Our activities

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Our strategy is underpinned by an operating model designed to maximise Fortis’s potential and create sustainable value. This enhanced operating model will enable us to better pursue our profitable and controlled growth strategy. With a more streamlined organisation in place, we intend to implement our strategy more effectively and achieve far greater consistency across the company. The enhanced model, featuring four client-centric businesses, gives us critical mass and a stronger platform for international growth. It increases cross-selling opportunities and improves our ability to drive synergies and best practices throughout both our banking and insurance operations.

Our four core businesses are: Retail Banking, Asset Management & Private Banking, Merchant Banking and Insurance.

Retail Banking

Our Retail Banking business offers financial services to individuals, self-employed people, members of independent professions and small businesses. We boast an extensive pan-European footprint, with a presence in markets that cover an equivalent of more than half of European Union gross domestic product. Operating through a variety of distribution channels in the Benelux countries, we deliver services and advice on every aspect of banking, saving, investment, credit and insurance to a clearly segmented customer base. Our extensive retail portfolio in Turkey is served by a comprehensive and tailored product offering. In Germany, meanwhile, we focus on credit cards and consumer lending at innovative credit shops. Fortis in Poland targets affluent customers and small businesses, while our subsidiary Dominet is helping us to rapidly roll out our consumer finance and mass retail business in this market. And finally, our financial services joint venture with An Post in Ireland – Postbank – has a distribution network of 1,400 post offices and some 3,000 PostPoint outlets.

With over 18,000 employees, we offer more than six million customers a wide range of integrated financial and insurance solutions via an array of proprietary and large third-party distribution channels. Our proprietary channels include over 1,800 branches or credit shops in more than 350 cities, 2,500 Selfbank terminals and ATMs, online banking, telephone banking and call centres. Third-party distribution covers independent brokers (in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands), non-financial outlets (post offices in Belgium and Ireland and car dealers) and consumer finance co-branding deals (e.g. Base and Jetair in Belgium, ANWB Royal Dutch Touring Club, Bijenkorf and Worldwide Fund for Nature in the Netherlands).

Together with ABN AMRO, we will cement our position as a leading financial institution in the Netherlands and in the Benelux region. Customers will benefit from an even stronger product portfolio through a wider branch network with nationwide coverage and full-service SME banking.

Our rigorously client-centric strategy at Retail Banking reflects the fact that customer satisfaction is the single most important factor in sustaining profitable growth. An important part of this strategy entails continuously aligning our services and distribution channels with what our customers want. In addition, we aim to grow in both mature and developing markets by pursuing a segmented customer approach towards mass retail clients, affluent individuals, professionals and small businesses. We work with different models for growth, each based on our key strengths and adapted to specific markets and customer segments:

• In mature markets where we are market leader, like Belgium, Luxembourg and – once ABN AMRO has been integrated – the Netherlands, we will continue to serve our customers by tailoring our product range to each segment, selectively deepening relationships, fine-tuning our service culture and offering integrated, multi-channel accessibility.
• In fast-growing segments and developing markets, we will leverage our existing and new positions to achieve growth. We are rapidly rolling out our consumer finance activities in Germany. In Poland, we are expanding our consumer finance and mass retail operations while focusing on the SME market and upscale individual customers. Turkey, meanwhile, is being transformed into a fullfledged retail franchise. And finally, we have developed a postal distribution franchise in Ireland through our joint venture An Post.

Asset Management & Private Banking

Since 1 January 2008, Asset Management and Private Banking have been regrouped into one business. In combination with the new top management structure, this will allow us to maximise the benefits from the integration of Fortis and ABN AMRO and to better service the needs of our growing customer base.

Fortis Investments is the asset manager of Fortis and has EUR 133 billion in assets under management with over 50% of its revenues generated by third party clients. We have a global presence, with sales offices and 21 dedicated investment centres in Europe, the US and Asia. We offer international investment solutions, while meeting the requirements and needs of local investors, both institutional and wholesale/retail. We are a client-driven organization using a disciplined investment process to satisfy our clients’ varied needs.

Fortis Private Banking offers integrated and international asset and liability management solutions to high net worth individuals, their businesses and their advisers. With offices in 17 countries, we help our clients consolidate, preserve and transfer their wealth.

