BNP Paribas is a multinational universal bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Paris. It was founded in 2000 from the merger of two of France's foremost financial institutions, Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and Paribas. It also incorporates many other major institutions from successive mergers and acquisitions, including Fortis Group in Belgium, Direkt Anlage Bank in Germany, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Italy, Banque Générale du Luxembourg in Luxembourg, and Türk Ekonomi Bankası in Turkey. The Group has also been present in the United States through its subsidiaries Bank of the West until 2023 and First Hawaiian Bank until 2019. With 190,000 employees, the bank is organized into three major business areas: Commercial, Personal Banking & Services (CPBS); Investment & Protection Services (IPS); and Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB).
BNP Paribas Fortis is an international bank based in Belgium and a subsidiary of French banking group BNP Paribas. The bank was created in May 2009 after BNP Paribas acquired 75% of the Belgian Fortis Bank from the Federal Participation and Investment Company. It was formerly, together with Fortis Bank Nederland, the banking arm of the financial institution Fortis. After the ultimately unsuccessful ABN-AMRO takeover, the subprime crisis and subsequent global financial crisis (GFC) led to the sale of the Dutch and Luxembourg parts of the banking branch to the Dutch and Luxembourg governments. Fortis Bank itself was first partly bought by the Belgian government, then fully purchased by the government and sold to BNP Paribas.
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.
Dexia N.V./S.A., or the Dexia Group, is a Franco-Belgian financial institution formed in 1996. At its peak in 2010, it had about 35,200 members of staff and a core shareholders' equity of €19.2 billion.
The private bank Merck Finck A Quintet Private Bank, founded in 1870, is based in Munich and is also represented nationwide with a total of 10 locations. Since 2011, it has been a subsidiary of the Luxembourg bank KBL European Private Bankers (KBL), which was renamed Quintet Private Bank in January 2020.
Axel Miller is a Belgian businessman. From January 2006 to September 2008, he was chief executive officer and chairman of the management board of Dexia S.A. Since 2009, he is partner of Petercam, a Belgian financial group, active in private banking, institutional asset management and corporate finance.
André, Baron Vlerick (1919–1990) was a Belgian politician, businessman, professor and founder of the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. He graduated in economy at the University of Ghent and was appointed at the University of Leuven as well as the University of Ghent as Professor of Economics. He founded the department of regional economy at the University of Ghent. He is also the founder of Protea, a pro-apartheid Belgian organisation which assisted the South African apartheid government in money laundering and circumventing sanctions through Kredietbank. Vlerick's lobbying efforts extended to a pan-European formation called Eurosa. In addition to Protea in Belgium, there were “sister organisations” in Austria, Britain, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany. Evidence collected from Vlerick's archive has established that Eurosa received direct funding from the apartheid government. A member of the Christian People's Party he was appointed during various Belgian Governments in the 1960s-1970s as Minister of the Flemish Regional Economy, actually till his appointment as Minister of Finance in 1972. He was also appointed after the war as the Administrator of the Marshall Plan for Belgium. He was instrumental in the after-War years of the successful Flemish economic development. André Vlerick was a son-in-law of Gustave Sap and the uncle of Philippe Vlerick.
Bank Brussels Lambert was a prominent Belgian bank that was created in 1975 through the merger of Banque de Bruxelles and Banque Lambert, and was eventually acquired in 1998 by ING Group; however the name survived as part of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, which controlled the bank prior to its acquisition.
Almanij was a Belgian holding company active in financial services, created in 1931 and merged into KBC Group in March 2005.
ARCO Group is a Belgian cooperative holding group, and part of the Catholic workers organisation Beweging.net formerly known as ACW. The group has more than 900,000 shareholders and a capital of 4.5 billion euro. Arcofin invests in the financial sector and Auxipar mainly invests in basic and utility service sectors, and real estate. In addition the group participates in the cooperative organisations Hefboom and Crédal and the non-profit organisations Procura and Syneco. Francine Swiggers is Chairman of the Management Board of the ARCO Group, she succeeded Rik Branson.
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.
The Antwerp Diamond Bank, created in 1934 and known during its first few years as Comptoir Diamantaire Anversois, was a small bank that specialized exclusively in serving the diamond and the diamond-jewelry industry. In addition to its headquarters in Antwerp, it had offices covering major traditional as well as emerging diamond centers such as Dubai, Geneva, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and New York. In 1999, ADB became a wholly owned subsidiary of KBC Bank, and in 2014 it was wound down after a sale process to the Chinese Yinren Group failed.
Banque de Luxembourg is a financial institution in Luxembourg, which primarily focuses on wealth management and high-net-worth individuals. It is owned by the French banking group Crédit Mutuel, through the group's subsidiary Crédit Industriel et Commercial.
Banque Havilland S.A. is a private bank headquartered in Luxembourg. It is owned by the Rowland family and provides services in private banking, wealth and asset management, fund services to private clients and institutions. Banque Havilland has five offices; these are located in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.
Belfius Bank and Insurance, known as Dexia Bank Belgium until 1 March 2012, is a Belgian state-owned bank that emerged from the dismantling of the Dexia group which had been purchased by the Belgian government on 10 October 2011 for 4 billion euros.
Insinger Gilissen, previously known as Insinger de Beaufort, is an Anglo-Dutch private bank providing private banking, wealth management and private planning to high-net-worth individuals and some institutional clients. In 2016 it merged with Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers to become Insinger Gilissen. Since 1 January 2017 Insinger Gilissen has been part of Quintet Private Bank.
Banque Internationale à Luxembourg S.A. is the oldest private bank in Luxembourg. It offers commercial and corporate banking services, and was the country's third-largest employer by 2011, with 3,640 employees. Since 2018, it has been majority-owned by China-headquartered Legend Holdings. The bank has offices in Luxembourg, Switzerland and China.
Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers was a private bank in the Netherlands that focused on the asset management, portfolio advisory services for wealthy individuals and providing services to independent asset managers. It was merged with Insinger de Beaufort in 2017 to form Insinger Gilissen. The bank had branches in The Hague, Amsterdam, Enschede, Groningen, Rotterdam and Eindhoven.
Luxembourg and the 2008 financial crisis was how the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 impacted Luxembourg and the actions taken by the Luxembourgish government in response. The financial sector is one of the main sectors of the economy of Luxembourg and was responsible for 29% of the country’s GDP. The government had to rescue two major banks but its private banking sector remained relatively stable.
