Dexia Bank, the third most active provider of structured products in Belgium, has changed its name to Belfius Bank & Insurance. The bank opted for the name change - which came into effect yesterday - to distance itself from Dexia Holdings. "We no longer have a relationship with the listed company Dexia Group," the bank said. "To avoid confusion, we have chosen a new name."
Dexia Bank is an active distributor of structured products in Belgium. The bank had a market share of 8% (€479m) in 2011 - the third highest in Belgium - behind KBC with 43% (€2.5bn) and ING with 19% (€1.07bn). It currently has 204 live products, with an outstanding volume of €6.56bn, according to SRP.com's Belgian database, including 49 funds (€552m), issued via Dexia Asset Management and 155 structured notes (€6bn), issued via its Dexia Funding Netherlands vehicle.
In 2010, when Dexia was nationalised, the bank made a profit of €678m. However, a year later the state bank plunged €1.37bn in the red, with losses mainly caused by write-offs on Greek debt securities (€1.3bn). "We have certainly been hit, but have managed to retain the confidence of our customers," said CEO Jos Clijsters at press conference yesterday. "However", said Clijsters, "since 1 January, the bank had already received 20,000 new customers, while the total funding of Dexia Bank Belgium is again at the level of before the crisis in 2008."
The 'Bel' of Belfius stands for Belgium, 'fi' for finance and the English 'us' for 'we'. Due to technical and economic reasons the name change will be implemented gradually over the next few months, and the result should be fully visible by June. The website will immediately adopt the new name while the football players of Club Bruges will display the new logo on Sunday.