KBC Group Q3 2026 Earnings Call - Record Inflows Offset Margin Pressure as Profit Hits €1.14B

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the KBC Group Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to Kurt de Baenst, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Kurt de Baenst, Head of Investor Relations, KBC Group: Thank you, operator. A very good morning to all of you from the headquarters of KBC in Brussels, and welcome to the KBC conference call. Today is Thursday, November the 12th, 2026, and we are hosting the conference call on the third quarter results of KBC. As usual, we have Johan Thijs, our Group CEO, with us, as well as Group CFO Bart Puelinckx, and they will both elaborate on the results. As such, it’s my pleasure to give the floor to our CEO, Johan Thijs, who will quickly run you through the presentation.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: Thank you very much, Kurt. Also from my side, a warm welcome to the announcement of third quarter results 2026. We will do this, as always, on the back of the slides, which start with the key takeaways and the result of EUR 1 billion 142 million, which is indeed a good result, which clearly shows that our mission as integrated bank insurer is delivering again on its promises. All commercial entities, either banks or insurance company, asset management, have performed very well in this quarter, which is translated in several things, amongst others, customer loans, which have increased with roughly 2% on average over the core countries. We have seen that indeed on the customer deposits, there is some pressure, which is also related to seasonality. Third quarter is, in that perspective, always a difficult quarter.

Retail bonds are Government bonds, I should say, are also a given in several countries. We also have, and that’s very good news, a shift, more stronger shift towards asset management products. In assets, core customer money inflow totaled over the year roughly EUR 11 billion, which is indeed a very good number. If you look at the net interest income, excluding the inflation-linked bonds, then we have seen an increase of 1%, and hereby we also are confident to confirm the guidance of EUR 7 billion 50 million for the full year. I already mentioned the very strong net sales of asset management, which is also translated in higher net fee and commission income, which is also the given for the insurance business on non-life, very strong performance indeed, and also in the life business, slightly down, but it is actually referred to a very strong previous quarter.

All in all, perfectly in line with all the guidances which we have provided on these product lines. The same I can say about the cost side. Costs are, of course, seasonally up on the quarter, but perfectly in line with the guidance. In that perspective, I could also say that if you take into account the evolution of total income and you compare it with our costs, that the jaws are at least 50 basis points, not 50%, but 50 basis points, as you would say, higher than the guidance which we have given, depends how you calculate it, in or out the bonus. If we would exclude the bonus like the original guidance was given, then the jaw is up more than 100 basis points. Cost income, very solid at 39.7%, also clearly better than what we have guided before. Also that is in line.

Credit cost ratio stands with 12 basis points, also significantly better than the guidance. In this perspective, it is not a surprise that return on tangible equity is 18%, and that the solvency ratios are very solid, 14.6%. Same can be said about the liquidity ratios of 131 and 157 respectively on the mid and on the short term. Now, we have paid out an interim dividend of EUR 1 per share on the 6th of November, and we also reconfirm the date of 11th February 2027, where we are going to highlight what we are doing going forward on the digital front and how that is going to impact our performance, both in terms of the financial as on the non-financial targets. Let me go now more into the detail.

The next page gives you this traditional split up between the net interest income and the non-net interest income. The split is 52% NII, whereas the mainly bank, sorry, mainly insurance and asset management business is delivering 48%. It is in line with the longer term average of 50/50. On the next page, you can see the split up between the banking and insurance activity. 14% of the results are delivered by the insurance activity, which also then obviously means that all the remainder is coming from banking activities. In terms of innovation, in terms of the impact of that innovation on our output, Kate is delivering more and more on the promises which are made.

As a matter of fact, if I would go back to the original guidance which we have given on Kate, we passed that with a big margin, 6.4 million of our customers are using this, and what is more important, they do it with a greater satisfaction. One of the drivers is that the autonomy of Kate is hovering around the 80% number, 79% to be precise, in Czech Republic, and given some particular aspects in Belgium, 77% of all the questions there were answered by Kate without interference of any human being. Now, to translate that a little bit differently, Kate does the work of commercial employees in that perspective, and if we do a very conservative calculation, we are now with Kate delivering the equivalent of at least 432 people, which is indeed a strong number.

Kate has been involved in guiding our people in the sales forces by sending them leads. We still have, in that perspective, a very strong conversion rate, which leads to 550,000 sales done via Kate leads. I can continue on that, but for the sake of time, I propose to switch immediately to the one-offs. There are two particular one-offs in this quarter. One is linked to the integration costs of 365.bank and Business Lease, totaling in total EUR 16 million before taxes, and EUR 6 million is the net effect of a consolidation error which occurred in Czech Republic and which has been adjusted in this quarter. Let me go to net interest income.

If you look at the net interest income, we remember that quarter two was characterized by extreme growth in inflation-linked bonds, net interest income, to be precise, that quarter, EUR 45 million. This quarter, it’s only EUR 2 million, which actually explains the difference between the two. If you would set that aside, the net interest income is actually 1% up compared to previous quarter. How come? It’s driven by always two things. First of all, the transformation result. Transformation result is again significantly up, which is driven by higher reinvestment yields, and the second part is lending income.

If you take into account the adjustment of an error made by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank in quarter two, and you take that out of the lending income, then the lending income in this quarter is flattish, which means that the volumes are offsetting the margin pressure, which is obviously still there. Volumes grew with 1.8% on the quarter, which is indeed a strong number, and if you then calculate the year-to-date growth, we stand at this stage at 6.2% loan growth, which is already after nine months more than the full-year guidance of 6%. So, in this perspective, indeed, a very strong number. There are a couple of offsetting elements. Let me highlight a couple of them.

First of all, there was a correction of EUR 8 million on the intercompany, the adjustment of the intercompany transactions in Czech Republic, the error I was referring about a second ago. Then the other thing is that the dealing rooms had a lower income, which is combined with the cash management, roughly EUR 13 million. As a matter of fact, if you would conclude those two numbers, so the net effect of the dealing income and the one-off in Czech Republic, that is a bit more than EUR 18 million, which is actually the difference between the consensus of all analysts and KBC’s number. So, we are perfectly in line with that analysis made by the analyst community.

