Amsterdam, 3 August 2016, 07:00 CET

CEO Statement

“ING’s Think Forward strategy and customer-first approach continue to generate strong commercial growth and quarterly net profits,” said Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group. “During the first six months of 2016, we gained approximately 650,000 new retail customers and around 350,000 customers chose ING as their primary bank. I’m confident that our ability to deliver an outstanding banking experience will allow us to retain and empower our growing customer base in the years ahead.”

“Throughout the business cycle, we strive to support our clients’ financing needs and to drive sustainable progress through our business activities. Our core lending book grew by EUR 14.8 billion during the second quarter of 2016, with growth well diversified across geographies and industry sectors. Our financing of sustainable projects and clients that are environmental outperformers rose to EUR 27.8 billion, including deals in renewable energy and sustainable buildings in the second quarter.”

“During the second quarter of 2016, our focus in digital banking and innovation concentrated on providing customers with easy-to-use money-management tools. We added a forecasting feature to our mobile banking app in the Netherlands, called ‘Kijk Vooruit’ (or ‘Look Ahead’), which enables users to gain more control over their finances through an overview of planned and predicted transactions. ING in Spain launched a digital financial advisor called ‘My Money Coach’ that helps customers to actively manage their current and future personal finances. This initiative leveraged the technology of ‘Coach Epargne’ (or ‘Savings Coach’), which debuted in France last quarter, accelerating the expansion of this successful innovation.”

Throughout the business cycle, we strive to support our clients’ financing needs and to drive sustainable progress through our business activities. Our core lending book grew by EUR 14.8 billion during the second quarter of 2016, with growth well diversified across geographies and industry sectors.

“Building on our proven track record for collaboration, ING recently joined forces with another leading Belgian bank to launch an integrated mobile payments and loyalty platform. This solution merges the loyalty platforms of both banks, with ING’s Payconiq app chosen as the underlying mobile payments system. The result is a single, streamlined platform that enhances the user experience for over one million consumers and 6,500 retailers who use the existing services.”

“All of our business segments performed well, contributing to ING Bank’s strong quarterly underlying result before tax of EUR 2,009 million. Loan growth continued at resilient margins, supporting a solid net interest result, despite the low interest rate environment. The pre-tax result also reflects a much improved quarter in our Financial Markets business, as well as a onetime gain on the sale of Visa shares. Operating expenses were under control, consistent with our ongoing cost-containment programmes, and risk costs were low at 39 basis points of average risk-weighted assets. ING Bank’s year-to-date underlying return on IFRS-EU equity was 10.8%, in line with our Ambition 2017 target range.”

“ING Group’s fully-loaded CET1 ratio rose to 13.1%, excluding the EUR 2,552 million net profit from the first half of 2016. The results of last week’s EBA stress test reaffirm the resilience of our business model and the strength of ING’s capital base. We are committed to maintaining a robust fully-loaded Group CET1 ratio in excess of prevailing requirements. Today, we declare an interim cash dividend of EUR 0.24 per ordinary share, which is equal to the interim dividend paid over the first half of 2015.”

“We made excellent progress on our Think Forward priorities during the first six months of 2016, which is reflected in positive customer feedback and our successful acquisition of new customers. Looking forward to the remainder of this year, we will continue to accelerate the execution of our strategy, while remaining vigilant for political and regulatory uncertainties.”

Consolidated Results

Analyst and investor conference call

3 August 2016, at 9:00 a.m. CET

NL +31 20 794 8500
UK +44 20 7190 1537
US +1 480 629 9031

Listen to the investor conference call at www.ing.com

Media conference call

3 August 2016, at 11:00 a.m. CET

NL +31 20 531 5871
UK +44 203 365 3210

Listen to the media conference call at www.ing.com

ING PROFILE

ING is a global financial institution with a strong European base, offering banking services through its operating company ING Bank. The purpose of ING Bank is empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business. ING Bank’s 52,000 employees off er retail and wholesale banking services to customers in over 40 countries.

ING Group shares are listed on the exchanges of Amsterdam (INGA NA, INGA.AS), Brussels and on the New York Stock Exchange (ADRs: ING US, ING.N).

Sustainability forms an integral part of ING’s corporate strategy, which is evidenced by ING Group shares being included in the FTSE4Good index and in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Europe and World) where ING is among the leaders in the Banks industry group.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION

Elements of this press release contain or may contain information about ING Groep N.V. and/ or ING Bank N.V. within the meaning of Article 7(1) to (4) of EU Regulation No 596/ 2014.

ING Group’s annual accounts are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (‘IFRS-EU’). In preparing the financial information in this document, except as described otherwise, the same accounting principles are applied as in the 2015 ING Group consolidated annual accounts. All figures in this document are unaudited. Small differences are possible in the tables due to rounding.

Certain of the statements contained herein are not historical facts, including, without limitation, certain statements made of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, without limitation: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular economic conditions in ING’s core markets, (2) changes in performance of financial markets, including developing markets, (3) consequences of a potential (partial) break-up of the euro, (4) potential consequences of European Union countries leaving the European Union, (5) changes in the availability of, and costs associated with, sources of liquidity such as interbank funding, as well as conditions in the credit markets generally, including changes in borrower and counterparty creditworthiness, (6) changes affecting interest rate levels, (7) changes affecting currency exchange rates, (8) changes in investor and customer behaviour, (9) changes in general competitive factors, (10) changes in laws and regulations, (11) changes in the policies of governments and/or regulatory authorities, (12) conclusions with regard to purchase accounting assumptions and methodologies, (13) changes in ownership that could affect the future availability to us of net operating loss, net capital and built-in loss carry forwards, (14) changes in credit ratings, (15) ING’s ability to achieve projected operational synergies and (16) the other risks and uncertainties detailed in the most recent annual report of ING Groep N.V. (including the Risk Factors contained therein) and ING’s more recent disclosures, including press releases, which are available on www.ING.com. Any forwardlooking statements made by or on behalf of ING speak only as of the date they are made, and, ING assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or for any other reason.

This document does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction.