ING Luxembourg today reported that a strong sales growth for the company culminated in a H1 net result of €53.5 million.

The banking assocation stated that it had managed to overcome a difficult economic factors for the financial sector such as low interest rates and weak economic growth, and instead exceed results targets for the first half of 2015. Its cost/income ratio was reported at 45%, down 2% from the first half of 2014.

Retail and Private Banking were both reported to have performed well in the last year, with the former now comprised of over 100,000 customers  due to good revenue growth and ongoing cost control and the latter experiencing favourable market developments, well-supported transaction activity, a consistent range of investment products and interest in the ING Aria Lion fund in Q1 and Q2 of 2015.

Growth in the deposits, loans and securities assets of the Corporate & Institutional Banking sector also resulted in good performance and a 30% increase in payment transactions. ING reported that it is satisfied with the growth in number of new accounts, which continues to rise by 4%. Financial Markets were also claimed to be a success after beating their targets and displaying results up on 2014.

ING also spoke of its completed projects and achievements carried out during the last year, including the reception of its 'Great Place to Work' label in February 2015; the 10th anniversary of its Night Marathon on 30 May; and the signature of the first Innovfin guarantee agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) in May to support small and medium-sized entreprises (SMEs).

"In a turbulent economic context, we have achieved results that are better than those we achieved over the same period last year," commented CEO of ING Luxembourg, Luc Verbeken, on the H1 results. "At this stage, our performance is exceeding our targets and we aim to build on this momentum to ensure that our results for the year as a whole are equally positive. It is thanks mainly to the dynamism of our commercial activity, the unceasing efforts of all our staff and the renewed confidence of our customers that we have been able to deliver such a result!"