Febelfin
Febelfin is the Belgian Financial Sector Federation, the umbrella association of banks and other financial institutions in Belgium. The federation represents its members in talks with policymakers, regulators, other professional federations and interest groups. Febelfin also gives consumers and companies objective information on banking, saving, credit, payments and fraud.
The members of Febelfin are more than 220 financial institutions: banks, credit providers, asset managers and funds, stockbrokers and leasing companies. Insurance companies, pension funds and holding companies are not part of the federation, and membership is voluntary for every institution. Together the member institutions account for about 45,000 direct jobs in Belgium.
Members and membership
Any financial institution can apply to join Febelfin, and the federation counts about 227 member institutions in Belgium. Some members have a special statute, among them Worldline, Euronext, SWIFT, Euroclear, the Isabel Group and the Belgian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association. Members steer Febelfin through its Board of Directors and its Executive Committee and work on projects in committees and working groups.
Members become part of a network of finance professionals and receive an average discount of 15 percent on the courses of Febelfin Academy. Requests to join go to the Secretary General of Febelfin, Wien De Geyter.
Febelfin Academy: courses and exams
Febelfin Academy is the training arm of the federation and offers courses, further education and exams for people who work in banking and finance. Courses run as classroom training, e-learning, live webinars or in-company sessions, and the academy awards certificates recognized in the financial sector. Current courses cover the DORA rules on digital operational resilience, AI in finance and anti-money laundering, and the Certified Fraud Examiner course runs with the International Management Forum.
For payment specialists, Febelfin Academy runs the Qualified Payments Expert track, with four classroom days on European payments, cards and new market entrants and a test that closes each module. The track is one of several payments training programs in Europe for staff in payments, IT, audit and compliance.
Fraudstop and fraud prevention
Febelfin points everyone in Belgium who suspects online fraud to Fraudstop, a single central phone number for such cases. People call it when money has left their account, or when they shared security codes or confirmed an action in the itsme app at the request of someone else. A quick call lets the bank act at once and limit further damage, and Fraudstop also explains how to report the case to the police.
Together with partners, Febelfin works against online fraud, money mules, money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The federation publishes figures and trends on fraud each year, including the methods that phishing attacks on bank customers use.
Upcoming fintech and finance events in Belgium
Bank holidays in Belgium
Febelfin publishes the days on which bank branches in Belgium close, as fixed in advance by the joint committee for the banking sector, PC 310. The list follows the public holidays, from New Year and Easter Monday to Belgian National Day on 21 July, Armistice Day on 11 November and Christmas. When a holiday falls on a weekend, the banks close on a replacement day, such as Good Friday in place of a holiday on a Saturday.
The Flemish Community Day on 11 July and the French Community Day on 27 September close branches only in their own regions, while banks in Brussels stay open on both days. Febelfin sets out the bank closing days three years in advance, so that customers can plan their payments around them.
President, CEO and board
Michael Anseeuw of BNP Paribas Fortis is the President of Febelfin, and Karel Baert leads the federation as CEO. The Board of Directors has a strategic steering role and decision-making powers and meets four times a year or when an urgent matter arises. The Executive Committee carries out the decisions of the board, monitors the work of the federation and takes on the tasks that the board delegates to it.
The management team of Febelfin includes Secretary General Wien De Geyter, Lotte Hendrickx as Director Tax and Business Lines and Gregory Machenil as Director Regulatory and Transversal Lines. Specialist teams cover retail credit and savings, payments, corporate and private banking, financial markets and security.
Address and services for bank customers
Febelfin has its office at Boulevard du Roi Albert II 19, called Koning Albert II-laan 19 in Dutch, in 1210 Brussels. Customers with a complaint about a bank first contact the bank itself, and if that fails, the free mediation service Ombudsfin investigates the case and gives advice.
Febelfin also runs a free bank switching service that moves current and savings accounts to another bank without interrupting payment orders, and it has published annual figures on bank switches since 2010. The federation explains how to trace a dormant account, which is an account without transactions or contact with the bank for at least five years.
Febelfin and Finance Loop
Banks in Belgium and Germany work under the same European rules, from PSD2 and instant payments to DORA, and both markets face the same waves of phishing and online fraud. Finance Loop members discuss these questions at events on payments, fraud prevention and AI in banking, where Belgian measures such as Fraudstop and the bank switching service give a concrete comparison with Germany.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.