Awards for Excellence country winners: Belgium

The Belgian government’s retail bond programme last year, which pressured lenders to raise deposits, was just one element of a relatively tough environment for banks in Belgium. The country also sits at the opposite end of the spectrum to southern Europe in terms of the proportion of loans on floating-rate deals, meaning local banks benefit less from higher eurozone interest rates.

Clearly, this has not helped Belgian banks. Despite this, BNP Paribas Fortis saw net profit rise by 9% to €3.1 billion, its best result since Fortis became part of BNP Paribas in 2009. The bank’s operating costs grew less than revenues and the cost-to-income ratio fell to 52.1%. Cost of risk was just 11 basis points.

In Belgium, total loans increased by 4.5%