ING posts 4Q2023 net result of €1,558 million and full-year 2023 net result of €7,287 million

Quarterly profit before tax increases 31% year-on-year to €2,247 million; CET1 ratio remains strong at 14.7%

CEO statement
“In many respects 2023 was a challenging year, as geopolitical and economic shocks affected many of our clients and the societies we operate in. At the same time, most economies proved resilient with low unemployment, inflation coming down, and rates turning positive at an unprecedented pace. In that context, we were able to continue the successful execution of our strategy by increasing the number of customers, working to provide them with a superior customer experience, further improving our digital offerings and helping our clients in their sustainable transitions,” said CEO Steven van Rijswijk.

“We’re pleased to see that both Retail and Wholesale Banking contributed to our strong results, with net profit almost doubling to €7.3 billion and a full-year RoE of 14.8%. This was driven by higher net interest income and our continued low risk costs, reflecting our strong asset quality.

“In Retail Banking, we added 750,000 primary customers to reach a total of 15.3 million. Especially Germany, Spain and the Netherlands contributed to this growth. It’s rewarding to know our customers value our services, as evidenced by our number one position in net promoter score (NPS) in five of our 10 Retail markets. In a challenging housing market in many countries, we were able to grow our mortgage portfolio by €8 billion in 2023. And in a competitive savings market, our retail customer deposit base grew by more than €18 billion over the year.

“Our corporate clients continued to benefit from the global reach, knowledge and sector expertise of ING Wholesale Banking. We achieved an all-time high NPS score of 72, reflecting the high satisfaction of our clients across the globe. Our continued support of our clients resulted in double-digit income growth. Our focus on capital efficiency is also bearing fruit, reflected in a significant increase of income over capital deployed.

“As society transitions to a low-carbon economy, so do our clients and so does ING. Building on the outcome of COP28 and the most recent scientific insights and scenarios, we announced in December that we will speed up the phasing out of the financing of exploration and production of oil and gas, gradually bringing our portfolio to zero by 2040. We also aim to triple the financing of renewable energy to €7.5 billion annually by 2025, up from €2.5 billion in 2022.

“Engaging with corporates in their transition to more sustainable businesses is key to our climate approach. We developed a digital tool to collect public information on the transition plans of our clients, helping us see where we can or need to support them. In 2023, we already applied the tool for over 2,000 of our largest and most relevant Wholesale Banking clients. We’re progressing well with introducing sustainable alternatives for key products in most of our Retail Banking markets.

“Looking ahead, we remain vigilant given the ongoing geopolitical uncertainties and remain focused on delivering value for all our stakeholders. We’re confident that we’ll be able to continue to deliver a sustained return on equity of 12% as economic indicators further stabilise by building on our strong and growing customer base and our good performance. I would like to thank our clients for their trust and loyalty, our employees for their ongoing engagement and hard work in servicing our customers and our shareholders for continuing to support our strategy.” “

¹⁾ Total distribution announced in 2023 consists of a total cash dividend of €3.8 billion and €4 billion of share buybacks

Steven van Rijswijk, Tanate Phutrakul and Ljiljana Čortan will also discuss the results in a media meeting on 1 February 2024 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 20 708 5073 (NL), or +44 330 551 0200 (UK) – quote ING Media Call 4Q2023 when prompted by the operator. The meeting can also be followed via live audio webcast at www.ing.com.

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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 is an integral part of ING’s strategy, evidenced by ING’s leading position in sector benchmarks. ING’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating by MSCI was affirmed ‘AA’ in July 2023. As of December 2023, Sustainalytics considers ING’s management of ESG material risk to be ‘strong’. ING Group shares are also included in major sustainability and ESG index products of leading providers Euronext, STOXX, Morningstar and FTSE Russell.

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 (‘Market Abuse Regulation’).
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 2022 ING Group consolidated annual accounts. The financial statements for 2023 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 (including the statements contained in the section entitled ‘2024 Outlook’ in this document) 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 and customer behaviour, in particular economic conditions in ING’s core markets, including changes affecting currency exchange rates and the regional and global economic impact of the invasion of Russia into Ukraine and related international response measures (2) ongoing and residual effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and related response measures on economic conditions in countries in which ING operates (3) changes affecting interest rate levels (4) any default of a major market participant and related market disruption (5) changes in performance of financial markets, including in Europe and developing markets (6) fiscal uncertainty in Europe and the United States (7) discontinuation of or changes in ‘benchmark’ indices (8) inflation and deflation in our principal markets (9) changes in conditions in the credit and capital markets generally, including changes in borrower and counterparty creditworthiness (10) failures of banks falling under the scope of state compensation schemes (11) non- compliance with or changes in laws and regulations, including those concerning financial services, financial economic crimes and tax laws, and the interpretation and application thereof (12) geopolitical risks, political instabilities and policies and actions of governmental and regulatory authorities, including in connection with the invasion of Russia into Ukraine and the related international response measures (13) legal and regulatory risks in certain countries with less developed legal and regulatory frameworks (14) prudential supervision and regulations, including in relation to stress tests and regulatory restrictions on dividends and distributions (also among members of the group) (15) ING’s ability to meet minimum capital and other prudential regulatory requirements (16) changes in regulation of US commodities and derivatives businesses of ING and its customers (17) application of bank recovery and resolution regimes, including write down and conversion powers in relation to our securities (18) outcome of current and future litigation, enforcement proceedings, investigations or other regulatory actions, including claims by customers or stakeholders who feel misled or treated unfairly, and other conduct issues (19) changes in tax laws and regulations and risks of non-compliance or investigation in connection with tax laws, including FATCA (20) operational and IT 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 (21) risks and challenges related to cybercrime including the effects of cyberattacks and changes in legislation and regulation related to cybersecurity and data privacy (22) changes in general competitive factors, including ability to increase or maintain market share (23) inability to protect our intellectual property and infringement claims by third parties (24) inability of counterparties to meet financial obligations or ability to enforce rights against such counterparties (25) changes in credit ratings (26) business, operational, regulatory, reputation, transition and other risks and challenges in connection with climate change and ESG-related matters, including data gathering and reporting (27) inability to attract and retain key personnel (28) future liabilities under defined benefit retirement plans (29) failure to manage business risks, including in connection with use of models, use of derivatives, or maintaining appropriate policies and guidelines (30) changes in capital and credit markets, including interbank funding, as well as customer deposits, which provide the liquidity and capital required to fund our operations, and (31) the other risks and uncertainties detailed in the most recent 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.

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