Market penetration of banks for Belgium and Luxembourg large corporations 2017-2019

In 2019, BNP Paribas Fortis reached the highest corporate banking market penetration of banks coming from Belgium and Luxembourg. 93 percent of financial officers (including CFOs, treasurers and finance directors at companies and financial institutions with sales of more than 500 million euros) said they believed the Belgian daughter of BNP Paribas to be an important provider of corporate banking services. The bank’s total assets were valued at 291 billion euros in 2018.

Belgium has a relatively high number of bank branches

The total number of banks in Belgium decreased from 105 in 2010 to 87 in 2017. Many banking offices in Belgium, however, are managed by franchisees who are not directly on the payroll of the bank itself. In 2017, for example, there were over 4,000 bank branches in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium).

Banks in Luxembourg are mostly international

Luxembourg has a strong focus towards international finance. 25 of the roughly 140 banks in the country came from Germany, with 14 coming from China and an additional 14 originating from France. Due to the legal structures in the Grand Duchy, it was also possible to adopt Sharia-compliant banking. Between 2001 and 2017, Luxembourgish sukuk bond issuances (a financial certificate that complies with Islamic religious law) were worth around 280 million U.S. dollars.