De Post/La Poste and Fortis Bank sign new deal that strengthens partnership with The Bank Van De Post/Banque De La Poste

Fortis Bank and De Post / La Poste today have signed a complementary agreement confirming their commitment to reinforce their partnership within the banking products sector through their joint venture in BPO. From a juridical point of view, the agreement will be an amendment to the existing contract. Each partner has retained its 50% share, clearly demonstrating his continued enthusiasm and vision for this joint project. This agreement starts on 1st January 2003 and will run until 2014.

The desire to build on the potential of BPO is an integral part of the global strategy of both partners. For Fortis Bank, BPO is an extra channel with a quite different market position from its existing branch network. For De Post / La Poste, banking products represent an important growth opportunity in terms of value creation and optimisation of its post office network.

This agreement will provide De Post / La Poste with additional financial means to invest in new IT, to create a more modern and professional network, and to provide training to its personnel. De Post / La Poste will also continue to provide the back office services for most banking products while Fortis Bank will further support BPO in developing and managing its products.

BPO was created in 1995. It manages over 1.2 million current accounts (capital in excess of EUR 2.1 billion) and over 500,000 savings accounts (capital of more than EUR 2 billion). Its total balance sheet covers an amount of EUR 4,456 million and its net after tax profit in 2001 was EUR 16.5 million. Its products are distributed through a network comprising over 1,300 post offices.