About Fortis
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Access to financial services |
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We are equally committed to developing products and applications that bring the benefits of our financial services within everyone’s reach. Our multichannel distribution approach gives each customer the freedom to choose how to interact with Fortis. And to further enhance that access, we pay particular attention to vulnerable groups within society. We are proud, for instance, to have brought online banking to blind and partially sighted people in Belgium, with a special device that helps them enjoy secure access to their accounts. Having pioneered the service in Belgium, we rank among the top three banks in the world when it comes to providing online banking services to the visually impaired market.
By ensuring access to our services and enabling people to be part of the financial system, we aim to give them opportunities they might not have had if the market was left to its own devices. Our Start Green investment fund likewise offers finance to sustainable technostarters that would not ordinarily qualify for a loan or investment. They then get the chance to turn their sustainable technology ideas into a profitable business.
Microfinance is an increasingly established approach to providing low-income entrepreneurs with access to financial resources. Fortis launched a microfinance pilot (Dutch only) in 2007, and we now offer services in this area in the Netherlands, one of our domestic markets. We are convinced that there is still plenty of scope for improvement in this field. As we grow our company internationally, we will explore the potential for expanding the scope of our microfinance services on an international scale, taking it to less-developed regions in 2008.