Belfius announced on Tuesday that it plans to establish a new hub in Lisbon.
Ulrike Pommée put the scale plainly: "By the end of next year, we will have 218 positions in Portugal. In five years, there will be 500 people".
The bank says the hub will handle back-office activities transferred from its IT and Operations departments, including work related to artificial intelligence, payments and fraud prevention. Management described the move as insourcing and said it intends to internalise 250 functions that are today carried out by external parties abroad. The project was launched in collaboration with Accenture and will begin as a joint venture before Belfius takes full control in three to five years.
Those numbers matter now because Belfius expects to have 218 positions in Portugal by the end of next year and 500 employees at the Lisbon hub within five years. The bank currently employs around 10,000 people, including its independent agencies, and Belfius said the project will not result in layoffs and that it will continue to recruit in Belgium even as some work moves to Portugal.
The Lisbon hub will absorb tasks from IT and Operations that the bank says are better run inside the organisation rather than outsourced. Management emphasized that the initiative is intended to bring functions in-house rather than cut staff: Belfius said it wants to internalise 250 functions now handled externally. The company also said that roughly 40 people in Belgium will be required to change roles as a result of the transition and that there is a suitable job for everyone among those employees.
Unions and staff representatives immediately flagged that the plan introduces a new risk for Belgian employment. "We don't know where this will end. We fear that employment in Belgium will be further eroded," said Valerie Scherpereel, capturing a broader anxiety among trade unions about a shift of back-office work to Lisbon. Scherpereel added, sharply: "Pandora's box".
That contrast — a bank insisting there will be no layoffs and a union warning of erosion of domestic jobs — is where the story tightens. Management's promise that every affected employee will be offered a suitable alternative will be tested as the joint venture phase unfolds and Belfius moves toward full control in three to five years. The larger the Lisbon operation grows to its planned 500 headcount, the more material the transfer of day-to-day tasks will become for teams in Belgium.
There are concrete near-term steps to watch. By the end of next year Belfius expects 218 roles to be filled in Portugal; those hires will show whether the work is being moved as fast as management projects and whether Belgian recruitment remains steady even as functions shift. The joint venture with Accenture will set the operational rhythm for the first years; after three to five years Belfius intends to assume full ownership of the project.
For now, Belfius presents the Lisbon hub as a strategic insourcing move aimed at controlling and developing capabilities in areas such as artificial intelligence, payments and fraud prevention. But the introduction of a significant overseas hub, the internalisation of 250 functions and the reassignment of about 40 Belgian employees mean the bank’s workforce geography will change — and the unions' warnings suggest the human consequences will be measured and contested as the plan is implemented.
Given the timelines and scale the bank itself has published, the most direct conclusion is this: Belfius is not shrinking its headcount overall, but it is reshaping where and how core IT and operations work is done, and the true effect on employment in Belgium will be decided as the Lisbon hub grows to 500 staff and Belfius moves from a joint venture to full control.
