ING's 15th Investor Relations Symposium: growth in developing markets

ING's 15th Investor Relations Symposium: growth in developing markets

Amsterdam, 2 April 2008

In introducing ING’s 15th Investor Relations Symposium in Amsterdam today, Michel Tilmant, Chief Executive Officer of ING Group, will elaborate on ING’s strategic focus. Consumer preferences are changing rapidly across the globe, especially in developing markets, and are driving strong growth in savings as well as convergence of financial products. ING is well positioned to capitalise on these trends and capture a larger share of the total savings pool. ING has strong positions in today’s mature markets, a strong presence in the most attractive developing markets, and has the strategic flexibility to enter markets in different ways. With its focus on providing banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to our retail customers, ING can offer the full range of products to meet customers’ needs through their life cycle.

ING’s strategy and priorities in the developing markets will be presented by Carlos Muriel (CEO Latin America), Hans van der Noordaa (Member Executive Board ING Group for Insurance Asia/Pacific) and Jacques de Vaucleroy (Member Executive Board ING Group for Insurance Europe). The symposium is hosted by John Hele, Chief Financial Officer of ING Group, who will outline ING’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to reflect the essence of our business and delivery on our strategy.

Key Performance Indicators

ING’s strategy is about attracting client balances. To measure the performance versus our strategy, ING presents four Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s): Client balances, which measures the underlying business volume from which ING generates fees and income, Expenses, Underlying profit before tax and Required Capital. John Hele will elaborate on these four Group-wide metrics that are aligned with ING’s strategy and will enable better tracking of growth in wealth management and distribution power.

Latin America

In Latin America ING has repositioned its business through the acquisition of pension and annuity businesses and divestments of several non-core businesses. ING is now the second largest pension fund manager in Latin America with access to over 15.0 million customers in seven attractive high growth markets. ING Latin America is well positioned to deliver on ING’s aspirations to become number one in pensions and life insurance and top 5 in investments across Latin America both through organic growth and acquisitions. ING ‘s strategy for growth in the region will focus on Brazil and Mexico, as these two countries make up for almost three quarters of the region’s wealth management assets. As banks dominate distribution of wealth management products, ING will seek out alliances and partnerships to distribute its products. In other parts of the region, ING will explore alternate distribution channels, utilizing ING’s success models from other parts of the globe.

Asia Pacific

ING is a leading financial services player in Asia/Pacific being the second largest foreign life insurer, the second largest regional asset manager, and with top five positions in several key markets. Although tied agency continues to be the dominant distribution channel for Insurance Asia/Pacific, bank distribution is quickly gaining importance. ING Asia/Pacific has selectively built its retail banking presence in the region, focusing on mass affluent customers. ING has acquired strategic stakes in Vysya bank (India), Bank of Beijing (China) and in 2007 in TMB Bank (Thailand) but has also been growing its business organically. With an extensive geographic footprint, ING is collecting and managing savings for retail customers though our banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services businesses. As economic growth and wealth creation in Asia continues to outpace other regions, ING Asia/Pacific is well positioned to capitalise on these growth opportunities.

Central and Eastern Europe

ING has been a pioneer with entrepreneurial vision in the fast growing financial services market in Central and Eastern Europe. ING is a leader in building banking, insurance and pension greenfields, with leading positions in fast growing markets as Poland and Romania. In the context of ING Group’s strategy, the priorities in the region are to grow our client balances by building on existing presence and entering greenfields. In 2007 ING has acquired Oyak bank in Turkey. ING has initiated a series of key actions in 2008 to further enhance the performance of Oyak bank. ING also continues to invest in bank distribution as retail banks in Central and Eastern Europe are becoming the main distribution channel for banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services. ING has proprietary retail banking platforms in Poland, Romania , Turkey and Ukraine and is entering third party distribution agreements in other countries.

The Investor relations symposium can be followed live via webcast at www.ing.com starting 9 a.m. CET. The presentations are also available online. If you are not able to view the webcast, you can also listen in by telephone at the following numbers:

Press enquiries

Media Relations
ING Group
+31 20 576 5000

media.relations@ing.com

ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to over 75 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 50 countries. With a diverse workforce of about 120,000 people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent companies that increasingly serve their clients under the ING brand.