2018 Annual Report
ING achieved strong business growth and commercial momentum in 2018 and we continued to transform to provide customers with a differentiating experience now and in the future.
How we create value
The role of a financial institution is to support and promote economic, social and environmental progress leading to a better quality of life for people in society, while generating adequate returns for shareholders. This is what the value we create for and with our stakeholders, such as customers and shareholders, should be about. How we create value is illustrated in our Value Creation Model.
Highlights
29 Jan 2018
ING buys majority stake in Payvision
ING buys a 75 percent stake in Payvision, a fast-growing, leading international omnichannel payments service provider. It allows ING to strengthen its footprint in omnichannel payments services and expand its merchant services for its business customers, in particular in the fast-growing e-commerce segment.
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05 Apr 2018
Robo talk
Chatbots, personalised communications and making operations faster, more reliable and cheaper. These are just some of the features of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics, a technology that has dramatically changed the way banks go about their business.
Global head of AI and Robotics, Görkem Köseoğlu explains the need for AI and robotics and where it could bring us in the future.
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14 May 2018
ING part of ground-breaking blockchain shipment
ING’s reputation as a leader in the use of blockchain technology has been enhanced with the bank joining forces with HSBC to conduct their first live, commercial trade finance transaction on blockchain.
The deal, for agrifood trading giant Cargill, was completed using the R3 Corda platform, with a cargo of soybeans exported from Argentina to Malaysia.
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24 May 2018
Launch of the Developer Portal
ING opens a Developer Portal to accelerate innovation by working more closely with external developers. The portal gives developers’ access to selected, simulated ING application programming interfaces (APIs) they can use to jointly create new and innovative customer experiences.
In the spirit of open banking, the Developer Portal is a global market place for developers from inside and outside the bank. These include developers from corporate clients and fintechs who want to partner with ING to create new, empowering initiatives for customers.
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04 Jun 2018
New campus for innovators
ING is building a campus. An urban hub where businesses, academics and innovators from all sectors can work together in an open and dynamic environment that stimulates creativity and boosts invention.
In announcing plans, CEO Ralph Hamers said what makes this campus different from other corporate or university campuses is that we will bring every element of the innovation cycle together in one place, creating a true ecosystem.
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04 Jun 2018
Yolt expands to France and Italy
ING announces an expansion of money management platform Yolt into France and Italy. ING’s plans to introduce Yolt in France and Italy are part of its ambition to build a pan-European money platform.
Yolt helps users to actively manage their personal finances with a one-stop overview of their accounts.
Chief Innovation Officer Benoît Legrand said inventing and launching an innovation is one thing, but taking it to the next level is another.
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13 Jun 2018
ING and AXA partner to build global insurance platform
ING and AXA announce a long-term, multi-country bancassurance partnership to provide insurance products and related services through a central digital insurance platform. The partnership gives ING customers access to insurance products and services in six of its Challenger markets: Germany, Australia, Italy, France, Czech Republic and Austria.
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09 Aug 2018
Are you being served?
When customers get in touch with us, the experience should be simple and smooth, with multiple channels to choose from. It’s why ING has built a contact centre platform for 12 retail countries. Hosted in the cloud, all ING countries will eventually have access to the same contact centre services, worldwide.
ING Programme lead Theo Frieswijk said through our channels we want to be able to support contact between ING and customers 24-7, 365 days a year.
“You should always be able to reach us through your preferred channels,” said Theo.
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16 Aug 2018
Steel with a story
Entrepreneur and ING in the Netherlands client Mark Suurbier explains how he came up with the idea to turn train tracks into sustainable pans. In 2016, he set up his first company Combekk, to produce pans out of 100 percent recycled iron. Each pan bears a stamp of origin: the railway that it’s made from.
“We melt old Dutch railway train tracks at 1,500 degrees Celsius, mix it with sand and other materials and wait for it to solidify,” explained Mark.
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14 Sep 2018
ING steers lending portfolio to help combat climate change
ING has a lending portfolio of over €500 billion across many sectors, which now being steered towards meeting the Paris Agreement’s well-below two-degree goal.
An innovative, accurate way to measure our portfolio, called the Terra approach means that ING is the first global bank to commit to strategy.
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19 Sep 2018
Helping clients manage multiple bank accounts
ING Ventures invests €7.5 million in international fintech Cobase, a multibank platform that helps international customers to manage multiple bank accounts. It offers payments, cash management and treasury services in one place.
Jorge Schafraad, CEO and founder of Cobase said companies in our target group often hold many accounts with many different banks.
“With Cobase, the customer can manage all those accounts via a single platform,” he said.
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10 Oct 2018
AI tool sharpens investor decisions on bonds
ING announces the introduction of a tool to help investors select trades.
Based on a web application, Katana Lens uses an algorithm that learns from the history of hundreds of thousands of trades and identifies the most promising ones. By going through all the pairs of bonds and taking each ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ combination as a possible investment, it simplifies the selection process for investors, who are presented with a prediction or suggested decision.
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