ING Best Bank in Western Europe, Belgium and Netherlands
Amsterdam, 9 July 2015
On 9 July, ING in Western Europe, Belgium and the Netherlands was named best bank at the annual Euromoney Awards for Excellence.
The awards ceremony took place inside the illustrious Natural History Museum in London, and was attended by close to 580 people attending from investment banks and commercial banks from across Europe, Africa and the Americas. Tibor Bodor, head of Corporate Clients Europe at ING, accepted the awards on behalf of ING Bank.
ING CEO Ralph Hamers: “We are delighted with these awards. It is a sign of recognition of the path we have taken with our Think Forward strategy and of the work our colleagues have put into that. But even more, we see it as an encouragement to keep up our efforts in empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business.”
Tibor Bodor, head of Corporate Clients Europe at ING,
accepted the awards on behalf of ING Bank.
Why did ING win?
ING won for a number of reasons. In Western Europe, for example, we’re recognized for acting early to adapt to the changing environment of regulation, growth, and shifts in the way customers approach their banks. Euromoney also acknowledges the success of our post-2008 restructuring programme, the key landmarks of which were observed in the awards period, as well as the final repayment of the bailout money from the Dutch State. Furthermore, acknowledgements included the IPO of NN Group, and Voya, which was successfully completed, and the resumption of dividend payout in 2015.
In Belgium, the Bank reported a 13% increase in profit before tax, while staff expenses and cost of risk declined. The Bank’s Tier 1 capital rose to 15.2%.
On the operations side, the Bank opened 112,000 online-only bank accounts in 2014 and its Smart Banking application has been downloaded 800,000 times since it was launched four years ago. ING Bank in Belgium also introduced fingerprint biometrics in the mobile banking platform.
And, finally, in the Netherlands, ING was not only recognised for a higher profit before tax, lower cost of risk and higher interest margins in 2014, in addition to a digitalisation push aimed at longer-term savings, but also for further developing digital banking with the launch of voice recognition technology, a first.
More information about ING’s 2014 performance can be found in the 2014 Annual Report and in the 2014 Annual Review.
About Euromoney Awards
Each year, the Euromoney Awards of Excellence are handed out to the best banks across the globe. Close to a 100 banks were considered for the awards, across 20 different product categories.
Awards are handed out to market leaders that excel at ‘innovativeness’ and aid in the growth of the market.
Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2015