Annual report 2005 - Dexia.com

Annual Report 2005As regards private banking, customer assetswere up 10.3% reaching EUR 41.7 billionat the end of 2005. As in the retail segment,the balance-sheet products remained almoststable, whilst off-balance-sheet productsincreased significantly, up 14.9% from ayear ago. The latter products now represent66.7% of private banking assets, against64% the previous year. Of note, assetsmanaged under mandates, mutual funds andinsurance products rose 17.7%, 22.5% and22.9% respectively in 2005. In Belgium andLuxembourg (which together represent 83%of the Group’s total private banking assets),private banking business benefited also fromthe successful marketing campaigns cateringto the retail segment.The new segmentation of clientele enabled areassessment and a differentiation of the rangeof Dexia services and offers better qualityfinancial advice to high net worth individualswith assets of more than EUR 500,000. Thisnew approach bore fruit particularly inBelgium where private banking assets rose14% in comparison to 2004.Finally, launched in Luxembourg in 2004, theDexia Vision programme is achieving greatsuccess and opens the way to new portfoliomanagement and financial advisory services.Extremely innovative, it relies on the highestvalues: responsibility, transparency andperformance.Outstanding loans to retail and privatecustomers amounted to 28.6 billion as ofDecember 31, 2005, up 11.4% in one year.This result is principally due to mortgageloans outstanding to retail customers, whichwere EUR 17.1 billion, up significantlyby 14.6%. This increase was even moresignificant in the fourth quarter 2005thanks to anticipation of a rise of interestrates. Finally, the volume of loans to privatebanking customers was up 16.0%.79