KBC Group: Second-quarter result of 1 152 million euros

* Unfloored fully loaded common equity ratio: taking into account the total impact of Basel IV on risk-weighted assets, excluding the output floor impact.

See full press release in attachment

Johan Thijs, Chief Executive Officer KBC Group:

We recorded an excellent net profit of 1 152 million euros in the second quarter of 2026. Compared to the previous quarter, our total income benefitted from higher levels of net interest income, insurance revenues, trading and fair value income, net fee and commission income and the seasonal peak in dividend income, while only net other income decreased. Our loan portfolio grew organically by 3% quarter-on-quarter and by as much as 7% year-on-year. Customer deposits – excluding volatile, low-margin short-term deposits at KBC Bank’s foreign branches – were up organically by 2% quarter-on-quarter and by 4% year-on-year. Operating expenses were down significantly on their level in the previous quarter, due to the fact that the bulk of the bank and insurance taxes for the entire year was recorded – as usual – in the first quarter. Disregarding bank and insurance taxes, operating expenses were down slightly quarter-on-quarter. On a year-to-date basis, operating expenses were in line with our full-year 2026 guidance. Insurance service expenses after reinsurance were up, as were non-loan-loss-related impairments. Loan loss impairment charges on the other hand fell significantly quarter-on-quarter. As a result, our year-to-date credit cost ratio stood at a favourable level of 11 basis points in the first half of 2026, when excluding the reserve for geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties and the recent acquisition of 365.bank.

Consequently, when adding up the results for the first and second quarters of the year, our net profit for the first half of 2026 amounted to 1 709 million euros, up 9% on the year-earlier figure. The recent acquisitions of 365.bank in Slovakia and Business Lease in the Czech Republic and Slovakia contributed 29 million euros to our half-year profit figure.

Our solvency position remained strong, with an unfloored fully loaded common equity ratio under Basel IV of 14.4% at the end of June 2026. We also successfully completed our second significant risk transfer (SRT) transaction on a 1.25-billion-euro corporate loan portfolio, leading to a saving of 0.7 billion euros in risk weighted assets. Our liquidity position remained very solid too, as illustrated by an LCR of 158% and an NSFR of 133%. In line with our dividend policy, we will pay out an interim dividend of 1 euro in November 2026 as an advance on the total dividend for financial year 2026. Furthermore, we decided to increase, among other things, our 2026 guidance for net interest income to ‘approximately 7.05 billion euros’, up from our previous guidance of ‘at least 6 725 million euros’, and our 2026 guidance for total income to ‘approximately +11.0% year-on-year’, up from ‘at least +9.9% year-on-year’ previously.

We continue to lead the way in digital innovation, with Kate playing a pivotal role in delivering faster, smarter and more personal services to our customers. To date, Kate has already reached 6.2 million customers across our core markets, with an average of around 75% of customer queries being solved autonomously. That translates into a workload of over 400 full-time commercial employees, allowing our teams to spend more time on assisting our customers with more complex questions and providing valuable advice at key life moments. Our ultimate aim is to be there for our customers whenever it matters, supporting them with solutions for housing, mobility, travel and the many moments in between. To date, our ‘MyMobility’ ecosphere has already onboarded close to 390 000 customers in Belgium (leading to a roughly 40% market share increase for car loans since November 2025) and the Czech Republic, while 60 000 customers have already onboarded the ‘MyHome’ ecosphere in Belgium. These ecospheres allow customers to retrieve useful information, guidance, support and simulations – increasingly powered by Kate – for their mobility and housing-related questions, while the digital interaction with the customer provides useful leads for KBC to reach out and set up a further dialogue. To provide additional insight into this journey, we will extend the usual conference call regarding the fourth quarter and full-year 2026 results with a topical event on Thursday 11 February 2027, providing more insights into the digital transformation of our group, leading to new financial and non-financial guidance.

In closing, I would like to sincerely thank all our customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders for their trust and support. More than anything else, that trust and support is and remains fundamental to the success of our group both now and in the future.

* This news item contains information that is subject to the transparency regulations for listed companies.