I want a saver's first impression of our bank to remain accurate after a year of statements, withdrawals and changes to the branch they use.
I am chief marketing officer of Vaerenbosch Savings Bank, a cooperative-owned Belgian savings bank headquartered in Hasselt. About 118,000 member-shareholders hold its cooperative shares, and 780,000 customers bank with us through 74 branches in Limburg, Antwerp, Flemish Brabant and Brussels, by telephone and through our app. At the end of 2025 we held €10.9 billion of customer deposits and €9.1 billion of loans, mostly home mortgages. I lead 46 marketing and communication colleagues through five managers, with an annual budget of €18.4 million. Rates, credit decisions and branch locations are set elsewhere; I am accountable for how we describe them.
I grew up in Eupen, in Belgium's German-speaking east, and began in 2000 as a junior account executive at a Brussels advertising agency. Consumer credit, branch marketing at a large bank, customer correspondence and five years building an online-only bank followed. The online bank taught me something I had not wanted to learn: money attracted by the highest figure on a comparison table leaves just as quickly for the next one. Since 2021 I have worked on the opposite question, which is what a customer still believes about us after the campaign has ended.
Three decisions on this site show what that means in practice. We put the conditional part of a savings rate into the headline instead of the small print. We announced fourteen branch closures with the distances, the remaining cash machines and the replacement services stated in each letter. We withdrew an environmental claim for a renovation loan because we could not evidence it. Each choice cost something measurable, in deposits, operating budget or written-off production, and I have tried to record those costs beside the results.
A 2.40% headline became 1.40% plus a condition
Our autumn 2023 savings campaign showed what €10,000 would earn if it stayed a year and if it left after six months. New deposits reached €468 million against a €600 million plan, and 84% remained after twelve months.
Fourteen closures announced twelve weeks ahead
Every 2024 closure letter gave the reason, the nearest branch and its distance, and whether a cash machine would remain. Deposits held by affected customers fell 2.4% in six months, against 4.8% after the 2020 closures.
A carbon figure we could not support was removed
Nine days before its planned spring 2025 launch, we withdrew a renovation-loan claim of three tonnes of carbon saved a year. We wrote off €260,000 of production and now collect the new energy certificate on which the discount depends.
Current focus
I am working with our risk and complaints teams on a quarterly measure of whether customers understood what we told them, starting with savings, renovation loans and the basic account we offer to people who have been refused elsewhere.
Conversations I welcome
I am open to a first non-executive role on the board of a consumer-facing company outside banking, with about twenty-two days a year available, subject to my employer's written consent and a review of commercial relationships.
