ING posts 1Q19 net result of €1,119 million

Amsterdam,

CEO statement

“We’ve had a positive start to the year, with first-quarter results that show good commercial momentum,” said Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group. “Our global primary customer base grew by 150,000 to 12.6 million and our most recent net promoter scores among customers rank us first in six of our 13 retail markets. We recorded €8.7 billion of net core lending growth. Our first-quarter underlying pre-tax result declined 6.2% to €1,582 million compared to the first quarter of 2018. Income grew both year on year and sequentially and we see the positive results of our transformation programme coming through, especially in the Netherlands and Belgium. However, this was off set by higher but still relatively low risk costs, and pressure from low interest rates in our main eurozone markets.

“We continue to improve the way we manage non-financial risk. An important element of that is our global know your customer (KYC) enhancement programme. We now have over 2,500 full-time employees working on KYC across the bank, in all client segments and all business units. We have rolled out an adverse media screening tool and have begun assessing behavioural risks. All these efforts aim to further embed non-financial risk management structurally throughout ING.

“At the same time, we continued to innovate in the first quarter to improve the banking experience for our customers, while helping them transition to a more efficient and more sustainable economy. We’ve taken steps to make banking easier for our customers. We participated in the initial launch of instant payments in the Netherlands and Belgium by the Dutch Payments Association and the Belgian Banking Federation. Funds now get credited to the beneficiary account within five seconds, giving customers immediate access to their funds and helping them optimise cash flows. Later this year, we expect to expand instant payments to other countries and other banks in Europe.

“We also enhanced our service offering at ING in France by launching ‘instant mortgages’. By digitalising the process required for a mortgage and making use of the European PSD2 legislation we can now grant home loan approvals in just two days.

“We took several steps in blockchain and distributed ledger technology to further improve our offering and client experience. For example, we made codes we had created to ensure data privacy even faster, safer and easier to use with a new release called Bulletproofs. These codes, which are open source, were successfully used in the first quarter in a proof of concept with a university in the Netherlands. ING is also co-developing a platform called MineHub to help clients in metals and mining to lower costs, increase transparency and contribute to sustainable production and trading. Our work does not go unnoticed. We rank fifth among global listed companies with the highest blockchain potential for 2019 in Forbes.

“ING continued to empower clients in transitioning to a low-carbon and self-reliant society in the first quarter by taking part in 12 sustainable bond transactions and 16 sustainable loan transactions. Many of these were sustainability ‘firsts’, such as our first solar rooftop financing in Asia Pacific and the first sustainability improvement loan in the US general industrial sector.

“One thing that should remain absolutely clear is that we understand how vital it is to master the management of nonfinancial risks as well as financial risks, and we are committed to doing so. This dedication is matched by our commitment to our customers as we continuously look for new innovative ways to empower them to stay a step ahead in life and in business.”

Analyst and investor conference call

2 May 2019 at 9:00 am CET

+31 (0)20 531 5821 (NL)
+44 203 365 3209 (UK)
+1 866 349 6092 (US)

Live audio webcast at www.ing.com

Media conference call

2 May 2019 at 11:00 am CET

+31 (0)20 531 5871 (NL)
+44 203 365 3210 (UK)

Live audio webcast at www.ing.com

Note for editors

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ING PROFILE

ING is a global financial institution with a strong European base, offering banking services through its operating company ING Bank. The purpose of ING Bank is empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business. ING Bank’s
53,000 employees offer retail and wholesale banking services to customers in over 40 countries.

ING Group shares are listed on the exchanges of Amsterdam (INGA NA, INGA.AS), Brussels and on the New York Stock Exchange (ADRs: ING US, ING.N).

Sustainability forms an integral part of ING’s strategy, evidenced by ING’s ranking as a leader in the banks industry group by Sustainalytics. ING Group shares are included in the FTSE4Good Index and in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Europe and World), where ING is also among the leaders in the banks industry group.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION

Elements of this press release contain or may contain information about ING Groep N.V. and/ or ING Bank N.V. within the meaning of Article 7(1) to (4) of EU Regulation No 596/2014.

ING Group’s annual accounts are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (‘IFRSEU’). In preparing the financial information in this document, except as described otherwise, the same accounting principles are applied as in the 2018 ING Group consolidated 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 a number of factors, including, 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) potential consequences of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union or a break-up of the euro, (4) changes in the fiscal position and the future economic performance of the US including potential consequences of a downgrade of the sovereign credit rating of the US government, (5) potential consequences of a European sovereign debt crisis, (6) changes in the availability of, and costs associated with, sources of liquidity such as interbank funding, (7) changes in conditions in the credit and capital markets generally, including changes in borrower and counterparty creditworthiness, (8) changes affecting interest rate levels, (9) inflation and deflation in our principal markets, (10) changes affecting currency exchange rates, (11) changes in investor and customer behaviour, (12) changes in general competitive factors, (13) changes in or discontinuation of ‘benchmark’ indices, (14) changes in laws and regulations and the interpretation and application thereof, (15) changes in compliance obligations including, but not limited to, those posed by the implementation of DAC6, (16) geopolitical risks, political instabilities and policies and actions of governmental and regulatory authorities, (17) changes in standards and interpretations under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the application thereof, (18) conclusions with regard to purchase accounting assumptions and methodologies, and other changes in accounting assumptions and methodologies including changes in valuation of issued securities and credit market exposure, (19) changes in ownership that could affect the future availability to us of net operating loss, net capital and built-in loss carry forwards, (20) changes in credit ratings, (21) the outcome of current and future legal and regulatory proceedings, (22) operational risks, such as system disruptions or failures, breaches of security, cyber-attacks, human error, changes in operational practices or inadequate controls including in respect of third parties with which we do business, (23) risks and challenges related to cybercrime including the effects of cyber-attacks and changes in legislation and regulation related to cybersecurity and data privacy, (24) the inability to protect our intellectual property and infringement claims by third parties, (25) the inability to retain key personnel, (26) business, operational, regulatory, reputation and other risks in connection with climate change, (27) ING’s ability to achieve its strategy, including projected operational synergies and cost-saving programmes and (28) the other risks and uncertainties detailed in this annual report of ING Groep N.V. (including the Risk Factors contained therein) and ING’s more recent disclosures, including press releases, which are available on www.ING.com. (29) This document may contain inactive textual addresses to internet websites operated by us and third parties. Reference to such websites is made for information purposes only, and information found at such websites is not incorporated by reference into this document. ING does not make any representation or warranty with respect to the accuracy or completeness of, or take any responsibility for, any information found at any websites operated by third parties. ING specifically disclaims any liability with respect to any information found at websites operated by third parties. ING cannot guarantee that websites operated by third parties remain available following the publication of this document, or that any information found at such websites will not change following the filing of this document.
Many of those factors are beyond ING’s control.

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.