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Brussels/Bucharest, 22 April 2008 – 11.30 a.m. CET

KBC group launches greenfield consumer finance business in

Today, during a press conference in Bucharest, André Bergen, KBC Group CEO, announced the launch of KBC Consumer Finance’s operation in Romania. Entering the Romanian consumer finance market through a greenfield venture illustrates KBC group’s commitment to Romania as a high-growth, high-potential market.

In Romania, KBC Consumer Finance offers instalment loans (POS loans) in close co-operation with retailers, who receive support services through the KBC Business Partner Programme to help them grow their own business. The company will also offer cash loans and credit cards directly to Romanian consumers through its own network of sales outlets, agents, brokers, telemarketing (call centre) and the Internet.

KBC Consumer Finance works according to a multi-channel, multi-brand and multi-product model. It employs 1 700 FTE, has its headquarters in Warsaw (Poland), and is active in the Czech Republic, Belgium and Poland.

André Bergen, KBC Group CEO welcomes the launch of KBC Consumer Finance’s operations in Romania: “Romania is among the most populated CEE countries, with 21.7 million inhabitants and economic growth consistently above the CEE average. We believe in the growth potential of Romania, which has increased following the country’s accession to the EU. The KBC group already made important long-term strategic and successful investments last year with the acquisition of Romstal Leasing and KBC Securities Romania (the former Swiss Capital). Just as in other CEE countries, the consumer finance market in Romania is a very competitive one, but at the same time has tremendous potential. The KBC group sees consumer finance as an important growth engine for the group, and has decided to enter the Romanian consumer finance market. We are a long-term investor in Romania because we believe the country offers great potential and opportunities for the KBC group”.

According to Bart Vanhaeren, General Manager of KBC Consumer Finance: “KBC Consumer Finance is a fast growing unit within the KBC group. We offer credit solutions to customers in Belgium and in a growing number of CEE countries, which now includes Romania. KBC Consumer Finance uses a multi-product, multi-channel, multi-brand business model and is one of the few pan-European players to have established its headquarters in a CEE country, Poland. The company has developed very rapidly since its inception. We started in 2006 with two countries and today we are present in four, employing more than 1 700 people. We manage partnerships with 27 000 retailers, 3 100 brokers, and are servicing more than 2 million customers. KBC Consumer Finance is a success and it is our intention and ambition to make Romania part of this. We will continue to develop KBC's consumer finance business internationally and continue to evaluate opportunities arising in other Central and Eastern European markets.”

Willem Hueting, Executive Director of KBC Consumer Finance IFN SA, added: “KBC, as an internationally strong and financially sound group, has chosen Romania to start a new consumer finance business. KBC Consumer Finance is about offering consumers flexible and reliable credit solutions to bring their plans to fruition. We believe in responsible lending and, therefore, aim to protect customers from financial risk, while offering them access to a range of personal finance facilities through

KBC press releases are available on www.kbc.com. 1/4 the channels of their choice. We are convinced that KBC Consumer Finance, building on the extensive experience which it has already acquired internationally, will quickly become a key player in the Romanian market for personal finance, to the benefit of its customers, employees and shareholders.” Central European and Romanian consumer finance market: high potential, high growth

Romania is among the most populated CEE countries, with 21.7 million inhabitants and economic growth consistently above the CEE average. It has strong economic fundamentals and its growth potential has increased since the country’s accession to the EU.

Whereas demand for consumer loans is stagnating as a percentage of GDP in the EMU, growth in Central and continues. Just as in the other CEE countries, the consumer finance market in Romania is a very competitive one, but at the same time has tremendous potential. It is expected to grow by 15 to 20% annually and could exceed 30 bn EUR by 2011 with strong growth in consumer spending and personal consumption generating mounting demand for financial products and services such as consumer finance.