Let me then go to the. For good understanding, net interest margin is down, and this is entirely linked to what I said before, so the inflation-linked bonds, the error which is there, and then also a couple of smaller elements, like amongst others, the dealing rooms. Let me now go to a slide which I think will have more attention. That is the inflow of core customer monies. Well, at this quarter, we have EUR 800 million outflows of core customer money. As a matter of fact, we have EUR 800 million increase on our life insurance contracts. So, as a matter of fact, we actually see a further shift of monies from current account, saving accounts to higher-yielding products like you have term deposits, but mainly also asset management products and life insurance products. Let me focus back again on the core customer money and the definition.

The striking part in this perspective is EUR 3.4 billion have been shifted out of current accounts. If you look at the detail, you will see that out of that EUR 3.4 billion, the outflow in Belgian retail private banking is roughly EUR 1.1 billion. As a matter of fact, all the rest is linked to outflows which are corporate monies, which is seasonal. We have seen exactly the same thing in Q3 2025, and monies which will normally likely return in Q4. On top of that, we always add that corporate monies are volatile, and therefore, they are not part of the replication and not part of the replicating portfolio and the transformation result. Let me come back.

As I said, roughly EUR 1.1 billion was flowing out of the current accounts in Belgium, and for a good understanding, if you then add the saving accounts and the term deposits, so core customer money, we see in total an outflow of roughly EUR 1.5 billion. There is a but, and the but is that all these monies are compensated by inflow in asset management for the same amount, EUR 1.4 billion. So actually, it’s roughly money for money, which is translated in a different way. We have seen that in Belgium, on current accounts, but also savings accounts, our market share remained constant, remained stable. But we do clearly see that our peers are using more and more term deposits for providing customers higher-yielding products. KBC has a different strategy, and that means that if we cannot do otherwise, we will indeed shift monies to term deposits.

But the main focus in KBC Group is that we guide our customers to the higher-yielding products in asset management and life insurance contract, which was extremely successful in this third quarter with a record high EUR 2.1 billion on the asset management side, and as I said, in particular, EUR 1.4 billion in Belgium. This also means that the other countries in Central Europe have indeed also seen a very strong inflow in asset management products for respectively roughly EUR 700 million. Let me go back then to core customer money over the three quarters, so until September. After three quarters, we had a net inflow of roughly EUR 11 billion, which is mainly focused on the inflow in term deposits and a very strong inflow of EUR 5.1 billion in mutual funds.

For good understanding, margins in term deposits are substantially lower than the margin in asset management, which is still north of 100 basis points. This immediately gives me the bridge to fee and commission income, which is at a record high EUR 773 million. This is mainly due to the asset management services, where we have seen an increase of EUR 25 million. This again is driven by higher management fees and partly offset by lower entry fees. Reason for the lower entry fee is a slightly lower gross sale. It is roughly EUR 300 million lower than previous quarter, and that translates the difference on the payment, on the entry fees, sorry. Let me remind you, the total growth of net sales was record high, EUR 2.1 billion in this quarter, bringing the total to EUR 5.1 billion of inflows.

On the banking services, we had a strong quarter on the payment services, which was offset by a lower network income. How come? That is mainly to do with the strong performance of the Hungarian forint in the second quarter, and therefore, we do see lower FX rates in this quarter three. Also lower securities-related fees, which is intrinsically also linked to the market volatility, which we have seen in this third quarter. All in all, fee and commission services delivered an increase of EUR 15 million on the quarter. Assets under management stand at a record high, EUR 330 billion, which is fully driven by the net inflows. As a matter of fact, we have seen 2% inflows and 1% negative market performance, bringing the total increase to the refer to 1%.

In terms of the insurance sales, here we see similar things as what we have seen in previous quarters. The non-life sales are up 9%, which is entirely driven by all countries. We do have two countries which are extremely well performing, that is Czech Republic and Bulgaria, where we are north of 10%. All the other countries perform roughly around 7%. These numbers are all after correction for the FX effect. Quality remains very good with an 87% combined ratio, which is slightly up compared to the record low combined ratio of previous quarter, 85%. How come? We had windstorms and thunderstorms both in Belgium and in Central Europe, which are costing us roughly, after the insurance, EUR 18 million. We also have seen a couple of industrial fires in essence in Czech Republic and in Slovakia, and to a lesser extent, one in Belgium.

All in all, this is a good quarter in terms of its output. Life sales were flattish compared to the quarter, EUR 800 million compared to the EUR 814 million of previous quarter, and the EUR 843 million compared to previous years. These are small adjustments, roughly 2%. As you can see, all is driven by commercial campaigns. If you do one more commercial campaign, then the number looks completely different, which is normally due to quarter one and quarter four. All in all, life sales have been going up 11% on the year, which means that we have seen a strong performance in all countries.

It’s not only Belgium, but also all Central European countries are north of 10% in their life sales growth, which is also a reflection of the increasing welfare and the transformation of the welfare of those customers, of those citizens in Central Europe into asset management, let me call it differently, into investments products like asset management and life insurance. The financial instruments at fair value are up with EUR 65 million, which is mainly driven by the impact of interest rates and spreads on the ex-VAs. Then obviously, given the strong performance of the life insurance contract, EFI is slightly more negative, but that is obviously linked to the financial return and the interest rate evolution and the strong sales of that life insurance product.

Net other income is EUR 10 million below the run rate of 50, which is 100% explainable by the ending of a hedge, which is linked to an early repayment of a tier 2 instrument. I’m not going to dwell upon the detail because it is just not shifting the needle. What is potentially shifting the needle is the cost side. Well, at first glance, costs are up 3% and 9% respectively on the quarter and on the year. Now, for good understanding, this is due, in essence, to the consolidation of 365.bank in our numbers. Obviously, we have some other elements which are playing in the quarter. But what I think is far more important is the analysis on the underlying cost driver.

