Among the Bank’s staff, a wide range of sports clubs, local social clubs and special interest societies are in action. In some cases they have a history going back over a century.
The first organised non-worktime activities at the Bank began in the early years of the 20th century.
In 1908, on the initiative of the employees, a Social and Sports Club was set up within the then General Savings Bank and Retirement Fund (CGER/ASLK). Four years later, a ‘Private Staff Club’ was set up at the Société Générale de Belgique (SGB).
Originally, the staff clubs were primarily oriented towards sports, but soon diversified into other activities. The CGER/ASLK Club organised its first excursion in 1912 and an orchestral section was set up in 1913.
The 1930s were the heyday of the staff clubs. In 1936, the CGER/ASLK Club had a membership of 783 employees, i.e. three quarters of the total staff, while the SGB Club boasted 1,500 members in 1932.
During the Second World War, Club activities went into a decline. However, 1942 saw the founding of an Arts and Literary Society at CGER/ASLK to encourage the spread of art, music and literature among the staff.
Staff clubs continued to expand well into the 1960s. Some fifty years later, sports and social activities are still alive and flourishing at the Bank.
View the slideshow of the Clubs History
50th anniversary of independence of the Congo and BNP Paribas Fortis archives
Everyone has heard of the 50th anniversary of the independence of the Congo: the royal visit has been widely referred to in the press and there have been special broadcasts on television and radio. For its part, the Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa has organised several exhibitions. Anxious to contribute to this commemoration, the bank today remembers its long presence in the Congo. In its archives there are many photos that recall the activities of the Banque du Congo Belge/Bank van Belgisch Congo, an old subsidiary founded in 1909 – immediately after Belgium took control of the Independent State of the Congo.
To bring this heritage into the public view we hereby offer you 40 or so selected prints based on their quality. Far be it from us to appear nostalgic for the colonial era. The photos collected bear witness to their time. And they are a way of celebrating the close links that still unite a number of Congolese and Belgians today. In complete independence.
Click on the image to see the series...
Women in banking : a hundred of year to achieve equal opportunities
In the 19th century, no women were employed by any of the companies that were the precursors to BNP Paribas Fortis – neither by the Caisse Générale d’Epargne et de Retraite (CGER) nor the Société Générale de Belgique (SGB), the forerunner of the Générale de Banque (G). When the first women were recruited – in 1918-1919 – it was because of a shortage of manpower and they were hidden away behind aprons, given low wages and confined to specific tasks of a menial nature: typewriting and mechanical data processing. The apron strings began to loosen towards the middle of 1960s, again because women were needed to be able to reap the benefits of the economic boom of the “golden sixties”. This marked the start of a slow evolution towards reducing the “horizontal” segregation of men and women: until then, although certain departments within the Bank were composed almost entirely of women, women employees had been prevented de facto from holding certain posts. In the 1970s, a move was also made to tackle the “vertical” segregation of male and female employees that stood in the way of women gaining access to senior positions within the company.
| Reducing inequality continued, however, to be a work in progress throughout the 1980s: why are so many women involved in casual work? Why the continuing salary differences? Clearly, this can be attributed in large part to the need to reconcile work and family life, the burden of which primarily falls on women. As a result, they are obliged to interrupt their career more frequently than men or to adopt part-time working patterns (only 11% of part-time work is undertaken by male workers). Many women with children don’t intend to achieve a high position, knowing that work imposes constraints (long hours, travel, meetings, etc.) that are not easy to reconcile with family life. | | 1901 : une extra-terrestre à la CGER |
What is required, therefore, is a change in mindsets – something which can, nevertheless, be fostered by initiatives by the public authorities and institutions. The Bank, both as an employer and as a service provider, has significantly contributed to this change, as can be seen
from the time line set out below.
