CEO Steven van Rijswijk on CNBC in Davos

“What we see in Europe is that there’s different regulation on different elements, like anti-money laundering, GDPR, cyber. This hampers us in doing efficient business with our customers, and in the end it also has an impact on customers,” said Steven on CNBC.

“It impacts the level playing field for European banks compared to banks for example in the US. That needs to change.”

Steven was also interviewed* by Bloomberg News, speaking about ING’s strategy to offer more relevant products to more types of customers and on his views on consolidation among European banks.

The two areas ING focuses on when it looks at acquisitions are “domestic consolidation in the markets in which we are active and product capabilities to broaden the bank,” Steven told Bloomberg News.

Prominent roles for ING in Davos

These interviews took place on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, where ING took a number of prominent roles.

Steven served as co-chair of the WEF’s Banking & Capital Markets Governors community, a meeting attended by almost all financial institutions. This was a significant opportunity for us to help shape the conversations driving the financial industry forward.

Another key moment was a climate-focused roundtable session we hosted for peer banks and policymakers. We explored how financial institutions can accelerate sustainable transitions, share best practices, and address the obstacles that stand in the way of achieving net-zero goals. We also shared a whitepaper with more details on our approach to client transition plans.

ING’s chief economist, Marieke Blom, posted insights on how companies are dealing with geopolitical risks ahead the WEF meeting in this blog.


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