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How do we determine your investor profile?

Before we offer you an investment product, your bank is required to determine your investor profile. How do we do this and what does that mean in practice?

About 50% of Belgians are concerned about finding the right balance between risk and return. And one in three people say they have little or no information on this subject. This is the result of a survey on Belgians and their money, commissioned by BNP Paribas Fortis from Profacts.

What is your profile?

A quick reminder: every investor has to have an investor profile. This is required by the European directive MiFID II. It being done to protect the consumer. Our advisers can only recommend investment products that are suitable for your profile.

To determine your investor profile and to get to know you better, and therefore offer you products that are perfectly suited to your situation, we use a detailed questionnaire. It evaluates the number of investment products you are familiar with, your experience with them and your investment objectives. It also probes your financial situation and the degree of risk you are willing to take. Some investment products are riskier than others and you may lose (part of) your capital in certain cases.

What is the questionnaire for?

There are no “right” or “wrong” answers to the questionnaire. Its sole purpose is to find out which sorts of investments match your financial capacity, risk appetite and return expectations. “An investor profile is not the result of a choice, but of the answers given,” summarises Koen Van de Steene, investment expert at BNP Paribas Fortis. “It determines the ratio in your portfolio between, for example, risky stocks and less risky bonds.”

Would you like to assess your level of investment knowledge and experience? Here is a test that we offer to our clients (login required).

Five profiles

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we have chosen to differentiate between five profiles:

• Conservative
• Defensive
• Neutral
• Dynamic
• Aggressive

The names speak for themselves: a conservative investor wants to protect his or her capital and is prepared to take only limited risks. They are therefore willing to settle for modest gains. An aggressive investor, on the other hand, has a strong appetite for risk, does not let temporary losses keep him/her awake at night, and aims for a higher return in the long run. The other profiles fall between these two extremes.

Who monitors all this?

Our questionnaire is checked by the FSMA, the financial market supervisory authority. They can also send inspectors who present themselves as ordinary customers: they check whether we have established an investor profile and whether we adapt our investment proposals accordingly.

Can you change your profile?

Your financial wishes and knowledge can change. We therefore regularly check whether your investor profile is still correct. “At BNP Paribas Fortis, we do these every eight years for conservative profiles, every five years for defensive and neutral profiles and every three years for dynamic and aggressive profiles,” says Koen Van de Steene. “But regardless of this, you can always have your investor profile adjusted. We may also contact you if we learn or believe that your personal situation has changed, and that this could have an impact on your investor profile.”

About Ask Your Bank

As a Positive Banker, BNP Paribas Fortis wants to help you see more clearly when it comes to managing your money. That's why we asked over 1,000 Belgians what their questions and concerns were. With the Ask Your Bank series, we answer them transparently. Because making your life easier is also what Positive Banking is all about.