Combining Fortis Investments with the asset management activities of ABN AMRO will produce a global asset manager in terms of reach and scale, with an established footprint worldwide. This winning combination will also offer access to high-growth markets and capabilities in high-growth product areas. To ensure that we at Asset Management are ready to leverage this growth, we are implementing a fast track integration process firmly focused on client retention and aimed at retaining key investment and sales staff. At the same time, this will confirm our stable image among clients.

As part of our focused growth strategy, we at Private Banking will build on our client-driven approach designed to offer the most appropriate and innovative solutions. Joining forces with ABN AMRO will allow us to benefit from a deeper geographical footprint in Europe and Asia where we can roll out our full service offering to high-growth markets. This will give us the chance to leverage our best practices and local market strengths into the international network. And it will help us create one international private bank – one that works with an integrated network harmonised across borders and a dedicated platform and systems.

We will continue to pursue our successful pan-European ‘enterprise and entrepreneur’ approach, cross-selling with Merchant Banking’s medium-sized and large companies. Other growth drivers are upgrading of retail clients, our brokerage activities and our wealth management proposition. Our strategy of developing our business on all these fronts simultaneously is designed to ensure steady growth in the future.

Merchant Banking

We at Merchant Banking provide a wide range of financial products and services to medium-sized enterprises, large international companies and institutional clients based in the Benelux region and elsewhere in Europe, and in selected areas of North America and Asia. Our solid regional or global position in several products and skills means we are well placed to capture growth.

In combination with ABN AMRO, we will offer internationally active medium-sized enterprises a distinctive integrated network of Business Centres in 19 countries. One global account manager with access to the combined businesses will serve these clients’ interests in the countries where they are active.

Our strategy at Merchant Banking is to pursue focused growth by building on our client-centric approach and leveraging our core competences and strengths. In practice, this means combining our key client relationships and strong product franchises with identified growth opportunities. A central element of our strategy is international expansion: targeted development of our client and product skills is our number one priority. Three key levers will allow us to achieve our objectives: revenue growth, cost efficiency and risk management.

• Energy, Commodities & Transportation (ECT), where we offer integrated and innovative solutions to the energy, commodities and transportation industries, by combining extensive industry knowledge with a wide range of customised products
• services to professional traders and to hedge funds and other institutional investors, where we will capitalise on the growing importance of alternative asset management;
• the institutional market, with its high demand for sophisticated solutions and swift rollout of derivatives and structured products;
• corporate clients: we aim to achieve a leading position by deepening our relationships in this segment;
• specialised financial services – such as leasing, commercial finance, trade finance, cash management, trust and corporate services – that allow us to meet the increasing demand for high-quality specialised services and the growing demand in emerging markets.

We will further improve our risk management organisation, processes, methods and tools and ensure controlled growth in risk-weighted commitments in order to actively manage our risk exposure.

Insurance

Fortis occupies a top 10 position in Europe’s insurance market, with market leadership in the Benelux countries and strong positions in the bancassurance and broker channels. We leverage our skills in distribution, operations and products from our home markets in the Benelux region and have established leading positions in selected European and Asian markets. Our top-line growth in recent years has given us attractive new business margins in Life and a healthy combined ratio in Non-Life.

Our Fortify insurance strategy is aimed at growing the business by applying the principle ‘optimise locally by sharing globally’, i.e. share proven skills across borders and businesses. To this end, we have established one global organisation which includes knowledge communities to enhance the cross-border exchange of know-how and to help us pursue a common approach within individual fields of expertise. Our strategy focuses on extending multi-channel distribution, product market innovation and operational excellence. Finally, we will continue to invest in selected new markets in Europe and in Asia.

In Belgium, we want to strengthen our market leadership position by exploiting our multiple distribution channels, focusing on innovation and pursuing profitable growth. The goal in our life insurance business is to achieve growth of written premiums and of assets under management. In Property & Casualty, meanwhile, we want to gain market share in both the retail and SME client segments. For the latter, we will continue to develop business between the bank and the broker channels.

In the Netherlands, our focus is on profitable top-line growth and boosting market share through multi-channel distribution and product innovation. We are adapting our organisation to new regulations and stricter supervision and a more critical attitude among stakeholders towards the insurance industry. Plus we are facing the challenge of stiffer competition and changing customer preferences and purchasing behaviour.

In the rest of the world, we have successfully entered new markets and have reinforced existing market positions, both organically and through acquisitions. The result of all this has been impressive revenue and profit growth in Asia and in several markets in Europe. We have drawn on our knowledge and expertise to transfer skills throughout the company, promote product innovation and improve distribution methods.