Best bank 2025: KBC Bank
KBC has long been one of investors’ favourite European banks, thanks to a financially successful marriage of banking and insurance products, coupled with exposure to faster-growing regional economies.
The group has emerged as a customer service leader, too: taking a proactive approach to integrating AI and blockchain technology, while embarking on new projects to protect and deepen its customer relationships.
Financially, net income for Belgium came to €1.8 billion ($2.1 billion) in 2024, thanks to growth in net interest income and especially net fee and commission income, which was up by 10%, largely thanks to a good asset management performance. It maintained its efficiency ratio at 41%, partly due to investment in and higher adoption of digital tools. Operating expenses including bank and insurance taxes fell slightly over the year.
In Belgium, compared to its international markets, opportunity is more about adding new products than gaining new customers, as its penetration is already high in its home market. Even in Belgium, however, KBC celebrated further growth in customer numbers, reaching 4 million customers in 2024, with further increases in mobile banking users. And the number of customers with multiple bank and insurance products continued to increase over the year.
In 2024, a year when a tax-friendly, one-year state bond launched in September 2023 came to maturity, the bank posted a 10% increase in Belgium deposits. It also saw a good performance in growing the client base of its execution-only investment platform, Bolero.
Core to the group’s future was a new push in its Save Time and Earn Money strategy, as it integrated its partly owned property search tool more closely into its app. This came alongside other improvements and additions to its app, as well as gen AI enhancements to digital assistant Kate – resolving almost 70% of cases in Belgium without human interaction – and further growth in its blockchain-based loyalty programme, Kate Coin.
Best investment bank 2025: BNP Paribas Fortis
BNP Paribas Fortis has sharpened its corporate and investment banking model into a seamless one‑stop shop, aligning dedicated client coverage with specialised product teams under unified leadership. This integration has enabled clients, from large corporates and financial institutions to small and medium-sized enterprises, to access services from strategic advisory and capital markets expertise to tailored financing and risk‑management solutions through a single relationship.
Building on this foundation, the bank consolidated its position among the top Belgian investment banks by combining deep local relationships with the global reach of the BNP Paribas network. In the past year it outpaced many international peers in transaction volumes, particularly in mid‑cap and large corporate deal flow.
BNP Paribas Fortis broadened its capital markets footprint by completing dozens of equity and debt transactions for Belgian issuers, spanning follow‑on offerings, benchmark bonds and private placements. Its flexible approach to instrument selection, and agnostic stance on lending versus bond issuance, ensured clients could seize market opportunities despite challenging conditions.
Finally, the bank has advanced its Global Markets platform through innovative hedging and execution tools, rolling out digital FX and rates solutions and embedding environmental, social and governance considerations into product development. By fostering cutting‑edge technology and sustainability‑oriented structures, it continues to support clients in navigating market volatility and long‑term transition objectives.
Best bank for ESG 2025: KBC Bank
KBC Bank has strengthened its digital environmental, social and governance (ESG) offerings to help clients make more sustainable choices.
In 2024, it rolled out a Responsible Investing dashboard that shows customers the share of sustainable assets in their portfolios and highlights opportunities for further responsible investments. Alongside this tool, KBC enhanced its Sustainable Housing ecosystem in its mobile app, guiding customers through buying, renovating and improving the energy efficiency of their homes. By the end of the year, more than 8,000 clients had collectively received €18 million in interest rate discounts for choosing properties with high energy performance certificate ratings, underscoring the bank’s commitment to cleaner homes.
Building on its role as a partner in corporate transitions, KBC expanded its sustainable financing suite. With the European Investment Bank, it launched a €600 million facility dedicated to Belgian SMEs investing in renewable energy, water recycling and energy efficiency projects. The bank also introduced sustainability‑linked factoring in 2024, linking the cost of working capital facilities to agreed ESG targets, thereby broadening the reach of performance‑based lending beyond its established sustainability‑linked loans.
KBC continued to pursue ambitious operational decarbonisation and innovation pilots that reinforce its own sustainability journey. Electrified vehicles now make up over half of the Autolease fleet, with 90% of new orders in 2024 being electric or hybrid models.
Internally, a pilot on internal carbon pricing and a first‑of‑its‑kind energy sharing experiment have laid the groundwork for embedding carbon costs into SME credit decisions and for testing peer‑to‑peer surplus energy exchanges.
KBC has achieved a 68% reduction in its own greenhouse gas emissions since the 2015 baseline and issued its first €750 million green bond under an updated framework, channelling proceeds into energy‑efficient buildings, renewable energy and clean transport.
Best bank for large corporates 2025: BNP Paribas Fortis
BNP Paribas Fortis’s large corporate arm combines deep local roots with the full spectrum of the BNP Paribas Group’s international network. Drawing on expertise from more than 60 countries, the team supports multinational clients through dedicated relationship management, ensuring seamless access to diverse financing and advisory capabilities. This integrated model underpins its position as a core provider for most of the large corporate market.
The bank has proven particularly adept at steering complex strategic transactions, providing steadfast advice and robust financial support to ensure seamless execution. Senior management engagement has been a key factor in delivering coordinated efforts across all levels of the organisation.
Recent enhancements in digital services have transformed the client experience by enabling large corporates to carry out a full range of banking activities online. From day‑to‑day cash management and financing operations to contract authorisation and liquidity oversight, these tools offer a seamless, end‑to‑end workflow. Strong uptake among key clients highlights both the reliability of these digital solutions and the bank’s dedication to modernizing its offerings, allowing businesses to operate more efficiently and securely.
On the operational front, BNP Paribas Fortis has streamlined its compliance framework to accelerate client onboarding and ongoing reviews. This more cohesive approach has improved the speed and clarity of regulatory procedures, reducing friction for corporate clients. As a result, the bank has achieved higher satisfaction levels in an area that is often seen as complex and time‑consuming.
