KBC Group N.V. history, company profile (overview) and corporate video
KBC Group N.V. is an integrated bank-insurance group, catering mainly for retail, private banking, SME, and mid-cap clients. It is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, and its core markets are Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
HISTORY
KBC Bank’s origins date back to 1889 when the Catholic Volksbank van Leuven – one of the earliest predecessors of the KBC Bank – was founded. Another predecessor was the Bremer Vorschussverein, which was founded in 1889 and changed later into Bankverein Bremen AG.
In 1935, the banks Algemeene Bankvereeniging and Volksbank van Leuven merged with the Bank voor Handel en Nijverheid to create the Kredietbank.
In 1970, together with six other European institutions, Kredietbank established the Inter-Alpha Group of Banks.
In 1998, the Kredietbank merged with two financial institutions originating from the Boerenbond (Vlaanderen) (nl) (E: Belgian Catholic Farmers Association), ABB-insurance and CERA Bank, to form the ‘KBC Bank and Insurance Holding Company’.
In 2005, the KBC Bank and Insurance Holding Company merged with its parent company, Almanij, to create KBC Group NV.
In 2017, the company acquired UBB and Interlease in Bulgaria.
In 2019, the remaining part in CMSS in the Czech Republic was acquired.
In 2021, the NN’s Bulgarian pension insurance and life insurance businesses were acquired.
In 2022, the company acquired Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) in Bulgaria.
With more than 40,000 employees and over 1,200 bank branches, KBC Group is considered one of the Largest Public Companies in the World, according to Forbes.
*Information from Forbes.com, Wikipedia.org, and www.kbc.com/en.
**Video published on YouTube by “KBC Group“