Below you will find a concise list of Belgian banks . The big four are KBC, Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis, and ING.
Bank name | Parent or group | Subsidiaries or previous names | Head office location | SWIFT BIC-code |
---|---|---|---|---|
Argenta (bank) [1] | Argenta Group | Antwerp | ARSP BE 22 | |
Attijariwafa Bank Europe Belgium [2] | Le Groupe Attijariwafa bank | Brussels | WAFA BE BB | |
AXA Bank | AXA Group | Brussels | AXAB BE 22 | |
Bank J.Van Breda & Co | Ackermans & van Haaren (78.75%), Promofi (21.25%) | Antwerp | JVBABE22XXX | |
aion | Warburg Pincus | Monte dei Paschi di Siena group | Brussels | BMPB BE BB |
Banque CPH [3] | Banque CPH SCRL | Crédit professionnel du Hainaut | Tournai | CPHB BE 75 |
BBVA Bélgica [4] | Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Group | Brussels | BBVA BE BB | |
Belfius Bank/Banque | Belgian State | Artesia, Bacob (B.A.C.), Dexia, Gemeentekrediet/Crédit Communal | Brussels | GKCC BE BB |
Beobank | Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe (100%) [5] | Citibank Belgium (1968 –- March 2013) | Brussels | CTBK BE BX |
BKCP Bank/Banque [6] | Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe (100%) [5] | Brussels | BKCP BE BB | |
BNP Paribas Fortis | BNP Paribas | Generale Bank, ASLK / CGER (Algemene Spaar- en Lijfrentekas/Caisse Generale d'Epargne et Retraite), Fintro | Brussels | GEBA BE BB |
bpost bank [7] bpost banque [8] | 50/50% ownership between bpost and BNP Paribas Fortis [9] [10] | Brussels | BPOT BE B1 | |
Crelan | CrelanCo (100%) | Centea, Landbouwkrediet/Crédit Agricole, Crelan Insurance | Antwerp/Brussels | NICA BE BB |
Europabank [11] | Crelan SA (100%) [12] [13] | Ghent | EURB BE 99 | |
Hello Bank! [14] | Hello Bank! [15] BNP Paribas Fortis | Brussels/Online | GEBA BE BB | |
ING Belgium | ING Group [16] | Bank Bruxelles Lambert | Brussels | BBRU BE BB |
KBC Bank | KBC Group NV [17] | Kredietbank, Cera, Raffeisenkas, Centea (KBC Group NV) sold to Crédit Agricole Group (Belgium), [18] Bank van Roeselare | Brussels | KRED BE BB |
Keytrade Bank | Crédit Agricole (100%) (2007) | VMS-Keytrade (1998–2002), bought RealBank (2002) | Brussels | KEYT BE BB |
MeDirect Bank Belgium [19] | MeDirect Bank Malta | Brussels | MBWM BE BB | |
Rabobank.be | Rabobank Group Belgium [20] | Rabobank International Corporate Bank, De Lage Landen Leasing, Interpolis (insurance), Athlon Car Lease (car leasing) and Robeco (fund manager) | Antwerp/Online | RABO BE 22 |
Record Bank SA/NV [21] | Record Group owned by ING Group (100%) [22] | Westkrediet (2002), AGF Belgium Bank (2003), Mercator Bank (2004), Eural (from Dexia Group) (2005) | Evere | HBKA BE 22 |
Santander Consumer Finance SA/BV [23] | Santander Group | Merelbeke | BSCH BE BR | |
Triodos Bank Banque Triodos [24] | Triodos Bank (NL) (100%) [25] | Brussels | TRIO BE BB | |
Van Lanschot Belgium | Van Lanschot Kempen | Antwerp | FVLB BE 22 | |
vdk bank | Ghent | VDSP BE 91 |
The ING Group is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale banking, private banking, asset management, and insurance services. With total assets of US$967.8 billion, it is one of the biggest banks in the world, and consistently ranks among the largest banks globally.
Argenta is a bank based in Antwerp, Belgium that also operates in the Netherlands and Luxembourg. It was Belgium's sixth-biggest bank in 2020, after BNP Paribas Fortis, KBC Group, Belfius, ING Group, and Crelan.
