REPORT Corporate Report

National Bank of Belgium Bank National of REPORT 2020 Corporate Report REPORT 2020 © National Bank of Belgium All rights reserved. Reproduction of all or part of this publication for educational and non‑commercial purposes is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged. REPORT 2020 Corporate Report A modern central bank at the service of society, at the heart of the Eurosystem Table of contents Foreword 7 1. The National Bank, central banking in the time of COVID‑19 11 1.1 Covid‑19, the main theme dominating the National Bank’s operations in 2020 13 1.2 The strategic exercise is well under way 17 1.3 What’s new in the departments and services ? 25 2. The Bank and its social responsibility 79 3. Annual accounts and reports on the financial year 115 4. Annexes Annex 1 Organic Law 193 Annex 2 Corporate Governance Charter 241 Foreword Dear reader, 2020 was a year that will always be engraved in our memory. For the first time in decades, a great many scheduled events were cancelled or postponed : the Olympic Games, the European football champion‑ ship, music festivals, cultural events, etc. There were severe restric‑ tions on our opportunities for travel and social contact, many shops and restaurants were closed for months, and working from home became mandatory. This situation was like the scenario for a horror film. There was only one culprit : the COVID‑19 pandemic. 2020 was a difficult and very challenging year for our country’s pop‑ ulation, businesses and institutions. The National Bank of Belgium was no exception. When the government ordered a lockdown on 17 March, the Bank was immediately obliged to make radical adjustments to its method of operating. Straightaway, members of staff and management switched to remote working wherever possible. I too retreated to my “garret” which has since become familiar in the media. For many of us, working from home was to become the norm until the end of the year, and that is still the case now as I write. But the Bank also offers society a number of essential services which can only be provided by people being present at its premises in person. I am thinking primarily of our cash‑handling activity which we continued to carry out day by day, so that financial institutions and the population always had access to sufficient quantities of good‑quality banknotes and coins. In addition, the Bank took part in monitoring and analysing the financial and economic repercussions of the pandemic, and played an important role in the decision‑making process and in following up the socio‑ economic measures introduced. We thus did more than ever to perform our role of serving society. For exam‑ ple, in a number of lengthy meetings, the Bank assisted the negotiations on the government guarantees for loans and insurance. I myself was appointed as co‑Chairman of the Economic Risk Management Group, set up by the government on 19 March to map the impact of the crisis on our economy and on the financial system. For the Bank, that marked the start of a very hectic period. Many tools for collecting and analysing data were very speedily adapted to meet the new challenges, so that we were able to keep track of events more or less in real time. The Bank worked with the government in devising measures relating to the spheres in which it has particular expertise. On the operational front, too, the Bank was sometimes pushed to its limits. For instance, at the height of the crisis, when the federal government had to buy face masks from other countries, our Financial Markets Department worked flat out to ensure that international payments were carried out promptly. NBB Report 2020 ¡ Foreword 7 8 Foreword ¡ Corporate Report It goes without saying that the COVID‑19 crisis profoundly altered the Bank’s priorities. In some ways, the crisis was also helpful to us : the obligation to work from home speeded up the switch to “new ways of work‑ ing” which we had embarked on earlier. Overall, I would say that the strategic exercise which we had begun in 2019 in order to develop a medium‑term vision for the Bank only suffered a very minor delay, as did the other projects and research planned for 2020. I do not doubt for one moment that reading this Report will convince you of that. In the first chapter of this Corporate Report, entitled “The National Bank, central banking in the time of COVID‑19”, we give details of all the activities of our departments and services in 2020, which was a particularly challenging year. In the second chapter of this Report, we focus for the first time in more detail on the way in which the Bank fulfils its social responsibility. As well as being a public utility institution, the Bank is also an enterprise with a vast number of stakeholders. Their expectations are constantly changing, and the Bank wants to satisfy them as far as possible. That is why we have devised a corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy and considered it appropriate to give you an idea of the many efforts which we are making in that respect. In this Report, you will, of course, also find the annual accounts and the reports on the 2020 financial year, approved by the Council of Regency. Do take a look at that part of the Report : it hardly appears fascinating at first sight, but you will be surprised by the quantity of interesting information that you can find there. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Bank’s staff. They carried out their du‑ ties in an exemplary manner, duties which this year were often exceptional in terms of their nature, scale and deadlines, and sometimes had to be performed under difficult circumstances. Finally, I would also like to thank the newly formed Council of Regency. Enjoy reading the Report ! Pierre Wunsch Governor February 2021 NBB Report 2020 ¡ Foreword 9 1. The National Bank, central banking in the time of COVID‑19 This chapter of the Corporate Report should be read in the light of the developments and trends described in the 2020 Report on economic and financial developments and prudential legislation and supervision. Similarly, it may prove useful to refer to the list of abbreviations contained in that Report when reading this chapter. 11 COVID-19, the main theme dominating the National Bank’s operations in 2020 The Bank monitors the economic financial consequences – particularly the impact of the repercussions in real time lockdown – for Belgium’s real economy. There was also frequent bilateral contact with members of the gov‑ As soon as it became apparent that the COVID‑19 ernment in order to discuss the latest developments. pandemic would have repercussions on the economy, Finally, many activities were also developed in connec‑ the Bank organised itself so that it could monitor the tion with the Economic Risk Management Group. economic situation in real time. Of course, as a member of the Eurosystem, the Bank In the first few months, the Board of Directors met was also closely involved in the measures taken by the almost every day to discuss the main economic ECB to combat the COVID‑19 crisis. As a member of parameters, the financial market situation and the the ECB Governing Council, the Governor had a say in impact on the financial sector. Various departments the measures adopted by the European Central Bank. created new indicators, surveys and statistical over‑ views as background for the Board of Directors’ discussions and to support its decisions. In addi‑ The Bank supports the ERMG, tion, information was exchanged almost daily with with its finger on the pulse of the the financial sector, the Belgian business world, the economy in crisis Federal Planning Bureau and various other public bodies. Similarly, the support measures set up by the In March 2020, when the coronavirus began to spread various governments and public services in Belgium like wildfire among the population, the government’s were constantly charted. first priority was to contain transmission of the virus and ensure that the health system continued to func‑ During the initial months of the pandemic, the tion. To that end, it was obliged to impose unprec‑ Governor regularly attended meetings of the federal edented confinement measures, bringing business to government’s inner cabinet, in order to inform the an abrupt halt in some economic sectors, while other Belgian policy‑makers of the potential economic and sectors scaled down their activities. NBB Report 2020 ¡ The National Bank, central banking in the time of COVID‑19 13 The consequences for businesses, the self‑employed the competent authorities to ensure that the coun‑ and households were unprecedented in their speed try’s critical infrastructures and businesses continued and scale. to operate (“business continuity”). That monitoring, which was crucial in the initial phase of the crisis, On 19 March 2020, in order to assess more accu‑ focused particularly on the food supply chain. rately and understand in real time what was hap‑ pening in the economy, the federal government Pierre Wunsch himself paid particular attention to decided to set up the Economic Risk Management collating expert opinions at the Bank and from the Group (ERMG). That group brings together the main various partners of the ERMG, in order to assess the parties involved in economic life – including business impact of the pandemic on businesses, individuals and federations, unions, the Federal Planning Bureau the financial markets, and to play a coordinating role and university professors – under the dual chairman‑ by listing the measures taken to combat the economic ship of Pierre Wunsch, the Bank’s Governor, and consequences of this crisis.

Load more