ING Luxembourg yesterday announced its results for 2016, reporting a year-end profit of €103.6 million. A reflection of historically low interest rates, this constituted a €3.5 million drop against the results for 2015 even as revenues had grown by 3% thanks to increased commercial activities and an enhanced product offering which has seen customer numbers rise over the year. 

CEO Colette Dierick attributed much of the broadly positive outcome to the company’s strategy of making banking life easier for their customers through enhanced digital services.

“We can be very satisfied with the progress made this year, taking account of the environment, and especially interest rates,” said Ms Dierick. “We have successfully pursued the development of our local activities throughout the year, as demonstrated by the considerable increase in retail and corporate lending recorded by ING Luxembourg over the year. 

Many of the bank’s key indicators ended the year on a positive note. Retail lending went up 16%, wholesale by 17%, and private banking saw a 25% increase in lending. 

“Private banking is one of our specialties, for both local and international clients” noted Ms Dierick. Private banking services also saw deposits increase by 10%, while retail flatlined and wholesale deposits dropped by 1%. 

Ms Dierick referred to several new applications and tools that ING Luxembourg had rolled out over the last year, including new multichannel applications and Invest Plan. The latter allows customers to flexibly schedule payments of as little as €50 a month into an investment fund so they can easily potentially secure higher returns than on traditional savings.  

She also referred to My ING Pro, an online business banking tool that has just been launched and which Ms Dierick said was very favourably reviewed in initial client testing. My ING Pro is about to see its general rollout, and 250 businesses have already signed up. 

Another new tool which will offer fast, short term loans to businesses has also received a very high Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 26%. 

“Our digital investment shows the kind of bank we are, and want to be, and we will continue to build on that,” said Ms Dierick.

Referring to the new ING Luxembourg branch that opened in Weiswampach on 1 February, Ms Dierick noted that ING Luxembourg was not only focused on its digital offerings. Though while traditional bricks and mortar remain important, they will not look as they used to. 

“There are no cashiers’ desks in this branch. Of course, this doesn’t mean there will be no-one there, or that customers can’t do all of the things that they did before. But the old system of face-to-face cashiers is in the past,” said Ms Dierick. 

In response to a question about the effect of digitisation on traditional approaches, she said “we will maintain our branch network. The competition has many more branches, so there is no reason to reduce here. That could change in the future, but it is not programmed,” she said

Taking up the baton, Chief Financial Officer, Philippe Gobin, discussed the planned move this coming April to a new headquarters at ING Lux House near Luxembourg Train Station. The move will see the closure of three other ING buildings and should see increased accessibility for staff and clients thanks to its connected, central location. 

Mr Gobin also expanded on ING Luxembourg’s emphasis on corporate social responsibility and the bank’s prominence on Luxembourg’s social and cultural calendar, including the ING Marathon and the ING Route du Vin.

Globally, the ING Group ranked fifth on the Corporate Knights index of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World 2017. 

More locally, ING Luxembourg is extremely proud of its ranking among the Best Workplaces in Luxembourg for 2016 — sixth overall and first in the financial services sector. Ms Dierick attributed much of this success to the company’s open culture.

“We can’t have happy clients if our collaborators are not happy too. We have a very open spirit where everyone is encouraged to communicate. We do the same with our collaborators,” she said. 

“We are also proud of our performance, which is the result of all of the ING Luxembourg teams who have strived throughout the year to create new products and services that offer our clients the best service, and give them the means to stay ahead in their personal and professional lives! This is why we’re here!”

Image: CEO Colette Dierick and CFO Philippe Gobin announcing the ING Luxembourg results for 2016