KBC reacts to fall in share price

Regulated information* - 19 January.2009 (during trading hours)

In recent days, KBC's share price has come under pressure as a result
of rumours circulating in the market.  KBC would like to clarify  the
situation and  once  again to  strenuously  deny a  number  of  these
rumours.

Over  the  past  few  months,  the  KBC  group  has  provided   clear
information on its  activities and  position in  Central and  Eastern
Europe, and  has  at  present  nothing new  to  report.  The  group's
position in Russia, Hungary and other countries in the region has not
changed in recent  weeks. Furthermore, KBC  has hedged any  potential
exchange rate losses resulting from devaluations of local currencies.
There is nothing new to report regarding KBC's position on the  Irish
market either.

On 29 December  2008, KBC informed  the market of  the impact on  its
results of a  downgrade in the  ratings of its  CDO portfolio. On  15
January, Moody's  Investors  Service  announced  that  it  was  again
revising the assumptions on which it based its ratings for  corporate
synthetic CDOs. However,  since Moody's will  only be publishing  its
updated model later  this month,  KBC cannot  currently simulate  the
extent to which this might adversely affect its results. Furthermore,
it has only just come to light that the new model will only apply  to
three of the 17 CDOs  that KBC has in  portfolio, three CDOs (with  a
residual carrying value of approximately 200 million euros) for which
KBC had  already proactively  calculated the  financial impact  of  a
potential additional downgrade of three notches back in December.

* This news item contains information that is subject to the
transparency regulations for listed companies.


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