KBC Review

Once one has navigated to KBC’s website, chosen the language of one’s choice and selected “Group Profile” under “About KBC” one can become rather quickly informed as to what KBC is all about in general.

KBC is a self described “integrated bancassurance group”. It caters mainly to retail customers, small and medium-sized enterprises and private banking clientele. It is a market leader in its home markets of Belgium and Central and Eastern Europe. KBC specializes there in retail bancassurance and asset management.

The term bancassurance typically describes a partnership between a bank and an insurance company whereby the insurance company uses the bank’s sales channels to sell insurance products.

The company has its origins in 1998 when two Belgian banks (the Kredietbank and CERA Bank) and a Belgian insurance company (ABB) merge to create the KBC Bank and Insurance Holding Company. Over the years KBC continued to expand its operations in Central and Eastern Europe by acquiring banks and insurance companies in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

In North America KBC Financial Products offers expertise in the following customer businesses: Equities, Convertible Bonds and Derivatives.

In an equities context KBC Financial Products is known for its equity agency execution services on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for globally based clients. Convertible bond activities include acting as a market maker in global convertible bonds through one of the leading sales, trading and research teams globally.

This is a customer-driven business, with dedicated teams in London, New York and Hong Kong providing 24 hour coverage of the markets. Participation in derivatives includes acting as a market leader in innovative equity derivative products in Asia as well as involvement in Europe trading three main product areas - single index products, index correlation products and single stock and single basket products.

A broker or someone familiar with the broad scope of financial and insurance services it offers on a worldwide basis might best initiate individual involvement with KBC.