Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 10 July 2018
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Matters Relating to the Banking Sector: KBC Bank
2:00 pm
Mr. Wim Verbraeken:
KBC Group has been very generous if one compares it with other international groups, all of which have essentially shut down or sold their business in Ireland following the crisis. KBC Group has been the only foreign financial group to continue to stand by its Irish business, and not only has it injected €1.5 billion in capital to help sustain the credit losses following on from the crisis but it has provided a very significant investment budget to build out the retail businesses we are discussing which did not exist pre-2013. Therefore, I do not believe it is appropriate to talk about our being under pressure to return capital. It is very clear from our financial statements that KBC Group has been very supportive. We have very adequate capital ratios at any time so there is no undue pressure to return any shareholder funds.