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

Financial developments

Underlying income rose 14.6% on 2014, mainly in Financial Markets and Industry Lending. The net production of customer lending (excluding Bank Treasury and currency impacts) was EUR 11.6 billion in 2015. Wholesale Banking grew the net core lending book, adjusted for the Lease run-off, by EUR 13.0 billion in 2015, due to strong growth in Structured Finance and - to a lesser extent - Real Estate Finance and Transaction Services. Customer deposits (excluding currency impacts and Bank Treasury) remained flat compared with a year ago.

Operating expenses increased by 6.8% to EUR 2,571 million, mainly due to higher FTEs to support business growth, increased regulatory expenses and positive currency impacts. The previously announced restructuring programmes are on track to realise EUR 340 million of annual cost savings by 2017; of this amount EUR 260 million of cost savings had been realised so far.