2023-10-12 20:04:56
The company court confirms that the National Bank correctly applies its profit distribution rules.
On May 27, 2022, a shareholder of the National Bank of Belgium (“the Bank”) filed an application with the Dutch-speaking corporate court in Brussels. This shareholder requested to annul the decisions of the Bank’s Council of Regency regarding distribution of profits relating to the 2018 to 2021 financial years. This Wednesday, the company court delivered its judgment. The court rejects all requests from the shareholder in question.
- First of allthe court judges that the request was submitted late with regard to the distribution of profits relating to the financial years 2018 to 2020.
- Ensuite, the court examined the basis of the complaints of the shareholder concerned relating to the distribution of profits relating to the year 2021 and came to the conclusion that they are unfounded. The court judges that the Bank correctly applied the rules for distributing its profits established by law and that it did not commit any abuse of rights or other faults by not deviating from its pre-established dividend policy.
The profit distribution rules provide that the surplus profits of the Bank, after being put into reserve and payment of a dividend, return to the Belgian State. The Bank’s revenues, after all, arise mainly from its missions of general interest and, in particular, from its legal mission as a monetary authority.
The court stipulates that this income cannot be reduced solely to income from the issuance of bank notes but covers all income from the Bank’s monetary policy mission. The court judges that it is “logical and correct that the net income from legal missions of general interest accrues to the Belgian State and therefore to the community and not to the private shareholders of the Bank”.
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