Overview of private banks and asset managers in Belgium 2018-2019, by AUM

In 2019, most private banking assets in Belgium could be found at the four biggest consumer banks of the country: Paribas Fortis, KBC, ING Belgium and Belfius. This is probably due to the relatively low bar set for clients, as investable assets of 250,000 euros or more was enough to participate. Note that this list is different from numbers shown in another ranking on Belgium’s largest asset managers. The overview mentioned here focuses more specifically on private banking and wealth management, instead of the much broader asset management (or vermogensbeheer in Belgian Dutch/gestion d’actifs in French). Private banking and wealth management are generally aimed at clients with a higher portfolio than regular customers or even high-net-worth-individuals (HNWIs).

Why are some private banks missing from this ranking?

This ranking came from a survey which requested private banks to supply their financial data for general publication. The source mentions, however, that the private banking sector in Belgium is "hyper competitive" and that especially banks which target HNWIs were reluctant to share data. Swiss banks such as Edmond de Rothschild and Lombard Odier, or French bank CA Indosuez (Crédit Agricole), for example, did not supply any figures, as it is part of their policy to not share customer data. There are financial figures on specific branches from banks on Statista, such as the net profit of the European headquarters of Edmond de Rothschild in Luxembourg. These figures, however, do not mention explicitly the revenue they make in each country they serve.

From Luxembourg, with interest

Several of the players active on the Belgian private banking market have their roots outside the country. ABN AMRO (Netherlands) and Deutsche Bank (Germany) are notable examples, but there are also several examples originating from Luxembourg like Puilaetco Dewaay (part of KBL European Private Bankers) and the Belgian branch of Banque de Luxembourg. The Grand Duchy’s private banking sector focuses almost exclusively on HNWIs: in 2018, clients with assets over five million euros made up three-quarters of all private banking AUM in the country. These clients came from all over the world, but for a large part from European countries. In 2018, Belgians (along with French and German clients) were the most common non-domestic customers in the Grand Duchy’s private banking sector.