Marc Lauwers named Argenta’s new CEO

Argenta’s Board of Directors nominates Marc Lauwers as director and chairman of the Executive Committee of Argenta Bank- en Verzekeringsgroep, Argenta Spaarbank and Argenta Assuranties. He succeeds John Heller who left Argenta end of April 2016.

Marc Lauwers can pride himself on a rich and impressive career in the financial industry. For over 25 years, he was active at Bacob, Artesia, Dexia and Belfius, in very diverse positions. In 2006, he became a member of Belfius’ Board of Directors and was vice president of that board up to 2013, responsible for retail and commercial banking.

Since April 2013, he joined the Executive Committee of KBL European Private Bankers (KBL epb) as Group COO and Deputy Group CEO.

Awaiting prior approval by the supervisory authorities, Marc Lauwers will take the lead of Argenta’s Executive Committee as from 1 September 2016 and as CEO will be responsible for both the bank and insurance company.

Marc Lauwers joins Argenta at a key moment in its existence. Founded in 1956, Argenta celebrates its 60th birthday this year. Over the last 10 years especially, Argenta has known a remarkable evolution, from a family-owned SME to an important retail bank and insurer which is deemed very highly by customers. The shareholdership is still firmly anchored with the Van Rompuy family as the main shareholder and with the 65.000 shareholders of the Argenta Cooperatieve cvba.

During those 60 years, Argenta has always remained true to its historical and strong cultural values of simplicity, transparency, austerity, honesty and durability. This allegiance to its basic values does not blind Argenta toward important challenges such as digitization and professionalization of the service offering, in Belgium as well as in the Netherlands, which will be at the top of the agenda.

“With the appointment of Marc Lauwers, Argenta chooses a CEO who will be able to establish a balance between allegiance to Argenta’s individuality and cultural values on the one hand, and on the other hand, the steering of the strategic change programmes which will equip the company even better for the future”, says Jan Cerfontaine, president of Argenta.

Marc Lauwers about his appointment: “Leading Argenta is an honour and an opportunity that I grasp with both hands. Argenta is an exquisite company with a no nonsense culture which very much appeals to me. It has special assets: with its distribution network of independent branch managers, it is the strongest retail banking brand in Belgium. Furthermore, it has a solid capital base, which gets an injection every year because of the prudent dividend policy and the long term vision of its familial and cooperative shareholders. And recently, it also scored high points in the international capital market. For me and my family, the return to my home town also means room for a family life. Both for professional and personal reasons, I am looking forward to this new challenge.”