Here we have good news on a like-for-like basis, so you get rid of the bank taxes and you also exclude 365.bank, cost evolution is 3.7% up on the quarter, which is slightly higher than the guidance for year-end, 3.4%. But this evolution after nine months is perfectly in line with our internal budget for nine months. As a matter of fact, we have advanced on that budget, so we are very confident that we can confirm today the guidance for full year at 3.4%. Small detail, this is a number which is translating the fact that we have been able over nine months to absorb fully the increased inflation. We guided originally that inflation would be 1.7%. The reality is 3.1%, and we also recuperated the FX increase in that number.

No big surprise to say that the cost income ratio stands at 39.7%, which is also better than what we guided, and this is also a confirmation of the cost control which we have been established. On slide 13, you see the bank insurance taxes. There’s certainties on life, EUR 671 million is once again EUR 59 million up. We do expect on a yearly basis EUR 730 million tax payments in total, which is actually an increase of 10% on the referred number earlier this year. Now, what about asset impairments? Well, it stands at more or less the same level as previous quarter. It is in reflection in different building blocks. So our impairments stand at EUR 103 million for the loan book. That difference of EUR 50 million with previous quarter is fully explained by two things.

First of all, two files in Belgium totaling EUR 33 million, and the difference of, or the increase of EUR 4 million at 365.bank. As a matter of fact, if you would look at the underlying trend of our loan book, the impaired loan ratio stands at 1.8%, of which 1% is 90 days past due, which is actually the same as, let’s say, the previous seven quarters. It is also reflected in the evolution of our PD ratings, which you can find in our quarterly report. You will see clearly that the PD ratings are actually flattish, so that they are kind of in the same way evolving as in the previous quarter. If you would be very critical, you say a slight deterioration, but that is not shifting the needle.

This is also translated in the credit cost ratio, which stands at 12 basis points if you would exclude the overlay for the geopolitical and macroeconomic certainties. This is better than previous quarter, and in that perspective, a reflection of the underlying quality of the book. If you would include everything, then we stand at 18 basis points, which is better than the guidance which we have given before. Now, talking about the buffer, this quarter we added EUR 11 million to that buffer, which now stands at EUR 198 million, which is eight basis points of the total credit cost book. Now, in that perspective, mind you also that this is, in that perspective, a bit different than what we did in the past. We took again an impairment on software. We did this deliberately, EUR 24 million.

Reason is obvious, because software, as you know, is deducted from capital. This gives a release on capital. In principle, we do this every two quarters, so mid-year, end year, but we decided now to take 24 million impairments on top, releasing capital in doing so. Let me go then immediately to the position on CT1. Well, after good understanding, I skipped the slide on the direct exposure to the regions where it is difficult, but for good understanding, nothing has changed. On the contrary, situation has further improved. We have little exposures to those areas, and that exposure has further come down in the third quarter. Let me go to the capital position. 14.6 capital ratio is perfectly in line with the expectations of the market, and in that perspective, there are two things to be highlighted.

First one is that the consumption of capital is mainly driven by the strong loan growth. In that perspective, EUR 1.6 billion of risk-weighted assets have been generated by that loan growth. The second thing is incoming dividends, and you can clearly see what we said in previous quarter, that the dividend of the insurance company now stands EUR 208 million. which is substantially higher than what it was previous quarter, and we can confirm today that a similar evolution can be seen in the fourth quarter, where we also will have a significant contribution in terms of dividend from the insurance company. On the MDA and the OCR levels, well, OCR stands at 10.93, whereas the MDA level stands at 10.99. It is more or less in line with previous quarters, so it means that we have still generous buffers compared to the regulatory minima.

In terms of leverage ratio, it stands at 5.7%. Liquidity ratio is very solid at 157% and 131%. The NSVR ratio obviously has been linked to two things. First of all, the impact on our deposit inflow, and then secondly, also a couple of shifts in the underlying deposits where there is different weights attributed to those deposits. But 131% is significantly higher than a regulatory minima, and the same can be said about the Solvency II ratio of the insurance company, 221%, which is clearly linked also to the evolution of spreads and interest rates. I already mentioned something about the guidance, so nothing on the guidance has changed. The only thing I can add is that we have beaten all the numbers in the guidance and that we confirm today the EUR 7.05 billion on net interest income.

I think this sums it up because all the other elements which are in the presentation are linked to countries, but they will potentially be subject to questions of yours, and therefore, I give back the floor to Kurt, who will guide us through your questions.

Kurt de Baenst, Head of Investor Relations, KBC Group: Thank you, Johan. Let’s open the floor now for questions. Please restrict the number of questions to two to allow for a maximum number of people to raise questions. Thank you. Operator, are there no questions?

Operator: If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Giulia Miotto from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Giulia Miotto, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my two questions. The first one, I go back indeed to the most interesting slide of the deck, which is the deposit mix shift. I hear you that Q3 has some seasonality normally, but I was comparing this slide with last year, and it looks a bit worse. I also hear you on corporate deposits, et cetera. But my key question is, thinking forward, do you see this trend continuing? Do you expect more migration towards term and essentially lower current accounts? How should we think about the trends looking forward? Then my second question is more of a numbers question. I was looking at the taxes looking forward, and I think probably we will have an increase in Belgium next year.

Also if you can run us through if there is any other country where we should think about higher taxes or lower, usually higher, going forward. Thank you.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: Thank you, Giulia Miotto, for your two questions. Let me take the first one. In essence, the straightforward answer to your question is what we see today, and we think also in the next quarters, is indeed that customers are looking for higher yielding, or let me say it differently, that customers are looking for a higher yield on their monies which they have available. In that perspective, we see clearly a trend on the market that institutions, banks, are using, amongst others, and mostly of term deposits to give customers that higher return. In KBC, we see this trend as well, but this is, in our case, a very defensive one.

We use term deposit if there is no other possibility, because our focus is more that customers which are looking and which are guided to a higher return, we bring them to asset management products and life insurance contracts. It depends a bit on the country, but for instance, in Belgium, where you have a withholding tax of 33%, life insurance contracts can give you the benefit of an exemption of that withholding tax, depending on how long you keep the investment. In Belgium, that is eight years. There are a couple of caveats in that perspective. You can shift around with life insurance monies in the same type of products, so you can switch products without losing the eight years, but that is too much of a detail. But be aware, there is some optionality for exemption of withholding tax.

