Axa Bank will be integrated into Crelan in June

The integration of the banks Crelan and Axa Bank into one entity, which will be called Crelan, is planned for the weekend of June 8 and 9.

Axa Bank announced this on Tuesday.

The new structure will become the fifth largest bank in the country, behind the quartet of BNP Paribas Fortis, Belfius, ING and KBC.

During that weekend in June, the data of almost 850,000 Axa Bank customers and just over 300 bank branches will be transferred and integrated into Crelan’s IT platform.

To enable the transfer of data and banking products, all Axa Bank offices will be exceptionally closed, the bank warns in a letter to its customers. “Certain services may be disrupted or unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause”, the bank said.

About the purpose of the merger, Philippe Voisin, CEO of Crelan, says the following: “The low market interest rates that have persisted for years mean that the margins a bank has to achieve returns are rather limited. Crelan and AXA Bank Belgium have always achieved decent results and never got into trouble, even during the financial crisis, but individually we are just a little too small. The acquisition of AXA Bank Belgium and the merger with Crelan will change this. By joining together we create scale. The Crelan Group now forms the fifth banking group among Belgian retail banks in terms of balance sheet total. From now on, we will make our investments for twice as many customers, almost 1.8 million to be precise. We will therefore be able to respond faster and better to what customers expect.”