Customers
Lending
Lending remains the core of the Argenta offering.
<Trusted financial partner Customers – Lending >Branches >Head office
Product offering
families
Belgium
In 2021, Argenta provided home loans to 23,842 families, which is 23% more than in 2020. Our customers opted for a long-term relationship with Argenta, with a personalised offer through our local branch managers.
As well as home loans, Argenta also offers various consumer instalment loans. About 9,908 customers took out loans to renovate their homes or purchase motor vehicles.

Argenta customers are increasingly investing for ecological reasons, in the field of home renovation and also mobility. 53% of renovation loans are for sustainable investments, while almost one in three mobility loans is for the purchase of an environmentally friendly car or an (electric) bicycle.
Netherlands
Argenta Netherlands is committed primarily to home loans. 2021 was no exception. In this way Argenta Netherlands closed its books in 2021 with attractive results, after helping more than 12,000 families purchase new homes, refinance existing mortgages or borrow to upgrade their homes.
Improving customer experience
Belgium
In 2021, the move towards automated mortgage decision-making continued apace. The continuous improving and expanding of systems and processes has shortened the lead times for credit decisions. In 2022 we shall resolutely continue on this path in order to increase further the share of automated mortgage decision making.
In 2021 the remote service processes developed in the first phase of the Covid crisis were placed on a permanent basis. Customers can now sign their credit application and offering documents remotely at a time that suits them best. In this way, they also save time and do not have to travel unnecessarily.
We are also extending the digitisation of our services to other processes as much as possible. In 2021, Argenta prepared itself for the new guidelines on the mandatory valuation of properties used as mortgage loan collateral. A digital estimation process has been developed and will be applied where possible, as an alternative to a valuer travelling physically to a site.
Since 2021, Argenta has been offering its customers the option of taking up the Flemish interest-free renovation loan. This initiative by the Flemish government allows them to borrow up to EUR 60,000 interest-free for ecological renovations and thus improve the EPC score of their homes. This initiative fits in nicely with Argenta's sustainability policy.
Argenta will also continue to offer loans for ecological motor vehicles and ecological renovations. All this will help our customers with purchasing ecological vehicles and making their homes energy-efficient, Which in turn helps reduce rising energy costs.
In 2021, a major effort was made to collect the EPC data and certificates of the properties in the portfolio. In addition to the mandatory recording of the EPC data for new mortgages (mandatory from 1 January 2021), a great deal of EPC data was also collected from existing loans. This gives us an image of the sustainability of our entire loan portfolio.
Loan Management
In 2021, Argenta made important optimisations to the disbursement process for construction and/or renovation file instalment payments. For an optimal customer experience, it is essential for customers to be able to access their funds quickly to allow building work and invoice payments payment to proceed smoothly. Following a few targeted adjustments to the existing robot and the control process, we are now able to evaluate and process more instalment requests on a daily basis. In this way we ensure a smooth disbursement process.
Lending - curative management
In 2021, Argenta continued its commitment to help families affected by the Covid measures. The experiences with the 2020 measures have helped us organise the third government payments deferral initiative in a more customer-friendly way. Customer could submit their deferral requests through their local branches - thereby precluding processing delays caused by incorrect information. With more advanced automation of applications processing, Argenta was also able to process applications more quickly from January onwards. The also helped significantly improve the percentage of “first time right” processing.
The operational impact of the severe weather of July 2021 fell mainly on our Insurance colleagues. Good agreements were immediately made with them to enable us to help customers quickly with information and administrative processing. In order to bridge a difficult period, Argenta was also able to assist customers by deferring the capital component of their mortgage instalments. In this way, the costs for the customers are temporarily more bearable.
The treatment of the internal refinancings with maturity extensions was adjusted in the course of 2021 to a more customer-friendly process. Redefining this refinancing into a new agreement serves to make the customer experience more positive. The underlying controls have been adapted to the new definition, with reduced customer impact, while Argenta continues to manage its risks.

Netherlands
In 2021 the branch office again significantly upgraded its processes to increase customer satisfaction. Dutch customers can now repay loans digitally, and the building savings account process has been digitised. Customers and advisers can also supply more and more data digitally when applying for home loans by using government sources of validated consumer data. In this way the branch office continues to play a driving role in the digitisation of the home loan acceptance process, and in so doing remains a significant player in the Dutch home financing market.
Evolution of the portfolio
Home loans
Belgium
In 2021, Argenta produced EUR a record amount of EUR 4.23 billion of home loans, including EUR 671 million of internal refinancing. This figure is up 29% on 2020 Despite the corona crisis, customers continued to buy real estate en masse. This was further stimulated by still historically low interest rates and a high real estate supply. In 2021, Argenta's had a 7.5 % market share in the production of home loans, up 0.4 % on 2020. In 2021, Argenta's home loan portfolio again outgrew the market, rising by 11.3 % compared with a market growth of 6.0 %. In absolute figures, the home loans portfolio grew by EUR 1.7 million to reach EUR 16.8 billion.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, Argenta provided almost EUR 3.70 billion in home loans in 2021. This is approximately 13% more than initially planned for 2021. This reflects the strongly increased demand in the market due to, among other things, the low interest rates. These factors took the portfolio to EUR 19.4 million by year-end.
Instalment loans
Argenta granted approximately EUR 153 million of consumer instalment loans in 2021, an increase of 4.1 % compared with 2020.