What we are doing is we are guiding those customers to the higher yielding asset management products, which has two advantages. First of all, for the customer, it gives you a clear higher return. Definitely over the last three, four years, the return on those products significantly higher than what you see on the term deposit. Then the other thing is that for us, it gives us more stability because those monies are not only giving a margin north of 100 basis points, significantly higher than the term deposit, but also keep customers longer to their products. We do see that over many, many years that customers do not shift out those monies once they are invested. In that perspective, we do see the trend. The only thing is, we see the trend on the market. The only thing is we play it a bit differently.

Whereas peers are using term deposits, we are using more the other products, and term deposits is a defensive choice. Just to highlight again, I said this also during the earlier intervention, when we look at our market shares in all the countries, then we do see that the market shares, for instance, in Belgium, on current accounts and saving accounts remain stable after three quarters. We do see that we lose a bit ground on term deposits, but we clearly also see that we are winning ground on margins, sorry, on market shares for asset management. For good understanding, in Central Europe, I repeat, Czech Republic net inflow EUR 350 million. Hungary, Slovakia, and Bulgaria also roughly the same number of inflow. We do use there the same methodology as I explained.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: Good morning, Giulia. Good morning to all of you. I will take your second question on the banking taxes. As far as the banking taxes are concerned, in Belgium, as you have seen, there is actually a year-to-date drop in banking taxes by roughly EUR 64 million compared to previous quarter, but this is entirely driven by the contribution to the deposit guarantee fund, which has been planished, as you know, as of July 1st last year. Now, we do expect that in view also of the, of course, budget discussions that are currently ongoing in Belgium, and also a specific clause into the government agreement that they expect those banking taxes to remain flat. Therefore, we do not rule out that in the future there might be again an increase in banking taxes in Belgium.

As far as the other countries are concerned, let me start by Bulgaria. Bulgaria, indeed, there will be a one-off, so far, one-off banking tax in 2027, which will be calculated based on a very specific formula related to the average profit that has been generated over the past five years, meaning between 2020 and 2025. So it’s actually a 30% tariff on the difference between the 2027 profit minus the average, 120% of the average of 2025 profit. And we expect actually that that will have an impact on UBB for the full year of between EUR 20 million to EUR 25 million. As far as Hungary is concerned there, the government in its budget has confirmed, at least for 2027, the windfall tax at the same conditions as this year, meaning also with the opportunity to mitigate the impact of the banking tax by 30%.

As far as Slovakia is concerned, the good news is that the so-called sunset clause has been reconfirmed, which means that the banking taxes will gradually decrease over the next year. For the Czech Republic, for the time being, no banking tax is currently being envisaged.

Giulia Miotto, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Amit Ranjan from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Amit Ranjan, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Yes. Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. The first one is on lending margins, please, where you mention lower loan margins in most core markets. If you can talk by product, is it mainly mortgages, also corporate lending, please? If you can provide some color by country as well. The second one is on loan losses, the two corporate files in Belgium. Is there a common sector or theme that we should be thinking around, or are these unrelated files, please? Thank you.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: Good morning. I will take you through the margins, as you requested, country by country. Basically, actually the pressure. Let me start first in Belgium. When you look at Belgium, basically, we continue to see, as far as the mortgage portfolio is concerned, some nice growth, which is a growth in Belgium of 0.8% quarter-on-quarter and 2.9% year-on-year. But there, as far as the margins are concerned, yes, they continue to be subdued, well below the back book. But the good news is that we start to see somewhat the light at the end of the tunnel in the sense that the margin for the quarter has increased slightly by a few basis points. On top of that, we were able to increase our market share in the mortgage portfolio as well.

As far as the corporate SME business is concerned, doing very well in Belgium, also quite nice growth in Belgium. There, the margins are still relatively strong. They are actually more or less in line with the back book. As far as the Czech Republic is concerned, also there, as the mortgage business is concerned, also the Czech Republic, of course, quite some nice growth, 1.3% growth quarter-on-quarter. On the mortgage side, we saw a growth in the Czech Republic of 1.4% quarter-on-quarter. There, as far as mortgages are concerned, the margins are indeed also under pressure, but not to the same extent as we have seen in Belgium. In Belgium, this is mainly an anchoring product. This is less the case in the Czech Republic, but there, the margins are slightly below the back book on the mortgage portfolio.

Also bear in mind that we maintain in Czech Republic a margin that is still 20 basis points or a price that is still 20 basis points above the market. As far as Slovakia is concerned, also continuous strong growth, also on the mortgage portfolio. Sorry, in the Czech Republic, I should say, on the corporate and SME business, there we continue to see quite strong growth. Also there, market share is increasing, and the margins are healthy, also in line with the back book. As far as Slovakia is concerned, there we see a 1.8% quarter-on-quarter growth. Sorry, a 2.4% quarter-on-quarter growth for the mortgage business, 1.8% for the entire portfolio. There also, on the mortgage business, the margins are under pressure, below the back book, more than in the Czech Republic.

But on the corporate and SME side, we see moderate growth in view of the circumstances, of course, the macroeconomic circumstances. But there, the margins in Slovakia are still at a healthy pace and are in line also with the back book. As far as Hungary is concerned, strong loan growth in Hungary with 5.3% quarter-on-quarter growth and 4.7% in the mortgage book, even 30% year-on-year in the mortgage book, at very decent margins, very well above the back book, entirely driven, of course, by the Home Start project that will be replaced in the future by the government by a new subsidized program. However, at somewhat more restrictive conditions.

As far as corporate and SME is concerned in Hungary, also there, we continue to see quite good growth at margins that are in Hungary above the back book for corporates and also above the back book for the SME business. Last but not least, Bulgaria. You know that in Bulgaria, the economy continues to do quite well. There, we see a strong growth again on the loan book of 6.2% quarter-on-quarter and even 22% year-on-year in the mortgage business. Overall, 4.7% growth quarter-on-quarter and 12.8% year-on-year. Also there, you know that the mortgages, there is a very specific way of pricing the mortgages, which is done by the National Bank of Belgium, linking it to the external rates of the deposits. As a result of that, of course, the margins are very subdued on the asset side.

