KBC Groupe : Smart investment assistant Matti puts together tracker portfolio tailored to the client's needs

Press Release

Brussels, 20 January 2020 - 2 p.m.

Smart investment assistant Matti puts together tracker portfolio tailored to the client's needs

With Matti, Bolero makes investing in the stock exchange even more accessible

Matti the new smart investment assistant from Bolero offers:

• Assistance with portfolio composition of trackers (ETFs), with automatic monitoring and alerting thanks to investment algorithm
• On the basis of a selected universe of 50 ETFs
• 9 portfolio profiles with the possibility to indicate personal preferences
• As of 1,000 euros
• Sharp all-in service cost ( 1% excl. VAT)

This is for:

• Both retail investors who want to take their first steps on the stock market with a limited amount of money, as well as larger investors who are looking for some extra diversification.
• Bolero and KBC clients as well as people who are not.

Based on the investor's profile and preferences, Matti proposes a portfolio of trackers from a selected diverse universe. Matti's work doesn't stop after the purchase of the portfolio. He will continuously monitor the investor's portfolio. Is the investor missing opportunities or is the risk in the portfolio too high? No problem, the investor will then receive an alert from Matti with a proposal for an optimized portfolio. The investor can then choose whether or not to follow Matti's advice. Matti is available 24/7 and can already propose a portfolio starting from 1,000 euros.

Matti has been thoroughly tested by a user panel over the past 6 months. As of today, Matti is available to the market

Werner Eetezonne, CEO Bolero, tells us about Matti: "At Bolero, we constantly strive to make the life of the self-directed investor as easy as possible by offering a lot of stock market information and easy to use tools. Nevertheless, we notice that some investors find it still too difficult to make their own choice out of the many stock market products available and are especially worried of making the wrong choice. Moreover, anyone who is involved with shares has to keep a close eye at all times. In order to offer an easy solution for those investors as well, we at Bolero, decided to use the technology and develop a smart investment assistant. Investors who are reluctant to make their own choice from the wide range of listed instruments or who simply do not have the time to follow up their portfolio themselves, can use Matti. Investors who are reluctant to make their own choice from the wide range of listed instruments or who do not have the time to follow up

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their portfolio themselves can now use Matti. A new and strategic step for Bolero to bring the stock market even closer to every investor".

66% of Belgians are worried that their savings will not yield any return; yet investing remains difficult

Commissioned by Bolero, the research agency iVOX conducted an online survey on investment and technology among 1,000 Belgians between the 4th and the 13th of December 2019. The sample was representative by gender, language, age and diploma. This market survey has reveiled that :

• 7 out of 10 Belgians think that saving doesn't pay off - and even costs money
• 6 out of 10 agree that investing pays more than saving.
• However, investing is still often seen as a risky activity for specialists, for which you need a lot of financial resources.
• 2 out of 3 Belgians agree that new technology makes their life easier.
• 6 out of 10 Belgians indicate that they would like to invest if it were less complex and if they could get a clearer picture of the returns in both good and bad times.

With Matti, Bolero wants to use smart technology to make investing less complex: away with stress of choice and the pressure to constantly have to monitor your portfolio.

The Matti platform is separate from Bolero, but of course makes use of the extensive stock market expertise present in that platform.

What does Matti look like?

Matti is a browser-based web platform accessible from any PC, tablet or smartphone. Requesting a Matti account online takes about ten minutes.

The investor first goes through a questionnaire that in fifteen minutes probes his knowledge and experience of ETFs, his financial situation and his investment objectives (horizon, appetite for risk and return, etc.). Anyone who turns out to be insufficiently familiar with investing is not eligible for Matti. On the basis of this questionnaire, the algorithm then determines the maximum portfolio (risk) profile of the investor (from 1 to 9). The investor can also indicate a maximum of 4 preferences for his portfolio. For example, does he/she believe strongly in technology, gender equality or sustainability? He can indicate his or her preference in terms of sector, geography, theme or asset type.

