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KBC Bank N.V. is a Belgian universal multi-channel bank, focusing on private clients and small and medium-sized enterprises. Besides retail banking, insurance and asset management activities (in collaboration with sister companies KBC Insurance NV and KBC Asset Management NV), KBC is active in European debt capital markets, domestic cash equity markets and in the field of corporate banking, leasing, factoring, reinsurance, private equity and project and trade finance in Belgium, Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere (mainly in Europe). KBC is an initialism for ''Kredietbank ABB Insurance CERA Bank''. The parent company, KBC Group N.V., is one of the major companies and the second largest bancassurer in Belgium. It is the 18th largest bank in Europe (by market capitalisation) and a major financial player in Central and Eastern Europe, employing some 51,000 staff worldwide (of which 31,000 in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia) and serving 11 million customers worldwide (some 8 million in Central and Eastern Europe). The group is controlled by a syndicate of core shareholders, but has a free float of some 41%. In the core shareholders, KBC Ancora/Cera group controls 30%(23%/7%), MRBB (a farmers' association) controls around 13% and a group of industrialist families controls another 11%.〔 The free float was chiefly held by a large variety of international institutional investors (close to 45% UK-or US-based) as of the end of 2010. Its shares are traded on the Euronext exchange in Brussels and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The group's overall aim is to be an independent, medium-sized provider of bancassurance for private clients and enterprises in selected European countries, with a focus on asset management and in financial markets. ==History== The Catholic ''Volksbank van Leuven'', founded in 1889, was one of the earliest predecessors of the KBC Bank. Another predecessor was the ''Bremer Vorschussverein'', founded in 1889 and changed later into ''Bankverein Bremen AG''. In 1935, the banks ''Algemeene Bankvereeniging'' and ''Volksbank van Leuven'' merged with the ''Bank voor Handel en Nijverheid'' to create the Kredietbank. The Kredietbank would be the only Belgian financial institution under Flemish control which would survive the financial crisis of the great depression of the 1930s. Fernand Collin, who became president in 1938, conceived the business strategy which would lead to the growth of the bank. He defined the Kredietbank as an independent bank with a decidedly Flemish character which would be an instrument to further Flemish economic growth. During World War II, the bank would be able to expand its activities and grow its deposits from the Flemish middle class. After the war, because of the economic recovery, the Kredietbank, now the third largest bank in Belgium, was able to increase the number of operating branches in Flanders. The postwar growth strategy of the bank, emphasized foreign expansion and the development of portfolio-management services for investors. The bank expanded into Luxembourg in 1949 with the ''Kredietbank S.A. Luxembourgeoise'' and into Wallonia with the establishment of the ''Crédit Général de Belgique'' in 1961. The Kredietbank also expanded into Belgian Congo. It established a branch in Léopoldville in 1952. Then in 1954 it acquired Banque Congolaise pour l’Industrie, le Commerce, et l’Agriculture and renamed it Kredietbank-Congo,〔Edouard Mambu ma Khenzu. 2006. ''A Modern History of Monetary and Financial Systems of Congo, 1885-1995''. (Lewiston: Edward Mellan).〕 Ultimately it had four branches, one each in Léopoldville, Bukavu, Elizabethville and Stanleyville. Due the situation emerging after the independence of Belgian Congo in 1960, the bank discontinued its Congolese operations in 1966. In the sixties, driven by increasing competition, the bank worked on the expansion of its branch network and improvement of consumer services. In 1966, the bank began building a foreign-correspondent network and the establishment of foreign branches in New York, London, the Cayman Islands, and a subsidiary in Geneva, the ''Kredietbank (Suisse) S.A.''. In 1970, together with six other European institutions, Kredietbank established the Inter-Alpha Group of Banks. The ''Kredietbank N.V.'' Bruxelles acquired the main part of the shares from the ''Bankverein Bremen AG'' since 1982. The branch in Bremen was renamed to ''Kredietbank-Bankverein AG'' in 1990. In 1998, the Kredietbank merged with two financial institutions originating from the ' (E: Belgian Catholic Farmers Association), ABB-insurance (Assurances du Boerenbind Belge) and CERA (Centrale Raiffeisenkas) Bank, to form the 'KBC Bank and Insurance Holding Company'. Since then, the group has significantly expanded its activities, chiefly in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2005, KBC set another milestone by merging with its parent company, Almanij, and changing its name to . Over the past decade, KBC has built up a strong presence in many of the countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 (Poland, Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics) by investing some 7.4 billion euros in acquisitions. More recently (2007), KBC has made acquisitions in Bulgaria (DZI Insurance, DZI Invest and EIBANK), Romania (KBC Securities Romania, Romstal Leasing and INK Insurance Broker), Russia (Absolut Bank), Serbia (KBC Banka and Senzal, now KBC Securities AD Beograd, Hipobroker, now KBC Broker, and Bastion, now KBC Securities Corporate Finance) and Slovakia (Istrobanka). After receiving government support during the financial crisis, the bank embarked on a divestment programme to satisfy the requirements of the European Commission. As such, it has sold or is planning to sell several subsidiaries, such as Centea, Fidea, Kredyt Bank, ADB, KBC Deutschland, and KBL ''epb'' (Krediet Bank Luxembourgeoise), its network of European private banking subsidiaries. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「KBC Bank」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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