Business
KBC Group: First-quarter result of 557 million euros
KBC Group – overview (consolidated, IFRS)1Q20264Q20251Q2025Net result (in millions of EUR)5571 003546Basic earnings per share (in EUR)1.322.441.32Breakdown of the net result by business unit (in millions of EUR) Belgium317674281Czech Republic223231207International Markets99205135Group Centre-82-107-77Parent shareholders’ equity per share (in EUR, end of period)64.764.058.8 ‘ 'We recorded a net profit of 557 million euros in the first quarter of 2026. Compared to the previous quarter, our total i
About this update from Kbc Group N.v.
‘ 'We recorded a net profit of 557 million euros in the first quarter of 2026. Compared to the previous quarter, our total income benefited from strong net interest income, higher insurance revenues, slightly higher net fee and commission income despite the geopolitical turmoil and increased net other income, while trading & fair value income and dividend income were down. Our loan portfolio continued to expand, growing organically by 2% 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 stable quarter-on-quarter and up 3% year-on-year. As usual, the first quarter of the year included the bulk of the bank and insurance taxes for the entire year. Operating expenses excluding bank and insurance taxes were down slightly on the previous quarter, due in part to seasonal effects, while insurance service expenses after reinsurance were slightly up. Loan loss impairment charges for our lending book were slightly up on the level recorded in the previous quarter, and due to the geopolitical turmoil we increased the reserve (ECL and management overlay) for geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties by 75 million euros, resulting in a total reserve of 175 million euros. The past few months have also seen us make considerable progress in implementing our strategy. We finalised the acquisitions of 365.bank in Slovakia and Business Lease in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. These acquisitions contributed 13 million euros to profit in the first quarter of 2026. They had an impact of -0.5 percentage points on our capital position, bringing our unfloored fully loaded common equity ratio under Basel IV to a strong 14.4% at the end of March 2026. Our liquidity position remained very solid too, as illustrated by an LCR of 159% and an NSFR of 135%. As approved by the General Meeting of Shareholders on 7 May 2026, we will pay a final dividend of 4.1 euros per share on 20 May 2026, bringing the total dividend for full-year 2025 to 5.1 euros per share and the pay-out ratio to 60% of 2025 net profit. We aim to lead the way in digital innovation and in this regard are delighted that Kate, our AI-powered personal digital assistant, has now reached 6.1 million customers, up 11% on the year-earlier figure, with over 70% of customer queries in our core markets ...