KBC Group : international group with longstanding experience and know-how in the consumer finance market

KBC Consumer Finance was created in 2006 as an independent, cohesive and dedicated entity within the KBC group to manage the consumer finance activities of all KBC group entities. A multi-product, multi-channel, international financial-services provider, KBC Consumer Finance offers a wide range of personal finance solutions (cash loans, instalment loans, and credit cards) directly to customers as well as via commercial partners such as retailers, intermediaries, franchisees, and agents. KBC Consumer Finance operates a hybrid business model focused on: • accelerating the growth of the retail banks in the KBC group by acting as an in-house product factory; • growing the consumer finance business outside of the banking channels, as a specialist provider of personal finance products and services.

Today, KBC Consumer Finance has operating units in four countries: Poland, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Romania.

In the Czech Republic and in Belgium, consumer finance is a business line / product factory within the local banks, respectively ČSOB Bank, Postal Savings Bank (Czech Republic) and KBC Bank (Belgium). In Poland, where KBC Consumer Finance is also headquartered, it operates through a separate consumer finance specialist company called Żagiel. KBC Consumer Finance has acquired significant experience and know-how in selling consumer finance products and services to a broad range of customers through a mix of sales outlets dedicated to selling consumer finance products (“loan shops”), agents, brokers, telemarketing (call centre), and the Internet.

In Romania, KBC Consumer Finance is starting out with a greenfield venture, a separate consumer finance specialist company. It is building on the know-how and expertise acquired in the other operating units in the group, where KBC Consumer Finance can rely on 15 years of experience offering cash loans, instalment loans (POS loans) and credit cards to more than 2 million customers, in partnership with 27 000 co-operating retail sales partners, 3 100 agents and brokers, supported by more than 1 700 experienced staff. KBC’s ambition is to build a consumer finance business of European scale, which sets the standards in terms of quality as regards its offering, the satisfaction level of its customers and partners, and overall profitability.

In the countries where KBC Consumer Finance is already present, it will focus on further developing its business franchise and increasing its market share. At the same time, it continues to explore opportunities for further developing its business internationally either through greenfield operations or mergers and acquisitions.

KBC Consumer Finance plans to further develop its consumer finance business internationally and will evaluate opportunities arising in the other Central and Eastern European markets.

KBC press releases are available on www.kbc.com. 2/4 KBC Consumer Finance : product and service offering in Romania

KBC Consumer Finance will offer three core products in Romania: instalment loans (POS loans), cash loans and revolving credit cards. It will deliver its products and services through a variety of channels, viz. its own network of sales outlets specialised in selling credit products ('loan shops'), agents, brokers, telemarketing (call centre), the Internet, through partnerships with retailers (for instalment loans) and via other companies.

In March 2008, KBC Consumer Finance started offering instalment loans (POS loans) in close-co- operation with Romanian retailers who joined the KBC Business Partner Programme, which (in addition to instalment loans) offers its business partners support services (including marketing services, sales support, and training) to grow their own businesses.

KBC Consumer Finance plans to launch cash loans and credit cards which are marketed directly to Romanian consumers through a variety of channels.

In order to support its growth ambitions, KBC plans to expand its Romanian business rapidly. Currently, the company employs 50 people in its headquarters in Bucharest. It plans to increase its workforce to 130 FTEs by the end of 2008. By that time, its activities should cover the whole geographical territory of Romania.

The KBC Consumer Finance team in Romania is led by Willem Hueting and a strong and united management team of experienced professionals.

Other KBC group members active in Romania

KBC Securities Romania: www.kbcsecurities.ro, www.kbcsecurities.be

KBC Securities Romania SA (formerly Swiss Capital) has been a wholly owned subsidiary of KBC Securities NV since its acquisition in 2007. KBC Securities Romania is number one in the local market, with a market share of 10%. The company has a dedicated sales force, as well as a renowned research department and corporate finance team.

KBC Securities Romania‘s headquarters are located in Bucharest. To cover the whole territory, the company operates a network of four agencies (Bucharest, Buzau, Constanta and Ploiesti). KBC Securities Romania employs 39 people and caters for 600 customers.

