Second Quarter 2008 Results

13 August 2008

“ING continues to weather the turmoil in credit markets well, as writedowns on pressurised assets remained limited in the second quarter. We are, of course, not immune to the challenging environment around us, and the sustained weakness across financial markets put pressure on earnings,” said Michel Tilmant, CEO of ING. “We took advantage of the brief market rally in April to reduce our equity exposure. Nonetheless, equity gains net of impairments were significantly below the exceptional levels realised last year. Combined with lower real estate and private equity valuations, lower investment results accounted for the vast majority of the profit decline. Interest income in the banking business rose strongly, despite competition for deposits. Risk costs increased, but remained below over-the-cycle norms. Costs remained under control in mature markets, while we continued to invest to support growth.”

“All capital and leverage ratios are well within target. The Group has EUR 3.9 billion of spare leverage capacity after the completion of ING’s EUR 5 billion share buyback and the payment of last year’s final dividend in the second quarter. In line with our policy to pay an interim dividend equal to half of the previous year’s total dividend, our interim dividend has been set at EUR 0.74 per share, to be paid fully in cash.”

“ING maintained its commercial growth in these challenging market circumstances. The net new production of client balances was EUR 29.6 billion in the quarter, bringing the total to EUR 1,482 billion. Growth was driven by a large increase in lending, particularly at the Wholesale Bank. In Retail Banking and ING Direct we continued to grow savings despite strong competition for deposits. Sales of life insurance were up 8.8% excluding currency impacts as product innovation and expanded distribution helped compensate for lower demand for unit-linked products.”

“Financial services companies are facing unprecedented market volatility, limited liquidity, and intensified competition for deposits, which we see continuing into 2009. We are executing our strategy in the context of this challenging environment by focussing on growing client balances, while keeping a close eye on margins and expenses. We continue to adapt our product range to meet our customers’ changing needs, while investing to expand our distribution in growth markets. In mature markets we are on track with the transformation projects at our Retail Banking businesses in the Benelux, and expense reductions at the Dutch insurance business are now evident. As markets remain volatile, we will continue to manage our risk and capital with discipline. While financial markets are expected to put pressure on results in the short term, we are confident that ING will continue to create profitable growth for our shareholders over the long term through the breadth of our business and the strength of our franchise.”

Certain of the statements contained in this release are statements of future expectations and other forward looking statements. These expectations are based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, among other things, (i) general economic conditions, in particular economic conditions in ING’s core markets, (ii) changes in the availability of, and costs associated with, sources of liquidity such as interbank funding, as well as conditions in the credit markets generally, including changes in borrower and counterparty creditworthiness, (iii) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, (iv) mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (v) persistency levels, (vi) interest rate levels, (vii) currency exchange rates, (viii) general competitive factors, (ix) changes in laws and regulations, and (x) changes in the policies of governments and/or regulatory authorities. ING assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this document.