But on the deposit side, as there is no pass through, we gain mainly for the mortgages on the deposit side. On the corporate and SME business, also there, growth continues to be strong, and margins are in Bulgaria above the back book for corporates and also above the back book for SME.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: Amit, I’m going to give you an answer to your second question regarding the loan losses, and the question was, are the files in Belgium related? Well, they are not. Let me widen a little bit the answer. Actually, if you look at the files which we have booked, let me focus first on Belgium over the last four or five quarters, then I can say, the bigger ones, we have one in automotive, we have one in the chemical industry, we have now one in the construction center, and the other company which went bankrupt here is a consultancy company, which is a bit weird if you ask me. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. They are completely different sectors.

If I extend it to other countries, if I extend it to a longer period, well, then I can add that we had, for instance, in Bulgaria, companies which were working in the agriculture trading sector, and that is again a different sector. All in all, most of these files, the big ones, are completely unrelated, and this I can be saying over the entire group.

Amit Ranjan, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Thank you for the detailed answers.

Operator: The next question comes from Sharath Kumar from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Sharath Kumar, Analyst, Deutsche Bank: Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have two, please. Firstly, on the banking fees, it does look relatively subdued compared to the strength in loan growth. Even I know Q3 is generally seasonal, but on a year-on-year basis, we just had 3% growth. I want to know what is holding back banking fees, or are there any structural reasons behind the weaker conversion of volume growth to fees? Secondly, dwelling a bit on the mix shift in deposit, can you help us understand the net P&L impact of migration from deposits into asset management programs, products? Say for every EUR billion moving out of deposits and into life insurance and asset management products, is there any quantification that is available for the P&L? Thank you.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: Okay. Thanks, Charlotte. I will take the first question on the banking fees. Indeed, there is a drop by 3% quarter-on-quarter, and also a drop of 3% year-on-year. As far as the drop is concerned quarter-on-quarter in the banking fees, we continue to see quite strong performance on the payment fees that actually increased, and indeed, this is mainly driven by the card business. The main impact on the fees is credit fees to some extent, as a result, of course, of the lower production in the third quarter compared to the second quarter, which has a direct impact, of course, on the credit-related fees. On the so-called security-related fees, we have seen a drop in the securities registry quarter-on-quarter.

This is mainly driven by the fact that we have seen over the summertime, of course, somewhat lower securities-related transactions, stock transactions, et cetera, which, of course, has a negative impact on the fee development. Next to that, also the incoming KBC Securities, which is also booked under the security-related fees, was somewhat subdued as a result of the summer season. As far as the so-called network fees are concerned, the network fee dropped by EUR 5 million, but this is to a large extent driven by the fact that we had a very strong result in the second quarter in Hungary as a result of the elections in Hungary that resulted in a strong appreciation of the HUF, which led to a significant increase of the FX transactions, which obviously did not repeat itself in the third quarter.

Next to that, also as a result of less stock exchange transactions as well as securities-related transactions, the FX dropped. Last but not least, and that is also explaining to a large extent the drop year-on-year in the banking fees, is that for now, we are actually accounting for the SRTs, the coupon of the SRTs under net fee and commission income, which is for this quarter an increase by EUR 3 million, but for the year, an increase by EUR 9 million.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: I will answer your second question, Charlotte. In essence, but I think you know this, we don’t give a precise guidance on the margins which we make on the different products. But let me give you some color. It is obvious that the highest margins we can book on current accounts, then in that order, saving accounts, and the margin which we book on term deposit is indeed completely different than on current accounts and saving accounts. So any shift from current account, saving accounts to term deposits is negative.

Now, the good news is that, and that we can give as a margin, I said in the call, north of 100 basis points is the margin for asset management product, which means that if a shift is happening, that our way of working by guiding our customers towards asset management product or life insurance product, where we have roughly the same margin, that the difference between term deposits and asset management life insurance margins is times two. So, it gives you an idea, north of 100 basis points divided by two is below 50 basis points for a term deposit. We don’t give any further guidance in per billion what that then means.

Sharath Kumar, Analyst, Deutsche Bank: Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Benoît Pétrarque from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.

Benoît Pétrarque, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Yes, good morning. Just to come back briefly on the shift. Could you help us to understand on the mutual funds how much is going into money market? Because I guess you are probably pitching money market funds instead of term deposits to clients. Just an indication of the kind of volumes into more money market and bond funds, let’s say, would be useful. Also for completeness’ sake, on the EUR 1.1 billion outflow from Belgium retail current accounts, sorry, how much is the CE part on the retail side, just to get the full picture? Then, another question will be on the lower dealing room and short-term cash management, which impacted slightly the DNI in the quarter. Just wondering if this is temporary, or you explain that small drop quarter-on-quarter, and whether we should extrapolate that also in the coming quarters.

Just final question is on ATS. Obviously, there’s a bit of a difficult political landscape as we speak. Is it fair to assume that the window is a bit more difficult as we speak, or are you still confident that we will see a resolution on ATS in the coming months? Thank you.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: Thank you, Benoit, for your questions. Let me answer the first one regarding the shift. What we do see in essence is that the shift to money market funds is actually quite limited. As a matter of fact, if I look at the composition of the book, then we have roughly 3.5% of money market funds in the total assets under management book, so the customer monies. 3.50% is exactly the same as the previous quarter, is a bit lower than the first quarter, is exactly the same as the fourth quarter last year, is lower than the third quarter of the same period last year. The trend is very clear. There is money in money market funds, but it is stable, and what we have seen is that it is declining.

Reason is obviously because customers are going far more into higher-yielding products, which have been performing very well over the last, let’s say, four or five quarters. In this perspective, there is a kind of a standstill on the money market fund. I think Bartel is going to answer, yes, indeed, question number 2. Let me then take immediately also question number 3. I think your analysis is correct. As we all know, the Belgian government is, in this perspective, struggling with delivering on the budget for next year, and that means that the government is not certain that the government will survive this discussion.

