Bigger Story This article is part of ING's Annual Review 2015. read the 2015 Annual review

Strong performance in 2015

We made progress in 2015 building a bank able to support our customers and to fulfil its future obligations to our stakeholders.

Financial performance was strong in 2015. We achieved solid profitability and have already met most of our 2017 financial ambitions, including in the areas of capital, return on equity, leverage and dividend.

Our savings and lending activities performed well. Net customer deposits grew by EUR 25.1 billion, or 5.1% . Core lending grew by net 4.2% to EUR 21.7 billion in 2015 demonstrating the strength of our lending business. There was good growth in Industry Lending, which also supported lending growth in Challengers & Growth markets.

We believe ING’s strong balance sheet attests to the quality of our risk management. We are among the best-capitalised listed banks in the eurozone.

Our capital position was further strengthened in 2015 by the reduction of our stake in NN Group from 68.1% to 25.8% at year-end and the divestment of our remaining stake in US insurer, Voya Financial Inc. Our stake in NN Group was further reduced to 14.1% in February 2016. These transactions improved ING Group’s Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio and also turned double leverage at the Group level into a cash surplus, providing us with ample financial flexibility.

We are well on track to sell our remaining stake in NN Group by the end of 2016.