These results were achieved in a context of various headwinds: the non-remuneration of mandatory reserves, revenue loss due to the Belgian state bond, the normalisation of used vehicle prices at Arval and lower revenues from market activities servicing clients in Turkey. Excluding the impact of these headwinds, the net banking income of BNP Paribas Fortis would have grown in 2024 compared to 2023.
Throughout the year, we remained fully committed to our customer approach focusing on growth, accessibility and sustainability. We continued to finance the plans of our individual and corporate customers: loans in Belgium amounted to 153.2 billion euros, up 2.2% compared with 2023. Deposits in Belgium reached 156.5 billion euros, up 4.8%, while off-balance-sheet savings rose by 4.0%. We managed to limit the increase in our operating expenses to 3%. At the same time, we kept the cost of risk well under control.
We were successful in strengthening our distribution network and digital service offering for our customers. The number of active digital users rose to 3 million. The number of sessions on our Easy Banking App increased by 30% year on year, resulting in a record 1.2 billion customer contacts through the app over the year 2024.
Michael Anseeuw, Chief Executive Officer:
“Our app continues to act as our customers’ preferred gateway to our products and services and is our most popular channel for customer interactions. In the future, we want the app to evolve even further into a personal virtual assistant for our customers, allowing us to develop new, flexible customer journeys.
When Belgian state bond savings certificates matured in September, the repayment of the principal to our customers was an opportunity for us to strengthen and deepen our long-term relationships with them. Our staff spent a lot of time talking to our customers to pinpoint their investment expectations and needs. Despite tough competition, our customers invested more than 8.2 billion euros in our solutions, from term deposit accounts to various off-balance-sheet products.
Our new Easy Go and Easy Guide packs for individual clients – launched in January 2024 – proved to be successful: more than 2.2 million customers chose the Easy Guide pack, while more than 800,000 customers opted for Easy Go, with fewer than 1% of customers switching since the launch.
The successful integration of bpost bank bolstered our ambition to be the most accessible bank in Belgium. In BNP Paribas Fortis branches, bpost branches and through our Easy Banking Centre, our customers can talk to our experts and find services that go beyond banking, in areas such as mobility, housing and insurance. As regards housing, for example, we extended our HappyNest rent-to-buy offering in Wallonia in 2024.
In Corporate Banking we maintained our leading position with an integrated approach combining global reach, local knowledge and sectorial expertise, including Private Equity and working capital optimisation in our Transaction Banking businesses.
Customer satisfaction among retail clients, as measured by our Net Promoter Score (NPS), improved in terms of both relationship and transactional indicators in 2024. The NPS for private banking and corporate clients remained very high, rising even further from a high baseline. This shows our customers’ appreciation for our services and proves that we are on the right track.
Our commercial and financial performance – in a highly competitive and fast-moving market – gives our bank a strong position to address new customer trends and expectations as well as technological developments in the best possible way. We received both Euromoney’s ‘Best Bank in Belgium’ and The Banker’s ‘Bank of the Year’ awards for the quality of our service to our customers in 2024. As the leading bank, we will maintain our role in offering a wide range of payment, savings and investment solutions to support our customers and the Belgian economy.”
You will find the entire press release and the slideshow in attachment.
