KBC Mobile now adding daily financial and economic news to its services.
Business newspapers De Tijd/L’Echo, VRT NWS and KBC economists to provide KBC Mobile users with a selection of news articles.
Monday, December 20, 2021 — Consumers are increasingly looking for understandable and reliable sources of information to improve their knowledge of financial matters. With this in mind, KBC Mobile will provide its users with financial and economic information, news updates and insights on a daily basis, starting today. This information will be supplied by business newspapers De Tijd and L’Echo, as well as by VRT NWS and KBC's own economists.
Market research shows that a daily offering of relevant content helps KBC Mobile users to keep up to date with the latest news and make more thoroughly informed decisions concerning their financial affairs. Customers appreciate fast, reliable and objective news updates, particularly when they are relevant to their financial needs. These findings have also been confirmed by a pilot project running over the past few weeks. This innovative partnership with two well-established news sources allows KBC to respond to these needs, further positioning KBC Mobile as a unique all-in-one app which is now used by more than 1.75 million customers.
* KBC (Brussels) Mobile and CBC Mobile
KBC Financial News now in your pocket, whenever and wherever you need it
KBC, De Tijd/L’Echo and VRT NWS are providing a daily selection of around 10 current and relevant news articles (therefore only available in Dutch and French). Each day, the editors of De Tijd/L’Echo and VRT NWS will select financial and economic articles, all while respecting journalistic impartiality, and KBC economists will likewise provide articles for this new service in the KBC app, focusing on financial information from Belgium.
Customers do not have to register on the news websites or take out a subscription. All of the selected news items will be collected in a single, easy-to-access location on the app's start screen. If the user selects the title for one of the latest financial or economic news items, they can then read the piece in its entirety.
If a user doesn't want to receive daily news updates, they can easily turn off this feature in their settings or select the tab for the most recent article and choose 'I no longer wish to receive news articles'. They can always reactivate this feature later by going to 'Offer'. Eventually it will be possible to customise the news flow to take account of the information the customer specifically wants to see.
Karin Van Hoecke, General Manager of Digital Transformation & Data at KBC Bank, is proud of this first-of-a-kind feature: 'KBC is increasingly positioning KBC Mobile as a unique, all-in-one app, which only just in September was named the best mobile banking app in the world by the independent international research agency Sia Partners. This serves as clear recognition of years of innovation, development and – in particular – carefully listening to our customers. By listening to them, we have also gained a lot of experience in recent years when it comes to using KBC Mobile to offer non-financial services from external partners. Since the launch of these services in mid-2018, they have been used more than 7.5 million times by nearly 700 000 regular KBC Mobile users, illustrating that we are clearly responding to a growing customer need. This 'beyond banking' experience has taught us that our customers are open to innovation and services that make their lives easier. The innovative collaboration between two well-established news sources and KBC meets that need. For the first time, our customers are receiving the latest news flashes several times a day, which not only satisfies their hunger for news but also enables them to quickly plan for their future financial decisions. Thanks to the financial and economic insights we provide, we help increase our customers' knowledge and financial literacy, which is one of the sustainability pillars we're committed to as a bank-insurer.'
Hans De Rore, Chief Commercial Officer at Mediafin, adds: 'Media consumption is in a constant state of flux. As publisher of De Tijd and L’Echo, as well as advisory magazines De Belegger/L’Investisseur, Mediafin is an important player in this media landscape. We publish popular dailies, run heavily visited websites, provide news that is widely recognised for its reliability and have consistently gained readers in recent years. Going forward, we want to keep operating at the cutting edge. That's why we pay close attention to the multimedia accessibility of our quality journalism, and the reason we're happy to accept KBC's invitation to participate in this project. The KBC app is an additional channel through which we can introduce consumers to our high-quality news content. Our experience has shown that readers who regularly sample our editorial articles are more likely to take out a subscription.'
Lieven Vermaele, Director of Partnerships & Operations at VRT, is equally enthusiastic about the partnership: 'More than ever, digital is the new normal. This is creating a situation where media and news organisations want to be present on as many platforms as possible. By offering financial and economic news and commentary through the KBC Mobile app, VRT can connect with the right target group on a relevant digital media platform. It helps us to bring news to new users, as more and more people are now getting their information from media other than radio or TV. The fact that we are doing this in collaboration with KBC and Mediafin makes this initiative even stronger. The Flemish ecosystem is under pressure from large international players. This kind of partnership, however, allows us to strengthen each other and expand our reach. The strong VRT NWS, De Tijd/L'Echo and KBC brands are together greater than the sum of their parts.'
