Amsterdam, 4 November 2015

CEO statement

“ING recorded a successful third quarter during which we made good progress on our Think Forward priorities”, said Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group. “We accelerated our innovation efforts by establishing partnerships with financial technology companies, generating new ideas which will help us to further create a differentiating customer experience. At the same time our strengthened sustainability focus was recognised by leading external sustainability benchmarks in their annual reviews. In terms of financial performance, ING Bank delivered another solid quarter, with increased lending, lower risk costs and a continued strong capital position.”

“ING is constantly looking to develop new and improved services for our customers. To complement our in-house capabilities and maximise the potential of relevant technologies, we are steadily investing in partnerships and other forms of cooperation with outside parties. An example of our continuous innovation and commitment to develop our SME business in a digital way is the strategic partnership we launched with Kabbage, a leading US-based technology platform that provides automated lending to SMEs, reducing the loan application and approval process to just a few minutes. In addition to taking a small equity stake in the company, we will run a pilot project with Kabbage in Spain. We are excited about bringing this technology to our customers. Furthermore, in both Belgium and the Netherlands, we have set up facilities where start-ups can experiment with their new business models, enabling us to share expertise and benefit from each other’s creativity and innovative spirit.”

“One of our key beliefs is that we should support and stimulate economic, social and environmental progress. I am proud that ING is again included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, with an improved score that is well above the banking industry average. ING also received a higher rating from Sustainalytics, where our score of 88 out of 100 made us the third best performer among the 409 reviewed international banks. These external assessments validate our sharpened sustainability focus, and the robustness of our strengthened environmental and social risk policies.”

We accelerated our innovation efforts by establishing partnerships with financial technology companies, generating new ideas which will help us to further create a differentiating customer experience.

“ING Bank delivered another solid financial performance this quarter. The underlying result before tax was EUR 1,495 million, reflecting the continued positive momentum in both Retail and Commercial Banking. Risk costs decreased on both comparable quarters, particularly in Retail Netherlands where evidence of the economic recovery is now clearly visible in our risk costs. While this is encouraging, we remain vigilant for any potential impact that imbalances in emerging economies and financial markets could have on our clients and business units.”

“Net interest income improved on the back of continued growth in our core lending businesses and a slightly improved interest margin. We remain committed to supporting our clients’ lending needs. Notwithstanding reductions in the mature Benelux markets, we grew our core lending portfolio by EUR 1.6 billion in the third quarter, driven mainly by Retail Challengers and Growth Markets and Industry Lending. Year-to-date, total customer lending in the core portfolio grew by EUR 17.2 billion, or 4.5% on an annualised basis. Despite higher regulatory costs in the quarter and a significant impairment on an equity stake, the Bank’s underlying return on IFRS-EU equity was 11.2% for the quarter and 11.6% year-to-date, which lies in the middle of our Ambition 2017 target range.”

“ING Bank’s fully-loaded CET1 ratio remained stable at 11.3%. The ING Group CET1 ratio was also unchanged at 12.3%, which figure does not include interim profits - for the second quarter in a row. In the third quarter we reduced our stake in NN Group to 25.8%. The regulatory environment remains uncertain. However, with our capital strength, we are well positioned to deliver shareholder returns while we invest in further innovation of the products and services that empower our customers.”

Consolidated results

Analyst and investor conference call

4 November 2015, at 9:00 a.m. CET

NL +31 20 794 8500
UK +44 20 7190 1537
US +1 480 629 9031

Listen to the investor conference call at www.ing.com

Media conference call

4 November 2015, at 11:00 a.m. CET

NL +31 20 531 5871
UK +44 203 365 3210

Listen to the media conference call at www.ing.com

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION

ING Group’s Annual Accounts are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (‘IFRS-EU’).

In preparing the financial information in this document, the same accounting principles are applied as in the 2014 ING Group Annual Accounts. All figures in this document are unaudited. Small differences are possible in the tables due to rounding.

Certain of the statements contained herein are not historical facts, including, without limitation, certain statements made of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, without limitation: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular economic conditions in ING’s core markets, (2) changes in performance of financial markets, including developing markets, (3) consequences of a potential (partial) break-up of the euro, (4) ING’s implementation of the restructuring plan as agreed with the European Commission, (5) changes in the availability of, and costs associated with, sources of liquidity such as interbank funding, as well as conditions in the credit markets generally, including changes in borrower assumptions and methodologies, (13) changes in ownership that could affect the future availability to us of net operating loss, net capital and built-in loss carry forwards, (14) changes in credit ratings, (15) ING’s ability to achieve projected operational synergies and (16) the other risks and uncertainties detailed in the Risk Factors section contained in the most recent annual report of ING Groep N.V.
Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of ING speak only as of the date they are made, and, ING assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or for any other reason.

This document does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. The securities of NN Group have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and may not be offered or sold within the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act.