More than 15,000 Belfius customers were granted a deferment of home loan payments
Bank-insurer Belfius created a buffer of 393 million euros in the first half of the year to absorb possible losses due to the corona crisis. In total, 16,166 customers have already been granted a deferment of payment for the home loan.
The bank reports this when publishing the financial results for the first half of 2020. The result after tax amounts to 21 million euros. For the same period last year, this was still 305 million euros. But the decrease is therefore entirely due to the creation of a provision of 393 million euros for possible future credit losses due to the strong economic recession.
As part of the covid-19 support measures, a deferment of payment was granted for 16,166 home loans, amounting to a total of 1.6 billion euros. Contractual payment deferment amounting to EUR 918 million was also granted in 8,331 files.
The pre-commission result amounted to 421 million euros. Revenues amounted to EUR 1.132 billion, compared to EUR 1.155 billion in the first half of 2019. The banking activities made a loss of EUR 68 million, due to a substantial increase in risk costs. But according to Belfius, this was offset by the profit from the insurance activities of 89 million euros, “a testament to the strength of a bancassurance model,” it sounds.
“Thanks to our historically built-up capital buffers, we have been able to help clients in difficulty more than required and fully fulfill our social role for Belgian society,” says Jos Clijsters, chairman of the board of directors. “We will continue to do so in the coming months, which will undoubtedly continue to be challenging, but at the same time we will be vigilant to maintain our current solid solvency position and continue our anticipatory commission policy.”
Belfius will no longer pay a dividend this year, in line with the recommendation of the National Bank.