2007 Operational highlights

In Luxembourg, multiple marketing campaigns strengthened our leadership position.

In Turkey, recent mortgage legislation will facilitate the introduction of new home loan products and new funding instruments, boosting housing demand. We have been preparing our salespeople and IT infrastructure for these changes. The professionals and small businesses segment launched a ‘professionals’ package, including cash, car and office loans and pension and insurance products. In line with our Turkish expansion plans, 41 branches were opened in 2007, bringing the total to 243.

In Poland, we continued to pursue our strategy of capturing market share in the mortgage, enterprise financing, and savings and investment markets. Our product offering now includes a comprehensive set of banking services, and we invested in the extension of our branch network and in a new online banking system. The integration of Dominet is on track. This bank, operating through a uniform network of over 180 outlets, has started to offer life insurance linked to banking products.

Our new joint venture in Ireland, Postbank, started operating on 1 May 2007, growing from 250 post offices to over 1,000 within twelve months. Initial services are a demand deposit account and a guaranteed investment product. These will be extended in the first quarter of 2008 to include current accounts, credit cards, web banking and ATM facilities.

The retail activities of Fortis Bank in France were transferred to the more upmarket Private Banking and Commercial Banking businesses in the second quarter of 2007, resulting in a change in external reporting.

2008 Focus

• Seize opportunities to launch products in common with ABN AMRO, such as the ABN AMRO World Bank Eco-3 Plus Note
• Strengthen our position in the Polish market through the merger of Dominet and Fortis Bank Polska