Mastercard Maestro is a brand of debit cards and prepaid cards owned by Mastercard that was introduced in 1991. Maestro is accepted at around fifteen million point of sale outlets in 93 countries.
KBC Group N.V. is a Belgian universal multi-channel bank-insurer, focusing on private clients and small and medium-sized enterprises in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It was created in 1998 through the merger of Kredietbank (KB), the cooperative CERA Bank, ABB Insurance, and Fidelitas Insurance. The acronym KBC stands for KredietBank and CERA.
Banco Santander S.A. trading as Santander Group, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in most global financial centres as the 19th-largest banking institution in the world. Although known for its European banking operations, it has extended operations across North and South America, and more recently in continental Asia. It is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board.
Triodos Bank N.V. is an ethical bank based in the Netherlands with many branches in Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom, and Spain. It was founded in 1980.
Attijariwafa bank is a Moroccan multinational commercial bank and financial services company founded and based in Casablanca, Morocco. It is the leading bank in Morocco and the fifth largest bank in Africa in 2021, and is part of Al Mada holding company.
Santander Bank Polska SA, formerly Bank Zachodni WBK (BZ WBK) (eng. West WBK Bank - the WBK abbreviation below) is a Polish universal bank based in Wrocław, Poznań and Warsaw. It is the third largest bank in Poland in terms of assets value and the number of outlets. It was formed in 2001 by the merger of Bank Zachodni S.A. and Wielkopolski Bank Kredytowy SA. Since 2011, the Bank has been owned by the Spanish bank Santander Group.
The Big Four is the colloquial name given to the four main banks in several countries where the banking industry is dominated by just four institutions and where the phrase has thus gained relevance. Some countries include more or fewer institutions in such rankings, leading to other names such as Big Three, Big Five, or Big Six.
Keytrade Bank is a financial services company based in Belgium with a subsidiary in Luxembourg.
The Inter-Alpha Group of Banks was created in 1971 by six banks in the European Community to provide a platform for the regular exchange of ideas and to explore areas for cooperation between its member banks. The group is a non-hierarchical association and is maintained by mutual agreement with each bank retaining full autonomy and independence.
The 2008–2009 Belgian financial crisis is a major financial crisis that hit Belgium from mid-2008 onwards. Two of the country's largest banks – Fortis and Dexia – started to face severe problems, exacerbated by the financial problems hitting other banks around the world. The value of their stocks plunged. The government managed the situation by bailouts, selling off or nationalizing banks, providing bank guarantees and extending the deposit insurance. Eventually Fortis was split into two parts. The Dutch part was nationalized, while the Belgian part was sold to the French bank BNP Paribas. Dexia group was dismantled, Dexia Bank Belgium was nationalized.
Crelan was introduced as the bank brand after the merger of Landbouwkrediet / Crédit Agricole and Centea. It is a Belgian bank with roots in agriculture. It is part of Crelan Group, which was 50 percent owned by the Crédit Agricole Group. At the time, KBC and BNP Paribas were the other main shareholders. The arrival of a new bank brand will strengthen the group, in particular the group's online banking and the "Customer Protection" area. Through this acquisition, the new group intends to address the segment of the Belgian population that currently uses unbranded, incomplete financial services. In June 2015 Crelan became again a 100% Belgian cooperative bank, owned by its clients. In 2018 Crelan Group had 919,887 customers and +/- 600 branches, and made a net profit of €66 million.
Al Mada, formerly the Société Nationale d'Investissement is a large private Moroccan holding company mainly owned by the Moroccan royal family. Headquartered in Casablanca, the company was established in 1966. Al Mada operates in different fields such as banking, telecommunications, renewable energy businesses and food industry among others.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., better known by its initialism BBVA, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Bilbao, Spain. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, and is present mainly in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, South America, Turkey, Italy and Romania.
PayconiqInternational S.A. is a Luxembourg-based company developing a mobile payment and payment processing platform, active in Luxembourg and Belgium. Since October 2023, it has been controlled by The European Payments Initiative (EPI).