NewB's cooperators approved the cooperation with VDK bank at a general meeting in Bozar on Saturday, Belga News Agency reports.
A large majority of individual cooperators, civil society organisations and institutional investors approved the necessary amendment to the articles of the founding charter. The move will allow the VDK bank to take over the customer base, while NewB will become the exclusive agent for French-speaking Belgium.
NewB, a cooperative ethical bank, failed to raise an additional €40 million of capital in autumn 2022, preventing it from retaining its banking licence. NewB was forced to cease banking operations. But finally, another deal with VDK bank emerged.
VDK bank – another Belgian ethical bank – will take over NewB's customer base. In doing so, the two partners will enter into an exclusive agreement whereby NewB will become the intermediary for VDK bank's French-speaking customers in banking and investment services.
From February onwards
The legal transfer of the customers is scheduled for 31 January and in April they will receive a new bank card and account number - until then they can continue to use their current account and card. NewB customers will receive all the concrete information in the coming weeks. During April, customers will have access to the new VDK bank products and services, reports VDK bank.
Dutch-speaking NewB bank customers will be served by default by one of VDK's 60 or so branches. Upon express request, Dutch-speaking customers can be served by NewB, but it will be a remote (digital) service. French-speaking customers will be served digitally by NewB as standard practice.
NewB will be an exclusive distributor of VDK bank and will therefore not offer the products of other banks. The insurance products offered by NewB through French insurer Monceau will not be covered by the exclusivity. NewB will therefore remain insurance agent for Monceau.
The decision on the cooperation came final Saturday at a general meeting. The amendment to the articles of association in question attracted more than 95% of votes among the individual cooperators, and in votes on the other changes to the articles of association, too, the figure was above or just below 95%. The institutional actors voted unanimously, which was also roughly the case among the present civil society organisations. For approval, the threshold was 80%.
New beginning for NewB?
The road to approval has not been easy. The Brussels Enterprise Court intervened after proceedings by two NewB cooperators, including the Brussels investment company finance&invest.brussels, and appointed a provisional administrator. An earlier general meeting was thus postponed.
A second decision followed afterwards, allowing the NewB directors to stay on, but leaving administrator Michel De Wolf in the position of ad hoc judicial mandate, with a partly new mission. On 17 December, the cooperators blew assembly to vote on a resolution on cooperation, but the meeting did not reach a vote on the resolution, which was to gauge support among cooperators.
At the start of the meeting, court mandatary ad hoc De Wolf indicated Saturday that there was hardly any alternative. Either agree to become a bank agent of VDK bank, or the 80% threshold will not be met in the three groups "and NewB will end up in terra incognita...I recommend option one and voting for the board's proposals."
"Our cooperators have sent a particularly strong signal today. They feel the need is high for a Belgian bank in the service of our planet and society," NewB chairman Bernard Bayot added in a press release.
"We look forward to welcoming NewB's customers, and to working with NewB to make sustainable banking a reality throughout Belgium," adds VDK bank's top executive Leen van den Neste in the press release. She points to the broad majority in the vote.
How much VDK bank is paying for NewB's customer portfolio has not been disclosed. The price is a percentage of deposits (from accounts and investment fund NewB Invest). "In other words, the higher the amount on NewB deposits, the higher the purchase price," it states on NewB's website.
