When DeepL met KBC Bank

KBC Bank, Belgium’s largest bank and insurance company, operates across five core European markets, serving over 13 million customers with a team of 41,000 employees. For KBC, multilingual communication isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s part of their DNA.

KBC’s in-house Language Centre plays a key part in keeping everything running smoothly. Made up of expert linguists and project managers, they process 12 million words a year in 55 language combinations, ensuring seamless internal and external communication.

But managing multilingual communication on this sort of scale comes with some serious challenges. How does a massive operation like this stay efficient, secure, and effective? For KBC, return on investment (ROI) in multilingual communication isn’t just about saving money. It’s about reducing risks, unlocking opportunities, and giving teams more time to focus on what really matters.

“Translation plays a critical role in helping us comply with EU regulations and connect with new customer groups.”

Christiaan Philipsen, Head of the KBC Language Centre

It’s about more than numbers

When we talk about ROI, it often gets boiled down to numbers and stats: money spent versus money earned. But for KBC, it’s not that simple. ROI in multilingual communication means so much more than just cost savings. As Christiaan Philipsen, Head of the KBC Language Centre, put it: “How do you assign a number to the miscommunication that was prevented?”

For KBC, translations needed to deliver in three key areas:

Reducing risk:

Avoid mistakes and misunderstandings in highly regulated markets

Boosting productivity:

Help their in-house translators work 20% faster while improving the quality of content

Ensuring compliance:

Support EU regulations and make information accessible to teams and customers across Europe

The DeepL Difference

KBC Bank integrated DeepL into their workflows to solve their translation challenges and improve their processes. But traditional ROI metrics only tell part of the story. The real value of using DeepL is that it makes life easier for all the teams and customers involved.

• More time for what matters

With DeepL integrated into their workflows, KBC reduced manual translation work. This meant a 20% boost in productivity for their in-house translators. By reducing manual workloads, translators now have more time to focus on high-value tasks like improving content quality and strategy.

• Cutting out unnecessary translation cycles

KBC reduced their official translation volumes by 2 million words, simply by making multilingual content more accessible across internal systems. This eliminated unnecessary translation cycles and saved valuable time.

• Smoother communication across teams

Every month, KBC translates up to 70 million words safely using DeepL. Since multilingual content is now more readily available, teams can collaborate more effectively across languages, and everyone stays on the same page. 

Beyond ROI: what real value looks like

For KBC, measuring ROI means looking at the bigger picture. It’s not just about the numbers– it’s about enabling growth, reducing risks, and creating a more connected organization.

When teams understand each other better, they work faster, make fewer mistakes, and connect with customers more effectively. These benefits ripple across the entire business, from compliance and productivity to growth and innovation.

“The true added value cannot be quantified.”

Christiaan Philipsen, KBC Bank

What’s next for KBC?

KBC Bank’s forward-thinking approach to multilingual communication shows how businesses can rethink ROI and measure value. By prioritizing impact over basic metrics, they’ve created a strategy that helps their teams succeed. With DeepL as a trusted partner, KBC is ready to tackle the complexities of multilingual communication today, and in the future.