KBC Group
Controversy
Controversy
-----------

### Support for apartheid in South Africa

One of Kredietbank's main shareholders in the postwar period, [André Vlerick](/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Vlerick "André Vlerick"), was actively involved in public advocacy of the [Apartheid](/wiki/Apartheid "Apartheid")\-promoting regime of [South Africa](/wiki/South_Africa "South Africa") and support of its circumvention of sanctions.

In April 2018, NGO [OpenSecrets](/wiki/OpenSecrets "OpenSecrets"), in partnership with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at the [Georgetown University Law Center](/wiki/Georgetown_University_Law_Center "Georgetown University Law Center"), filed a complaint at the [OECD](/wiki/OECD "OECD"), claiming that KBC and KBL had violated the Organization's Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in their dealings with South Africa between 1977 and 1994\. According to the complaint, KBC and KBL together "were responsible for facilitating up to 70% of all illegal arms transactions that allowed the apartheid government to secretly buy weapons despite mandatory UN arms sanctions." As part of that process, OpenSecrets and CALS submitted a detailed document to the OECD contact points in Belgium and Luxembourg to support their claim. At the same time, hearings were held on the matter at South Africa's People's Tribunal on Economic Crime led by [Zak Yacoob](/wiki/Zak_Yacoob "Zak Yacoob") in [Johannesburg](/wiki/Johannesburg "Johannesburg").

### Terms of the 1998 merger

In December 1999, the Brussels commercial court ordered CERA Holding to pay an additional 2\.48 billion euros to its cooperative shareholders, based on the finding that their contribution had been undervalued in the 1998 merger.

### Investment in coal

KBC has been criticised for its investment policies regarding fossil fuels. According to a 2015 report by Belgian NGO Fairfin KBC invested US$2\.4 billion between 2004 and 2014 through loans and emitting shares and obligations. In contrast the money allocated to renewable energy was only US$929 million.

When KBC reviewed its sustainability policy in 2016, the [Global Network](/wiki/Global_Network "Global Network") of [Non\-governmental organisation](/wiki/Non-governmental_organisation "Non-governmental organisation") cooperating in the field of [private banks](/wiki/Private_banking "Private banking") and sustainability, Banktrack published an analysis acknowledging progress made on fossil fuels, while criticising the exception for the Czech Republic where the bank continues to finance coal, saying “the new general restriction on coal is welcome and positive, however the exception applied to Czech coal companies is concerning."

In 2017 the Belgian Climate Coalition published a report charting the investments in fossil fuel of the four major banks in Belgium (KBC, ING, BNP Paribas and Belfius). In this report they attacked the exception for the Czech Republic as well, saying “the exceptions for coal activities in the Czech Republic don’t comply with the strict deadlines imposed by climate science.”


How much of the illegal arms transactions were facilitated by KBC and KBL?