ING posts 2019 net result of €4,781 million; 4Q2019 net result of
€880 million
A growing number of customers choose ING as their primary
bank |
• |
Primary customer
base rises by more than 830,000 in FY2019 to 13.3 million; total
retail customer base reaches 38.8 million |
• |
Net core lending
grows by €17.2 billion in 2019, €2.0 billion in 4Q2019; net inflow
customer deposits €23.4 billion in 2019, €2.5 billion in
4Q2019 |
• |
Four-quarter
rolling net interest margin holding up on continued pricing
discipline and tiering |
|
ING full-year 2019 underlying pre-tax result 9.2% lower
than last year; 4Q2019 underlying pre-tax result of €1,337
million |
• |
Reflects
well-diversified loan book with resilient margins, despite margin
pressure on customer deposits; higher fee income |
• |
Expenses increase
mainly due to KYC; risk costs higher, but on full-year basis below
ING’s through-the-cycle average |
• |
Full-year
underlying ROE is 9.4%, CET1 ratio remains robust at 14.6%;
full-year 2019 dividend of €0.69 per share |
CEO statement“Looking back at 2019, we see a year of solid
commercial performance despite the challenging rate environment,
geopolitical uncertainties and an increasingly complex and
demanding regulatory environment. The fourth quarter of 2019 proved
challenging,” said Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group. “I’m proud of
our commercial performance as pricing discipline and growth helped
counter the pressure of negative interest rates. We recorded a 4.5%
rise in underlying expenses for 2019, which includes a marked
increase in regulatory costs, as well as costs related to our KYC
enhancement programme. There was also an increase in risk costs,
but the quality of our loan book improved with the Stage-3 ratio
declining to 1.4%. Our full- year underlying pre-tax result
declined 9.2% despite continued business growth at resilient
interest margins. ING’s full-year underlying return on equity was
9.4%, while the CET1 ratio remained strong at 14.6%, having already
taken in the fourth quarter €13.2 billion as part of the expected
supervisory impact on risk-weighted assets. We propose a full-year
2019 cash dividend of €0.69 per share, of which an interim dividend
of €0.24 was paid in August 2019. “I believe a key way of measuring
success is through the experience of our customers. I’m pleased
that they continued to turn to us in 2019 for their financial
needs, as evidenced by the growth in the total number of customers
to 38.8 million. Customers also chose to deepen their banking
relationship with us, as the number of primary customers increased
6.7% to 13.3 million in 2019, with more than 200,000 added in the
fourth quarter. Our customers continue to adopt new ways to pay,
with the number of mobile card transactions increasing six-fold in
2019 from 2018, boosted by the integration of third-party services
like Apple Pay and Google Pay. The overall share of customers who
only interact with us on their mobile device increased to 37% in
2019 from 26% in 2018. “We amplified our customer focus by holding
our first global customer experience (CX) day in the fourth
quarter. Close to 6,000 employees in 13 countries made more than
750 improvements to the customer experience. Our global insurance
partnership with AXA reached another milestone in 2019 by going
live with its global platform, which will provide home, mobility
and health insurance services in six markets via the mobile app.
The first product launched on the platform is home insurance,
delivered by the ING mobile app in Italy. This is in addition to
the six products launched outside the platform in 2019. And Yolt,
our personal finance aggregator, reached over 1 million users and
was chosen as the best personal finance app at the International
Payments Awards 2019. “We believe in using our financing to
contribute to sustainability and combat the climate crisis, and we
closed more than twice as many sustainable finance deals in 2019
than in 2018. Our efforts continue to be recognised: we were ranked
as ‘climate action leader’ by the leading global environmental
disclosure platform CDP for the fifth year. Countering financial
and economic crime remains a priority, too. We progressed in our
KYC enhancement programme to improve the way we manage
non-financial risk. We continued our global rollout of KYC tools
that enable us to onboard customers and monitor their transactions
across our global network in an effective and consistent way. “As I
look ahead to a new year and new decade, I’m excited to have
started 2020 in our new office at the heart of the Cumulus Park
innovation district in Amsterdam and with the launch of our new
global brand strategy: do your thing. It represents our promise to
make banking frictionless, allowing people to be free to do more of
what moves them or their business.” |
|
Further information All publications related to ING’s FY and 4Q
2019 results can be found at www.ing.com/4q2019, including a video
with Ralph Hamers. The video is also available on YouTube.
Additional financial information is available at www.ing.com/qr: •
Full ING Group 4Q2019 press release (PDF) • ING Group analyst
presentation (PDF, also available via SlideShare) • ING Group
historical trend data (PDF, XLS) For further information on ING,
please visit www.ing.com. Frequent news updates can be found in the
Newsroom or via the @ING_news Twitter feed. Photos of ING
operations, buildings and its executives are available for download
at Flickr. ING presentations are available at SlideShare. |
|
Investor conference call, Media conference call and webcasts Ralph
Hamers, Tanate Phutrakul and Steven van Rijswijk will discuss the
results in an Investor conference call on 6 February 2020 at
9:00 a.m. CET. Members of the investment community can join the
conference call at +31 20 341 8223 (NL),
+44 203 365 3209 (UK) or
+1 866 349 6092 (US) and via live audio webcast at
www.ing.com. Ralph Hamers, Tanate Phutrakul and Steven van
Rijswijk will also discuss the results in a media meeting on
6 February 2020 at 11:00 a.m. CET. Journalists are welcome at
ING’s Cedar office, Bijlmerdreef 106, Amsterdam. Alternatively,
they can dial-in in listen-only mode via +31 20 531 5851 (NL) or
+44 203 365 3210 (UK). The meeting can also be followed via live
audio webcast at www.ing.com. |
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Investor enquiries T: +31 20 576 6396 E: investor.relations@ing.com
Press enquiries T: +31 20 576 5000 E:
media.relations@ing.com |
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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 more than 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 Leader in the
banks industry group by Sustainalytics and ‘A’ rating in MSCI’s
ratings universe. ING Group shares are included in major
sustainability and Environmental, Social and governance (ESG) index
products of leading providers STOXX, Morningstar and FTSE
Russell. |
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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 (‘IFRS-EU’). 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. The Financial statements for 2019 are
in progress and may be subject to adjustments from subsequent
events. 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. |