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Explore capabilities →Employees
1,853
· FTE, annual average · whole institutionFY2025
Annual budget
€525m
· operating expenditure, actual · whole institutionFY2025
Supervised entities
206
· 93 credit + 65 insurance + 48 payment / e-moneyFY2025
Overview
The NBB (National Bank of Belgium) is Belgium's central bank and prudential supervisor, licensing and overseeing the country's credit institutions, insurers and payment and e-money institutions in Belgium's twin-peaks model alongside the FSMA. At the end of 2025 it supervised 93 credit institutions, 65 insurance companies and 48 payment and e-money institutions, and it is home supervisor of systemically important market infrastructure — including Euroclear — and lead overseer of Swift. Only one new payment-institution licence was granted in 2025 as the market waits for PSD3. Everything below is the NBB's own data, from its FY2025 annual report.
Regulated sectors
Leadership
- Pierre WunschGovernor · since 2019
Figures as published by National Bank of Belgium for FY2025. Source: NBB Report 2025 — Prudential regulation and supervision (English) (Published 5 March 2026). Data as of 31 December 2025. Supplementary: NBB Annual Report 2025 (English landing page).
Organisation (FY2025)
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Staff — FTE, annual average | 1,853 Whole institution — includes banknote production, cash operations and all central-bank functions; not supervision capacity |
| Operating expenditure (actual) | €525m Whole institution — staff costs + administrative expenses + depreciation + banknote production services, per the statutory P&L |
Supervised entities (end-2025)
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Credit institutions | 93 2024: 97. 28 Belgian-law · 42 EEA branches · 3 non-EEA branches. Plus 6 financial holding companies · 4 financial services groups · 10 specialised subsidiaries |
| Banks by SSM class | 12 JSTs for significant institutions · 11 less-significant Bank Nagelmackers and UniCredit (ex-Aion) became SIs in 2025 |
| Stockbroking firms | 18 2024: 20. 8 Belgian-law · 9 EEA branches |
| Insurance & reinsurance companies | 65 2024: 70. 57 active insurers · 1 pure reinsurer; consolidation drove the drop (Federale Group merger). Plus 41 EEA branches (8 AML-only supervision) |
| Insurance groups | 9 5 national · 4 international. Group supervisor for Ageas, KBC Insurance, Ethias, among others |
| Payment institutions | 43 2024: 44. 31 Belgian-law · 3 account-aggregation providers · 9 EEA branches |
| E-money institutions | 5 2024: 4. 3 Belgian-law · 2 EEA branches (Swan, Mollie newly registered) |
Licensing 2025
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| New payment-institution licences | 1 HR Pay Solutions NV. Plus two licence conversions (Billit AISP→PI; Fimaser EMI→PI) and one lapse (Cake). NBB expects volumes to stay low into 2026 as the market waits for PSD3/PSR |
| Banking licences | Belgian-law count unchanged · 4 branch delistings/closures Degroof Petercam Lux · CA Indosuez · DHB Bank branches delisted; Habib Bank branch closed |
Financial market infrastructure
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Role | Prudential supervisor and/or overseer of Euroclear Bank, Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear SA, BNY Mellon SA/NV, Worldline, Bancontact, Mastercard Europe (jointly with the ECB), and lead overseer of Swift. An outsized FMI footprint for the country's size — Brussels hosts globally systemic post-trade and messaging infrastructure |
Crypto / MiCA
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| NBB's MiCA role | Competent authority for asset-referenced-token (ART) and e-money-token (EMT) issuers, and prudential supervisor of credit institutions and similar regulated firms providing crypto-asset services. Under Belgium's MiCA implementing Law of 11 December 2025 |
| CASP authorisation (Art. 63) | Handled by the FSMA, not the NBB Belgian transition regime runs to 30 June 2026. See the FSMA profile for CASP figures |
Notable 2025
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Two new significant institutions | Bank Nagelmackers (acquired by Caisse d'Épargne Hauts de France) and Aion Bank (fully acquired and renamed UniCredit) both became significant institutions, leaving just 11 less-significant banks. |
| Payments-licensing freeze | Exactly one new payment-institution licence was granted all year — the NBB itself attributes the freeze to the market's wait-and-see stance ahead of PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation. |
| Global-plumbing role | The NBB is lead overseer of Swift and home supervisor of Euroclear Bank — Belgian prudential decisions carry global financial-plumbing weight. |
| Insurance consolidation | Insurance consolidation compressed the supervised population from 70 to 65 companies in a single year, driven by the Federale Group merger. |
Key legislation
Law of 22 February 1998 (Organic Law of the NBB)
Establishes the NBB and its central-bank/supervisory mandate
Twin Peaks Act of 2 July 2010
Split of prudential (NBB) vs conduct (FSMA) supervision
Banking Law of 25 April 2014
CRD/CRR transposition; credit-institution supervision
Law of 11 December 2025 (MiCA)
ART/EMT issuers · prudential aspects of regulated firms providing crypto services