Our prime minister has delivered over the government decision to this works traditionally to the king, which has given him another 14 days to see if, after conversations with the presidents of all parties which are in the government, to see if they can still find a solution. Why I’m explaining this? Because I think it’s quite crucial decision to be taken on the disposal of assets, amongst others, ATOS. I don’t think this is allowed by law by a government in transition. A caretaking government, I don’t know 100% sure, but I don’t think they are authorized to take that decision. In this perspective, we’re a little bit in the dark regarding the decision on ATOS. We’ll see if the government will deliver on the budget. Let me say it differently.

If the government continues as it was foreseen originally, then they will clearly take the decision on ATOS going forward, which could be indeed a relief of the debt-to-GDP situation of Belgium, which, as you know, has a positive impact on the interest which need to be paid, and interest need to be paid that is part of the budget. That makes sense to reconsider. Fingers crossed, we’ll see.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: Bonjour, Benoit. From my side, on the dealing room income, this entirely depends on the positions that the dealing room is taking. Indeed, this time, you’ve seen that there is a drop on the NII in the dealing room, but actually fully compensated by an increase for the similar amount on the fair value income. From that perspective, it’s entirely driven by the positions that they have taken. Nothing more to be looked into. As far as the short-term cash is concerned, slightly drop. We’re not talking about millions. That slight drop is obviously also due to the fact that we have less cash and cash balances on the balance sheet. That’s explaining that drop.

Benoît Pétrarque, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Very clear. Thank you very much.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: Benoit, just to add, I mean, the dealing room NII is

Operator: The next question comes from Lisa Anthony from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Lisa Anthony, Analyst, Barclays: Morning, and thanks for taking my questions. My first question, just the loan-to-deposit ratio in Hungary seems to be going up each quarter, just like Czech. Could you explain how comfortable you are with this? I guess it went especially up this quarter due to the corporate deposit decline. Is this just seasonal, or is there something a bit more of an underlying trend here? Then, just staying on Hungary, once this HomeStart program gets replaced, do you expect the front book lending margins to be more in line with the back book? Then, could I just have a clarification on the bank taxes in Belgium? You said flat, but do you mean versus 2026 levels or 2025? Thank you.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: Good morning, Namita. Basically, in terms of the loan-to-deposit ratios, indeed, they have slightly decreased, and this is, of course, a trend that already started some years ago. At the end of 2022, we were at 79%. Now, this is increased to 91%. Obviously, this is entirely driven this time, to a large extent, to the deposit outflow that we have been commenting already before. But in general, what is important is that we continue to focus not only on loan growth, but we also continue to focus on deposit growth, where basically we believe that the easiest way to increase your deposits is obviously by increasing your number of clients, which is actually happening in all countries, supported by, of course, the ecosystems that we are implementing, and also Kate, leading to a very high or much higher NPS scores.

Now, talking about your questions in Hungary and in the Czech Republic, we are still at quite strong loan-to-deposit ratios of 84.7% in the Czech Republic and 84.5% in Hungary. Obviously, further evolution is mainly driven by the loan growth that we will see. So, we can expect some deterioration, but still at very attractive levels. Then your last question on the banking taxes, Johan is going to answer that. Yes.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: Indeed, Namita, on the bank taxes, there was some confusion, because the statements of the government were indeed referring to flat bank taxes, but that is flat compared to 2025, which means the impact for 2026 is very limited. But in 2027, you will see a further increase of bank tax in Belgium for roughly EUR 70 million. The number is not precise, but as a kind of an indication, it will be EUR 70 million extra bank taxes in Belgium. If you allow me also, because Bartel also said something which then was over-voiced by the operator. Coming back, Benoit, to your question on the dealing room NII impact, what was lost in the intervention of the operator was that Bart also added that the interest income generated by the dealing room is only, it’s lower even than 3% of the total net interest income.

It is marginal in that perspective anyway.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: Coming back to your question, Namita, on Hungary, the new Start Home program, and the impact of that is currently unclear in the sense that what is happening is that basically the new program is limiting the eligibility for subsidized loans to first-time buyers and at the age of less than 45 years old, and that also the subsidies as such are somewhat more limited. It is too early to tell the impact on that and on the margin, so that needs to be further calculated. We cannot give you any indication yet, because this, of course, also dates from last week.

Lisa Anthony, Analyst, Barclays: That is helpful. Thanks very much.

Operator: The next question comes from Anke Reingen from RBC. Please go ahead.

Anke Reingen, Analyst, RBC: Yeah. Thank you very much for taking my questions. The first one was basically just on your ATOS comments. I just wonder if you can give us some color. I know there’s lots of moving parts, but about your thinking at year-end, if you basically another caretaker government, would you think, "Oh, well, we wait another year until there’s more certainty," or you basically say, "We now have to move on and consider this in our capital distribution"? Secondly, thank you very much for all the details on the loan margins across the different countries. I just wonder how you balance your loan goals versus loan margins, and would it be fair to assume you might accelerate a bit more on the SME corporate lending side, given better margins than on the mortgage side? Maybe just a cheeky third one.

Anything on capital, like SRPs or operational RWAs we should consider for Q4? Thank you.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: Thank you, Anke, for your questions. Bartel will take the last two of your questions. Let me answer the first one on ATOS. Whatever I’m going to say will be speculative, given the position of our government. Intrinsically, you have two scenarios, and that is the government holds and delivers on the budget, and then they will probably take a decision, either positive, negative, on ATOS, and that will position ourselves. That’s one thing. The other thing is the government will not survive, and therefore it goes in a caretaker government, of which I think they’re not authorized to take a decision on ATOS. That will be kept in the open. On the back of that, we will take decisions, but what is clear in our capital distribution policy is that capital which we cannot make work, and that means either via organic growth.

Let me repeat what we also said on previous occasions. Once again, this year, we have a 13% growth of the income. We have had over the last four or five years always year-end numbers, 8%, 9% growth, mainly driven also by lending growth, consuming quite a bit of capital, what you can see again this quarter. As a matter of fact, by growing the book like we have grown it over the last five years, we have actually realized a growth of our balance sheets to the equivalent of an acquisition of a company like ČSOB in Czech Republic and in Slovakia combined. We continue to make our capital work, be it via an autonomous growth, be it via an acquisition. If this is given, then we will continue to consume capital as we have been doing so.

