“We were a neobank 25 years ago!” – Steven van Rijswijk
It’s the biggest gathering of banks, payment providers and fintechs in Europe, so it no surprise that ING played a prominent role this week at Money 20/20 with CEO Steven van Rijswijk telling an interested crowd in Amsterdam that ING was a neobank 25 years ago.
“We talk a lot about neobanks these days and some of these neobanks do very well, but ING actually 25 years ago was a neo bank. We started ING Direct in many countries, which in the beginning was a telephone bank. It came from this country actually (the Netherlands) from Postbank, a bank with no branches and clients called in to open accounts.”
“Calling in became a digital bank but actually meant that we were causing disruption and challenging the status quo,” he said.
First concern is economic welfare
Speaking on the opening day of the conference, Steven also spoke about the mortgage market, with ING being one of Europe’s biggest providers and the challenge many customers face of balancing the need for sustainable housing improvements with everyday economic realities.
“It is not always easy to buy a home because you see the house prices over the past decade have moved up quite a lot. We do see that many people want to make their homes, lives more sustainable but in reality, their first concern is economic welfare.”
“Can I pay my rent, am I able to put my kids through school, can I get my kids through college, do I save some money for a rainy day. They have an interest in sustainability but if we do the polls, it comes in as number 10 or 15 in terms of priority not one to five.”
Chatting with host Kristen Scholer, Steven said we need to make it economically viable for people to make their homes more sustainable and get them to think of it from a liquidity and return point of view, rather than a sustainability point of view.
Saving versus investing
Steven also spoke about the need for Europeans to invest rather than just save.
“There are differences between the US and Europe. If people have money aside in the US, they keep part in savings and part in investments. In Europe, there is a much more of a savings culture. Of course, there is nothing wrong with savings. We have a €650 billion savings book, but if we want to stimulate the economy, we also need to make sure that people invest.”
Steven encouraged people to invest in companies and small and medium enterprises saying even though investing comes at higher risk, people can also get higher returns and make sure their money grows further.
He said investing wasn’t just for private banking clients but for everyone that makes a living and even small amounts could help them to take care of their future.
“It is very important and comes much more front of mind now than in the past when governments were able to take care of people. This is no longer possible also in Europe and that’s where a bank needs to step in,” said Steven.
Europe’s biggest fintech event
Money 20/20, held at Amsterdam RAI between the 3rd and 5th of June, is said to be Europe’s biggest financial technology (fintech) event, with a combined attendance of thousands of people. Aside from Steven, presentations were also made by chief analytics officer Bahadir Yilmaz, and global head of Private Banking, Wealth Management & Investments, Anneka Treon.