Bancherul - BANCI / ENGLISH / ING Investor Day: focus on ING DIRECT

ING DIRECT is the main theme for the bi-annual ING Investor Day, held today in Madrid. Dick Harryvan, CEO of ING DIRECT and member of the Executive Board of ING Group, will introduce the conference by elaborating on ING DIRECT’s vision to become the world’s most preferred consumer bank through focusing on simple and low-cost products covering the main retail client needs, offering a superior customer experience and establishing a well diversified business across geographies and products. Industry-leading efficiency makes ING DIRECT well-positioned to offer its customers value-for-money in an increasingly competitive environment.

Presentations by ING DIRECT board members will show the benefits of investing in a range of simple products, providing income diversification and scale to the business. ING DIRECT will cover more than 75% of the global retail banking market, focusing on simple products that represent 70% of the global profit pool. ING DIRECT has shown solid income growth over the past six quarters despite challenging market circumstances. The franchise has grown at more than twice the speed of the global retail banking industry in the last five years, with the ambition to double retail client balances by 2013.

The Investor Day will be hosted by John Hele, Chief Financial Officer of ING Group. He will reiterate ING’s focus on collecting retail savings and reinvesting them to earn an attractive return. This business model entails a long-term policy of investing clients’ savings with a disciplined approach. Focusing on performance measurement, Mr. Hele will introduce two new additional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to ING’s insurance business - operating income, based on margin analysis, and operating profit. Both new KPIs remove investment variances from ING’s Insurance results, providing an understanding of the long-term trends of the Insurance business.