Nevertheless, if surplus capital is there and there is no outlook whatsoever on consolidation, meaning acquisition of assets, we will distribute that capital to shareholders on top of the range which we have now, and that is between 50%-65% is the payout ratio of dividend. That comes on top. On ATOS, forgive me, but we will take the decision as of the moment that we have more certainty on this file.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: Then your next two questions, Anke, the first one on the link between loan margins and future loan growth. First of all, in general, as a general principle within KBC, we mainly go for margin rather than volume. But obviously, there are some exceptions, and let me pick a specific one in Belgium. That is, of course, on the mortgage business, because there, you know that it is a typically anchoring product, meaning that once you sell a mortgage here in Belgium, you get all the other business, all the other ancillary business. Therefore, we do not allow our market share to drop below what we call a natural market share. So we will then, if we are not able to do that with the margins that we want, we will allow some drop.

But of course, overall, the return that we generate is going to be much higher. In general, when we look at loan growth, we always look at the so-called return on risk-adjusted capital, which means that we always assess and we look at it on two levels. One is on the, of course, portfolio level, but also when it comes down to corporate and SME, we look at the transactional level and at the relationship level. If these minimum requirements that we set on that respect are not being met, we will not go in the transaction. So basically, the growth is always done at a RAROC, which is in line, or at least in line with our minimum requirements.

As far as your last question is concerned, related to the SRTs and other portfolio management initiatives, I can confirm that, as I already indicated during the previous quarter, that we will launch a new SRT in this quarter. I cannot disclose yet what the amounts are going to be because obviously, to a large extent, this is also depending on the concentration of the portfolio, et cetera. At the same time, we are also actively working on further working on implementing other measures in terms of portfolio management, amongst others, credit insurance. As you know, we do not want to be over-dependent on the SRTs when we manage our portfolio.

Anke Reingen, Analyst, RBC: Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Chris Hallam from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Chris Hallam, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Yeah, two questions from me. Just on lending, you are flagging higher volume growth offset by lower loan margins in most of your core markets. Just wondered how long you would expect that to persist and whether or not that is in any way influenced by the fact that you have obviously a fairly healthy excess capital position, i.e., you have more balance sheet to deploy than perhaps some of your peers do. Then second question, I wanted to come back again on the deposit migration point. I think you said earlier that you are playing defense, i.e., protecting market share because your competitors are using term deposits to give customers the higher yield they are looking for. My question is why do you think your competitors are doing that? Is it because they are liquidity constrained or it is because they see a lot of loan growth?

Is it exacerbated by the fact that they may not have the investment and insurance products to cross-sell that you do? Because I am just trying to get a sense for how much of this theme is really under your control versus being a reflection of how some of your competitors need to operate or decide to behave. Thank you.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: Hi, good morning, Chris. The first question is related to how long do we expect that margins going to remain under pressure, if I understand correctly. On the loan side, obviously it’s very difficult to predict. This already for some time that we see, particularly on the mortgage side, margins under pressure. On the corporate and SME side, things are going relatively well, as I’ve been highlighting. We are seeing in most of the countries margins well above or in line with the bank book. On the mortgage side, it’s difficult to predict how this is going to evolve. In Belgium, we are already expecting that for some time that at certain point in time, mainly the smaller banks will be required to give in because, as I explained before, they can benefit less from generating ancillary business than we can. That remains to be seen.

It’s quite surprising that maybe the fact that now the margin slightly increased this quarter might give an indication for the future. By the way, also, the National Bank of Belgium has issued a specific letter warning the sector for indeed the low margins on the mortgage business. So, hopefully that at one point in time will lead to a further increase in the mortgages. As far as the other countries are concerned, first of all, in the Czech Republic, on the mortgage side, there the margins are still quite healthy. It’s not that we are seeing the same low margins as we’ve seen in the Czech Republic. They are slightly below the bank book, but obviously the bank book comes from a period that the margins were extremely high a couple of years ago. So from that perspective, that also needs to be taken into account.

In the other countries, margins on the mortgage portfolio are healthy, as I indicated before, apart from Bulgaria, and I explained the reasons why this is at the low end, but fully compensated, of course, by the income we generate on the liability side.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: Chris, I will take your second question. Indeed, we do see, as I explained, a shift from current accounts, saving accounts towards term deposits, and then also in our case, mainly asset management and life insurance contracts. Now, your question was actually- How come that we do better than peers, and why are they doing it differently? The last part of that question is, for me, a bit difficult to answer. I never comment on what peers are doing, so you should ask them. But let me give you our approach without giving you all the detail of our commercial approach, which can easily then be copied by others. First of all, the EUR, you can only spend it once. This is what we have to bear in mind.

When you have EUR 1 on your account, you can invest it either into a keep it on a current account, or you can invest it in a saving account, term deposit, asset management product, or a life insurance product. We always keep the balance between the interest of our customer and then obviously also what is the profile of our customer, and then also what are the products we have available to tackle that interest of the customer, right, to service that interest of the customer given his profile. Now, in that perspective, we have a clear advantage compared to certain of our peers that we have an integrated model. You highlighted that in your question already as well. For us, it doesn’t make a difference if we sell the product to the customer. Is it a traditional banking product? Is it a term deposit?

Is it an insurance contract, or is it an asset management? It all remains within KBC Group. So if the customer really requests that product, we can deliver anyway. Now, what we clearly see, and this is something which is not new, our strategy of bringing what we called anchoring, and Bart already referred that earlier in the call, what we call anchoring, that is bringing monies which are, let’s call them, to a certain extent, volatile on current account, saving accounts, into higher-yielding products like clearly the asset management and life insurance contracts. That strategy which we have been applying for many, many years, that is clearly paying off. And there is a specific reason why it is accelerating now the last couple of years.

The first thing is that given the fact that there is high inflation, customers are becoming very well aware of what the impact is on their monies. For good understanding, the turbulence which we have seen in Belgium a couple of years ago with the state note actually triggered the mindset of a lot of our customers to higher-yielding products. And for a good understanding, a saving account is making less than inflation, but the same can be said to a certain extent of all these other products which are delivered by governments. So when an inflation is in Belgium 4% or 5%, and the government bond is delivering 4%, then it’s clearly below the inflation. Now, given that, what I just said, customers are tempted to go to other products, which we clearly see not only in Belgium, but in all the Central European countries as well.

