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Press Release
Outside trading hours - Regulated information*
Dublin/Brussels, 21 June 2017 (8 a.m. CEST)
Today's KBC investor visit to Ireland:
- Updated KBC Group strategy: 'More of the same, but differently'.
- Updated Capital deployment plan and financial guidance 2020.
- KBC Bank Ireland Digital First Customer Centric strategy.
Today, Johan Thijs, KBC Group CEO, the other members of the KBC Group Executive Committee and the senior management of KBC Bank Ireland will welcome the analyst and investment community and the media for an onsite visit in Dublin.
KBC will give an update of KBC Group's strategy, capital deployment plan and financial guidance up to year-end 2020.
KBC will also demonstrate how digital transformation has taken place in the different core markets of the group and what initiatives are in place and planned. KBC intends to invest a further 1.5 billion euros in digital transformation between 2017 and year-end 2020.
Lastly, KBC Bank Ireland will detail how it will implement its 'Digital First' customer-centric bank strategy as announced on 9 February 2017, when KBC defined Ireland as a core market.
- KBC Group's strategy: More of the same, but differently.
KBC aims to be among the best performing financial institutions in Europe and the reference in bank-insurance in its core markets.
KBC Group's strategy beyond 2017 continues to build on the existing fundamentals, a business model which has proven to be very successful and which is supported by the strong PEARL company culture. KBC will focus on:
- strengthening in a highly cost-efficient way the integrated bank-insurance business model for retail, SME, private banking and mid-cap clients in its core markets (Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ireland);
- sustainable and profitable growth within the framework of solid risk, capital and liquidity management;
- creating superior client satisfaction via a seamless, multi-channel, client-centric distribution approach.
By achieving this, KBC wants to be among the best performing financial institutions in Europe.
Johan Thijs, KBC Group CEO explains the plans for the coming years: 'In the coming three years, KBC wishes to continue to provide its clients with a unique bank-insurance experience. Also in the digital world we provide an integrated response to our client's banking and insurance needs, in offering the benefit of a comprehensive one-stop financial service with a wider, complementary and optimised range of products.
Our geographical footprint (six core countries of Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Ireland) and current client segments will remain unchanged. If available, we will make selective add-on acquisitions in our core markets taking into account very strict financial and strategic criteria.
As we find ourselves in an ever changing environment and are faced with changing client behaviour and expectations, changing technology and digitalisation, a challenging macroeconomic environment, increasing competition, etc., we will fundamentally change the way we implement this strategy. So, it will be more of the same, but differently.
A diversified income basis becomes more and more important. Therefore we will increase income generation through fee business and insurance business (in addition to interest income). We will continue to build our non-life and risk/life insurance business, boost asset management in core countries (especially outside Belgium) and broaden our 'one-stop shop' offering to our clients via partnerships with fintechs or even competitors and also offer businesses related to bank-insurance (e.g., advisory services, etc.).
Going forward, digitalising the back-end will be as important as front-end digitalisation, in which we have invested significantly in the past years. Hence, client-centricity will be further fine-tuned into 'think client, but design for a digital world'. Clients will continue to choose the channel of their choice: physical branch or agency, smartphone, website, contact centre (KBC Live), apps. The human interface will still play a crucial role but will be augmented by digital capabilities, such as face-to-face underpinned by robo-advice, and chatbots like in the KBC K'Ching app in Belgium. Clients will drive the pace of action and change. Technological development will be the driver and enabler.
This approach requires further internal simplification (processes, systems, products, etc.) to remain a safe and trusted partner for our clients who are looking for convenience, ease of use, zero effort, here and now, anywhere and anytime. Therefore we will further increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our processes and data management to offer our clients a convenient and pleasant experience in a fast and decisive way.'
Full press release attached.
