ING BeLux: First half year 2015 commercial and financial results

• € 4.3 billion growth in the lending portfolio (+5.2%). Deposits rose by € 6.3 billion (+7.0%)
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• The profit before tax amounts to € 619 million, + 8% compared to first half 2014
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• Opening of more than 57,000 new ING Lion Accounts
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• A net growth of more than 25,000 active clients
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• Cost base significantly impacted by bank levies, € 146 million (+ 25%), representing 14% of total costs

Notwithstanding the increase in taxes and the rather subdued economic recovery, ING Belux [1] maintained its strong performance year-on-year, with a solid profit before tax of € 619 million, increasing by 8% compared to the results of the first year half of 2014. Rik Vandenberghe, CEO ING Belgium, comments: “This positive performance is the result of the hard work of all our employees, who are bringing to life our strategy creating a differentiating customer experience by being extremely digital and extremely personal.”

Supporting the real economy
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The Belux lending portfolio grew by € 4.3 billion (+5.2%, compared to end 2014), of which the demand of mortgages grew with 2.4%.
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At ING Belux, the deposit franchise continues to grow by € 6.3 billion (+7.0%) in the first half year of 2015 (compared to end 2014).
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The income of ING Belux increased by 4% compared to first semester of 2014.

Retail Banking (including Private Banking, Midcorporate & Institutional clients) decreased by 3% in total income to € 1,298 million.
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• Total income declined compared to the exceptionally high revenues during the first semester of 2014. We’ve noted an increase in asset management (investment fees) of € 35 million (+36%) over the first six months in 2015.
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• The historical low interest rates lead to more demands for investment solutions and advice from our clients. We anticipated to this with an investment campaign aimed at facilitating accessibility for our clients who wish to invest, even with the smallest amounts. This resulted in a growth of 5.7% in investment products sales in the first half of 2015.
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• Concerning Private Banking, the assets under management [2] in Belgium were up 7% compared to end 2014 to € 20.5 billion. Thanks to the dedicated approach for family businesses, ING Private Banking was awarded with the Best Next Generation Proposition Award at the Private Banker International Awards 2015 in London. This shows our commitment to assist family businesses in every step of their cycle.
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• Entrepreneurs starting their businesses are important clients for ING Belgium. They are welcomed with a series of tailor made products and services to support them during their first 18 months of existence. This includes expert advice, shared knowledge and nurture a sense of community amongst the entrepreneurs.
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• There was an increase in activity with small business and self-employed clients expanding lending outstandings by 5% to € 6.6 billion(compared to end 2014), with a credit acceptance rate of 83%.
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• We continue to reinforce our position in the Public Sector, to support the Belgian economy. In the institutional segment ING Belgium is proud to have been selected again for a new term of four years (2016-2020) as primary bank for the Flemish government and its 60 agencies.
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​In Commercial Banking, strong revenues were recorded: + € 111 million (+36%) compared to the same period last year, especially in Financial Markets related activities recovering from a difficult market environment in the first semester of 2014. Lending growth is driven by the competence centre for Industry Lending (Energy, Transport & Infrastructure).
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• We work on earning the primary relationship with our business clients. By being their primary bank, we will continue to support our clients in achieving their strategic goals through our people, network, industry knowledge, advisory and structuring skills.
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• We closed some remarkable deals with our business clients. As an example we handled the payments and cash management in Central and Eastern Europe for UCB, as well as facilitating a €425 million term loan for MSC-PSA European Terminal (MPET).

​The ING BeLux cost structure
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Expenses increased by € 21 million (+2%) compared to first half 2014, mainly due to the accelerated impact of the remaining deposit guarantee contribution [3] to the state. Staff expenses fell by € 9.3 million (-1.9% ), which is in line with the targeted goal for 2015.
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Risk costs decreased by € 3 million. Keeping our risk containment measures well under control, the non-performing loans ratio remains within our expectations.
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Solvency
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ING Belgium SA/NV maintained a high solvency, with a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 15.3% (Basel III definition, consolidated view).
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Accelerating our pace in innovation
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At ING Belgium we drive innovation; we nurture it from the inside and we stimulate it from the outside with various partnerships. We actively work on a full range of innovative, client focused projects, which facilitate our customer interaction and which enable us to create a differentiating customer experience.
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ING remains a pioneer in Belgium in banking solutions: we were the first to launch a PC banking platform, an online account, a mobile banking app and the first Belgian bank to implement biometrics. In the first half of 2015, our SmartBanking App reached almost 1,000,000 downloads since its launch in June 2011.
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We launched ING ActivePay; a very practical mobile payment solution for merchants. Payments are made through an app on the smartphone and a mobile terminal by the merchant. This is another way to facilitate card payments and improve the management of businesses (reporting, product/service catalogue), made easy by ING Belgium.
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In July we announced the ING FinTech Village, a dedicated accelerator for start-ups in the financial technology domain. In FinTech Village, start-ups will go through a mentoring program aimed at bringing their project to maturity and allowing them to test their FinTech solution in a real-life bank setting. The goal is to support the development of existing start-ups and accelerate the pace of innovation, in order to come up with solutions which further enhance customer experience and enrich the FinTech landscape. For ING Belgium, it is a next step in its already strong commitment to innovation.
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At ING Belgium “#WeLoveEntrepreneurs”, and we engage from start-up to (inter)national company. In our partnership with Flanders’s digital research and entrepreneurial hub iMinds, we invest in promising start-ups in different domains of expertise. iMinds has a proven track record that links over 900 researchers from the five Flemish universities to the industries and SME’s. They work in innovative research projects, to convert digital knowhow into products and services that can be brought to the marketplace. ING Belgium contributes financially so they can select up to a quarter more projects, and we offer business coaching as well through our knowledge and our ecosystem (our network in the financial technology sector).
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ING is an attractive employer
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Anticipating on the future landscape of financial services ING was happy to welcome 207 new colleagues in first half 2015, and aiming at 350 new colleagues by the end of the year.
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To adapt to customer requirement, we have invested a lot in solutions that enable employees to develop their employability and increase internal mobility between departments and countries, leveraging on the international character of the ING Group.
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In terms of recruitment we are looking for strong innovators ,technical talents and commercial talents. The profiles we look for, evolve with the functions within the sector and match with our culture and strong values. In an increasingly competitive job market finding talented people is more and more challenging. By its proactive recruitment policy ING Belgium confirms its position as an attractive employer thanks to its engaging working culture.
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[1] ING Belux includes the ING entities active in banking and leasing in Belgium & Luxembourg, excluding foreign branches
​[2] Assets Under Management in within Private Banking with account assets of minimum €1 million
​[3] The remaining deposit guarantee contributions for the third and fourth quarter of 2015 have been taken into P&L in the second quarter of 2015 as well. The additional impact amounts to € 28 mln.