Driven by strong income in both Retail and Wholesale Banking
Profit before tax increases significantly year-on-year to €2,866 million; CET1 ratio rises to 15.2%
- Strong performance in both Retail and Wholesale Banking and 4-quarter rolling RoE improves to 13.8%
- Increase of 181,000 primary customers in the third quarter, with growth in almost all markets
- Strong interest income combined with higher fee income
- Operating expenses remain under control and risk costs are low, reflecting strong asset quality
- Announcement of €2.5 billion share buyback programme as we continue to align our capital to our target level
CEO statement
“ING recorded another strong set of results in the third quarter of 2023, with net result more than doubling on the prior year", said Steven van Rijswijk, CEO of ING. “Notwithstanding the cooling economy and amid polarising geopolitical developments, which impacted business and consumer confidence, both our Retail and Wholesale Banking businesses posted strong results. Their interest income benefited from the positive rate environment and fee income also increased, especially in Retail Banking, driven by daily banking and investment products.
“I’m proud that we gained another 181,000 primary customers to reach a total of 15.1 million. This growth occurred across almost all of our 10 retail markets, especially in Germany, Australia and Türkiye, further supporting our future value creation. Customers value our services, as shown in our net promoter scores, where we maintained our number one position in five of our 10 Retail Banking markets. A superior customer experience is a pillar of our ‘making the difference’ strategy. An example is digital onboarding. In many markets we now onboard most of our new retail customers fully digitally: 75% in the Netherlands, 72% in Australia and 63% in Germany – percentages that are all growing.
“The cycle of recent central bank rate hikes, which helped the recovery of our profitability after a prolonged period of negative rates, appears to have paused. We are conscious of the public discussions on saving rates and, depending on developments in the competitive landscape, our liability margins may reduce somewhat from current levels. Overall income will be supported by our strong and diversified businesses, especially when loan demand recovers.
“Wholesale Banking showed solid income growth as continued rates increases resulted in improved margins for Payments & Cash Management, and Financial Markets benefited from strong trading results. We focused on further optimising our capital usage and margins while decreasing risk weights, prioritising own origination of high-quality loans.