That is also linked to the performance of our funds, which we constantly monitor. So all our funds, if they’re sold in Belgium, if they’re sold in Central Europe, are constantly also scrutinized on their performance. And in that perspective, we can deliver a good track record over the last years, where our performance of our funds is by the top performers in the market, clearly above inflation. So if you combine all of this, then it makes for and the customer and for us, it makes sense that if they are shifting their monies away from current account, saving accounts, to put them into asset management, life insurance products, compared to term deposits.

As a matter of fact, I forgot to mention one thing, that is indeed, I said it earlier in the call, be aware that also on life insurance contracts, there is an exemption possible of the 30% withholding tax in Belgium if you keep your monies eight years on your books. That makes a huge difference. 30% on the return of those investments makes a hell of a difference.

Chris Hallam, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Okay, thank you so much.

Operator: The next question comes from Tariq El Mejjad from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Tariq El Mejjad, your line is now unmuted. Please go ahead. The next question comes from Shrey Srivastava from Citi. Please go ahead.

Shrey Srivastava, Analyst, Citi: Hi, thank you very much for taking my question. It’s actually on some of the guidance you’ve given into 2028, which consensus has now to some extent de-anchored from. Obviously, that was based on forward rates as of early February, but equally, it was based on a mix shift from term to current accounts, which I now see you’ve removed from the presentation, and it was also based on a conservative pass-through, which you could argue either way depending on how the deposit competition has evolved. So, when you look at your confidence in the 2028 guidance and how far you can land above it now versus a few months previously, or even the last time you reported, what would you say the difference has been?

Secondly, if you could say the same from a total income perspective, taking into account any shift and any benefit you might capture on the fee insurance side. Thank you.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: Thank you, Shrey. We were just internally here discussing a little bit because we have said also on the previous earnings call that guidance on 2028 is not updated, and that guidance update for the longer term, so 2028, but 2029 as well, is going to be given in February next year, if I don’t make a mistake now, on the 11th of February next year. Anyway, coming back, let me then give you a little bit color on your question. First of all, we are in the middle of the budgeting exercise, which is giving us the insight on the questions you have raised. It’s quite clear. First of all, the forwards which are used for the guidance are outdated, and they’re clearly different. So we have a double effect.

You have higher interest rates, clearly higher interest rates, and the second thing is that the inflation is higher. At least it is different. Now, you’re talking specifically about 2028, which is again more different than 2027, where we will have completely different positioning of the interest rates. We assume that interest rates, and the policy rates, as we see them today, are further going to be notched up by the central bank in Frankfurt. I’m talking about the current position, 250, that will go to our estimate, 3% in the course of 2027, and then by year end will go probably down to back again 2.75, remaining stable a bit going forward. So there is a difference between 2027, 2028 already.

Then on inflation, which is very high as we speak, I already mentioned that earlier, it is 3.1% today, where the forwards which we used were at 1.7%, so there’s a clear difference. We do expect that in this perspective also the inflation is going to, that’s perhaps the wrong word, normalize in 2027. So it goes down to our estimate as, let’s say, somewhere in between 2.3, 2.4%, and then in 2028 it’s going further down to even 1.5%, which is a mathematical effect. So in this perspective, also 2027 is different than 2028, and clearly also 2029. Now, let me focus purely on Because inflation is, for good understanding, having an effect also on the income. That’s the reason why I’m bringing this.

On your net interest income, forwards are going to have a positive impact on the net interest income, which is partly offset by the shifts which we expect to happen for sure in 2027. Because of higher rates, there will be pressure for shifting to term deposits, which, as I said earlier, we are doing in a defensive way. The preference is clearly to shift customer monies to higher yielding products for them, but also for us. In that perspective, we do expect an offsetting element in 2027, which is to a lesser extent true in 2028. Why? Because there you will have lower interest rates. How much this is going to be? That detail we’re going to provide you on the 11th of February next year. What about income, total income?

I just explained on the net interest income side what potentially the impact can be. Be aware that this is the beauty of the model on the insurance side, this has intrinsically zero impact. This is a diversification which continues to be the result. On the insurance side, you can actually continue the trends which you have seen in this year, can continue this to 2027 and 2028. Exactly the same thing you can say on the impact of your quality, so the combined ratio. Life insurance is linked to asset management products, and I just explained that the trend is clearly that customers are putting their monies more and more in higher yielding products, amongst others, asset management products and life insurance contracts. So in that perspective, it is continuing on the trends which we have seen in 2026 as well.

Before I continue, I have to stop, I think, because otherwise I’ll give you the full guidance, which is not the intention. But I hope I gave you sufficient flavor to think about.

Shrey Srivastava, Analyst, Citi: Thank you very much. If I can just do one slight bit more. I asked last quarter on the sensitivity and to a 25 basis point shift and how that’s changed, given the shortening of the duration of your replicating portfolio. This is presumably going to have a material impact going into 2027 and 2028, so anything you could say on that would be appreciated.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: The guidance which we gave that for the 25 basis point shift on the book, which we have today, is roughly EUR 60 million. Be careful, this is a parallel shift, and we most of the time don’t see that exactly happening. It will be more on the shorter end than on the longer end. How this is going to go going forward depends on the evolution of the interest rates. The assumptions I just gave to you is assuming that we will have over time a flattening of the curve. Let me think about the difference between 2027, 2028. For sure, on 2028, there will be more flattening than by 2027. There is no big fundamental shift on the guidance I just gave. The durations have been shortened a little bit, so that will clearly pay off.

Bart Puelinckx, Group CFO, KBC Group: If I can add to that, basically, we have been increasing the guidance last year from 50 to 60 because indeed we had been shortening the duration. To avoid misunderstanding, we have stopped shortening the duration.

Shrey Srivastava, Analyst, Citi: Got it. That’s really helpful. Thank you.

Operator: There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

Johan Thijs, Group CEO, KBC Group: If no further questions, this sums it up for this call. I would like to thank you for your attendance, and enjoy the rest of the day. Bye-bye.