ING Direct 2002 Annual Report Download - page 32

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 32 of the 2002 ING Direct annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 97

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97

Annual Report 2002 · ING Group 29
ING Europe
Business lines
Retail Financial Services
The retail business held up well in last year’s
difficult market environment and succeeded in
sharply improving its result by 20% to EUR 1,967
million. The excellent performance can be
attributed to the broad diversification of the
retail platform in terms of products, client
segments, markets and distribution channels.
This flexibility enabled ING Europe to profit
from the shift in demand to low-risk products.
ING Direct reported exceptionally high growth
in funds entrusted in most of the countries
where it operates, as did most of ING’s banking
units in the home markets.
In the Netherlands, Postbank benefited
from renewed interest in savings products while
also increasing its market share in payment
balances and consumer loans. ING Bank
Netherlands increased income and lowered
distribution and IT costs. The tied agency company
RVS is now strongly focused on attractive clients
and is reorganising its sales force and call centre
accordingly. Nationale-Nederlanden maintained
its position as the leading provider of insurance
services via the intermediary channel.
In Belgium, ING Insurance, into which all
four Belgian insurance subsidiaries were merged
last year, substantially improved its position
during the year and became one of the leading
providers of unit-linked products in Belgium.
ING’s market share in retail life insurance
increased from 10% in 2001 to 14% in 2002. The
improvement was mainly achieved by increased
sales through bank channels.
Central Europe is increasingly important
to ING as a source of value creation. ING is the
number one life insurance and pension funds
provider in the region. It is particularly strong
in the upper-middle and top retail segments.
In some countries, ING predominantly sells its


Meeting of the Executive
Committee Europe in one of
the meeting rooms on the
top floor of ING House,
overlooking Amsterdam.
From left to right:
Harry van Tooren,
Diederik Laman Trip,
Michel Tilmant (chairman),
Luc Vandewalle and
Hans Verkoren.
Other members are
Erik Dralans,
Angelien Kemna,
Jan Nijssen and
Ted de Vries.
NUMBER OF STAFF
full-time equivalents, year-end
71,600
ING Europe 62%
44,200
Rest of ING 38%