Dear all,
Please find below the greetings of Olivier Klein, BRED Group CEO:
Hello everyone!
I am delighted to see you again, even if it is via media channel! I hope this message finds you and your families happy and healthy. We all know what an exceptional year 2020 has been, in many respects. And we hope the years to come will be different.
The extent of this triple-edged crisis – affecting our health, the economy and finance throughout the entire world, to varying degrees – is unprecedented in modern history. Some of us, or those close to us, have been hit, in some cases very hard, by the pandemic. My thoughts go to these people in particular.
In the depths of this turmoil, BRED assumed its essential role as a bank in the front line, supporting the economy in every region in which we operate. During the year, all our teams at BRED, wherever they are based, have faced the gathering storm with extreme professionalism and efficiency.
I would like to thank you all wholeheartedly for your commitment. Thanks to you, the BRED Group has shown its resilience, its strength and its reliability, by boldly fulfilling its responsibilities and supporting its customers to the best of its abilities.
Your commitment honours the BRED Group, in every one of our regions. It fills me with pride, a great deal of pride, to run our bank, your bank, alongside you. We have reason to believe that the sky will clear over the coming months, with the arrival of vaccines that will enable us to return to a more normal life, both on a private and professional level.
Let’s hope that 2021 marks a return to growth and confidence. Confidence, in our case, in our local, people-focused banking model, supported by the best technology. To continue to build our relationship with our customers, for, as you well know, ours is a strategy that is based on close, personal contact, which has been made even more meaningful by the pandemic.
Confidence in BRED, whose fundamental principles – regarding human resources and managerial practices, as well as financial and organisational aspects – are of the highest quality. Confidence in you, in your individual and collective ability to give your best and continue to be genuine entrepreneurs within your own profession. You already did that brilliantly in previous years, as in 2020.
In terms of credit risk, 2021 will be a very difficult year for some of our customers, depending on their business sector. We must be prepared. There is a long journey ahead before the economic situation really stabilises. But I have every confidence in our ability to face this headwind!
The key to our success will lie, as always, in our determination to provide our customers with even more added value. We must continue to do what we have always done together, to take the lead in the banking sector by advising and anticipating rather than enduring. I am impatient to be back among you in the flesh, as I have always liked to do on a regular basis.
I am delighted to announce that we will all be back together for an international conference, which will be held online during the first quarter of next year. It will give us the opportunity to report on our momentum, our results, our strategy, and on the opportunities of BRED Group worldwide.
I wish you and all your loved ones a very happy Christmas and all the very best in terms of good health, happiness and success, in your private and professional projects, for the coming year.
Thank you everyone. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.
Happy New Year!