Taking into account the portfolio profile and the preferences, Matti then generates automatically a personalised tracker portfolio. The target of Matti is to include at least 7 different trackers. Trackers are investment products that follow a basket of shares or a stock market index. These are popular products with both more dynamic and less active investors.

The investor can immediately see how the portfolio is spread over equity ETFs, bond ETFs and cash. In addition, he or she also gets a picture of what the portfolio can possibly yield in a positive, neutral and negative market scenario. Before signing the order, the investor also receives a fully detailed advice.

Matti continuously monitors the individual Matti portfolios. The client receives automatic notifications when the portfolio contains too much or too little risk compared to the model portfolio or it's composition deviates too much from the model portfolio. Matti therefore immediately prepares an optimised portfolio proposal for the investor. The investor then chooses whether to follow Matti's advice or not. Even less experienced investors can still complete and optimise an investment portfolio this way. Matti relieves them of all follow- up concerns and always reports transparently on the investment result.

Currently, the investor can only put together one portfolio with Matti. In the future, it will be possible to create different portfolios with e.g. different preferences and a different portfolio profile. Think, for example,

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of a pension portfolio with a long time horizon combined with a portfolio with a short time horizon for a new car or a trip.

Smart technology

The algorithm behind Matti was developed by experts from KBC and is based on Harry Markowitz's Nobel Prize-winningModern Portfolio Theory. The algorithm was already developed and extensively tested in 2017. It relies exclusively on historical market data. It does not include economic, monetary or political forecasts.

To create the portfolios, Matti made a selection from a universe of around 50 ETFs from well-known independent issuers such as iShares, UBS,... Bolero set up an investment committee that will continuously monitor the algorithm and the universe of selected ETFs.

Fair cost high accessibility

Matti has been kept very accessible and accessible. To use Matti, it's not necessary to be a Bolero customer or a KBC customer. Any natural person of legal age with an account with a Belgian financial institution may open a Matti account, of course, as long as Matti fits his or her risk profile. Matti is already available for investment portfolios starting from 1,000 euros.

Investors pay:

• An annual all-in service fee of 1% (excl. VAT) on the invested amount.
• The usual government taxes (stock exchange tax, withholding tax) on transactions.

At Matti, they pay no custody fee, no separate transaction costs, no entry or exit costs and they can also board or (fully or partially) exit at any time.

More information about Matti, Bolero's smart investment assistant and a simulation tool is available at www.boleromatti.be.

Bolero

Bolero is the online investment platform of KBC Bank and one of the leading players of Belgium's online brokerage market. Since 2015 Bolero has been elected best online broker by the visitors of bankshopper.be, year after year. Since 1999, Bolero offers a sharp-cost solution for private investors who want to manage their investments themselves online. Via its user-friendly website and apps, Bolero customers have direct online access to more than twenty stock markets, including the Western and Eastern European, American and Canadian markets. They can trade in a wide range of listed products (shares, bonds, trackers, turbos, etc.). Bolero does not give personal advice, but supports customers with the most extensive information and training offer. For example, they can count on a daily stock exchange newsletter "Beurs bij 't Ontbijt" or "Point Bourse" and extensive reports and analyses from KBC analysts. The many dozens of events and training courses organized by Bolero help clients to get to know even better all aspects of the stock market. More information is available at www.bolero.be.

Matti from Bolero

Matti is Bolero's new, smart investment assistant. Matti from Bolero is a digital robotised investment advice platform. Matti from Bolero advises a portfolio consisting exclusively of trackers or Exchange Traded Funds ("ETFs"). Matti not only presents the investor with a portfolio, but also continuously monitors it. If an optimisation is possible, the investor receives an alert with a proposal for an optimised portfolio. Matti is already available from 1.000 euro. The investor only pays an annual all-in service fee and the usual taxes on transactions. More information is available at www.boleromatti.be.

KBC Group NV

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