KBC Securities NV is the equity house of the KBC group. It is KBC Securities’ mission to offer an outstanding service in the areas of Corporate Finance, Equity Research, Sales & Brokerage and Market Making, with a geographical focus on the Euronext countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, France), the United Kingdom and Central Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and ).

Romstal Leasing Romania : www.romstal-leasing.ro

Romstal Leasing is the largest independent leasing company in Romania. At the end of 2007, it held a 4.20% share of the Romanian leasing market and was ranked twelfth. The bulk of its financing activity relates to the leasing of transportation equipment (cars, light commercial vehicles and trucks, 84%), machinery and equipment (9%) and real estate (7%).

Romstal Leasing boasts a high level of profitability, with an ROE of 42% in 2007 and net profit growth of 115%. During this period, its leasing portfolio also expanded by 75%. The company has experienced enormous growth in the last few years and has opened new branches throughout Romania. It now has a network of 32 branches in almost all of the country’s major cities and employs 134 people. To take advantage of the rapidly growing market, the company plans to expand its network to 35 branches by 2008.

On 21 March 2007, the company was licensed as a non-banking financial institution by the National Bank of Romania.

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For more information, please contact :

- Olivier Stoica, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, KBC Consumer Finance Tel. (32) 499 54 04 97 [email protected]

- Willem Hueting, Executive Director, KBC Consumer Finance IFN SA Tel. (40) 727 31 38 28 [email protected]

- Viviane Huybrecht, Head of Group Communication and of the KBC Press Office Spokesperson, KBC Group Tel. (32) 2 429 85 45 [email protected]

- Luc Cool, Director of Investor Relations, KBC Group Tel. (32) 2 429 40 51 [email protected]

Note for the editor :

KBC group’s expansion into Central and Eastern Europe and Russia Over the past decade, KBC has built up a strong presence in many of the countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 (Poland, Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Slovenia). More recently, KBC has made acquisitions in Bulgaria (DZI Insurance, DZI Invest and EIBANK), Romania (KBC Securities Romania, Romstal Leasing and INK Insurance Broker), Russia (Absolut Bank) and Serbia (KBC Banka and Senzal, renamed KBC Securities AD Beograd, Hipobroker, currently KBC Broker, and Bastion, renamed KBC Securities Corporate Finance). These acquisitions are consistent with KBC’s Central and Eastern European expansion criteria, and take advantage of the region’s economic convergence with Europe and potential for further penetration of banking and insurance products.

KBC group strategy (www.kbc.com) KBC is the second largest bancassurer in Belgium. It is the number 18 bank in Europe and a top financial player in Central and Eastern Europe (on the basis of consolidated assets, branches and employees). KBC’s headquarters are located in Brussels (Belgium), the heart of Europe. The KBC group is present in more than 30 countries worldwide, employs 57 000 staff (nearly 32 000 of whom in Central and Eastern Europe) and caters for 12 million customers (some 8 million in Central and Eastern Europe).

The roots of the KBC group go back as far as 1889. Today, more than 50% of KBC’s shares are in the hands of core shareholders who provide the continuity needed to pursue long-term strategic goals. Some of these shareholders have been shareholders of the company for decades and generations. The rest of the shares are quoted on the stock exchange and held primarily by a large variety of international institutional investors. KBC GROUP NV is listed on NYSE EURONEXT and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (ticker symbol ‘KBC’). KBC is a solid and fast-growing financial group.

KBC is a multi-channel bancassurer with a geographic focus on Europe, catering mainly for retail and private banking customers and small and medium-sized enterprises. Besides focusing on providing retail and private bancassurance services (via bank branches, insurance agents/brokers and the Internet), KBC is active in asset management and in the field of corporate banking, leasing, factoring, re-insurance, insurance, securities brokerage, private equity, project and trade finance in Belgium, Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere (mainly in Europe). Moreover, KBC is active in the European debt capital markets, has a solid position in the domestic cash equity markets and is a prominent niche player in a number of global derivatives markets.

KBC enjoys significant, even leading positions in its two home markets of Belgium and Central and Eastern Europe and beyond (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Russia). It also has an extensive private banking network in eight Western European countries.

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