%”, indicates the group, specifying that the funds equity reached 11 billion euros. Finally, the icing on the cake, the group led by Marc Raisière will again this year pay a nice dividend to its shareholder: 368.5 million euros. Since its takeover in 2012, Belfius will have distributed a total of nearly 1.7 billion euros in cumulative dividends to the Belgian State.
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