ING Direct 2009 Annual Report Download - page 35

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION – CUSTOMERS COME FIRST
Since it was first established, ING Direct has enjoyed high customer
satisfaction levels. It is perceived as innovative, reliable, good
value-for-money, easy-to-deal-with and fair. In 2009, ING Direct
ranked first or second in all nine countries on the Net Promoter
Score, a recognised measure of customer satisfaction. During the
year, ING Direct built on the 2008 initiative of chief quality officers
with a customer-perspective end-to-end review of all services
and processes.
ING Direct continuously strives to increase transparency. ING-DiBa
was praised in 2009 by the German government for being first to
introduce product information sheets following the government’s
call for greater transparency around financial products.
In December, ING-DiBa won the 2009 Innovation Award for its
clear and transparent online product information. The award
recognises innovations in retail banking that restore customer
confidence in the financial sector.
ING Direct’s total brand awareness ranges between 75% and
99% in all the markets in which it operates.
CONCLUSIONS AND AMBITIONS
ING Direct achieved positive commercial results, despite the
continued market challenges, thanks to its ability to adapt pricing
structures and product features to the changed economic
environment. It rigorously monitored expenses, risk and capital
and will continue to do so in 2010.
ING Direct aims to increase the number of payment accounts
among its savings customers in the next three years.
ING Direct continued its strategy of putting the customer first
and will continue to do so in 2010, while gradually expanding
its product offering and broadening customer relationships.
In doing so, it will maintain outstanding levels of customer
satisfaction supported by state-of-the-art IT systems.
ING Direct aims to increase the number of payment accounts
among its savings customers in the next three years. This will
contribute to higher income diversification and a broadening
of customer relationships.
Investments – source of income diversification
ING Direct reported net inflows of customers and funds in
investment products, with the US being a big contributor through its
online brokerage platform, ShareBuilder. Assets under management
worldwide increased by EUR 3.0 billion to EUR 9.3 billion.
ING Direct’s US-based ShareBuilder continued to grow with
130,000 new customers acquired in 2009. With these new
customers it brings the total number of ShareBuilder customers to
over one million. Of the new accounts, 35% resulted from cross-sell
efforts into ING Direct’s customer base, evidencing the synergies
between the two companies.
Following increasing demand from customers, ING Direct Italy
launched an online trading platform where customers can trade
stocks, government bonds and exchange-traded funds.
By the end of 2009, Germany’s total securities portfolio, which
includes e-brokerage, reached EUR 13.8 billion. Compared to 2008,
this means a record-growth of 37%, or EUR 3.7 billion, mainly on
account of the friendly stock-market climate and an increase in the
investment volume. In addition to this, new customers continued to
transfer portfolios to ING-DiBa. In 2009, the bank opened more
than 80,000 new deposits.
Consumer lending – a stable product
The fifth product, consumer lending, is offered in Canada, Spain,
the US and Germany. ING Direct does not charge fees and pursues
a low-profile marketing strategy for this offering. At year-end, the
volume amounted to EUR 3.2 billion.
Number of clients, total funds entrusted, residential mortgage portfolio, assets under management/mutual funds
Clients in thousands
Funds entrusted, residential mortgage portfolio
and assets under management/mutual funds in EUR billion
Clients Funds entrusted
Residential
mortgage portfolio
Assets
under Management/
Mutual Funds
2009 2008 2009 2008 2009 2008 2009 2008
Canada 1,648 1,562 17.2 13.4 16.9 13.5 0.3 0.2
Spain 1,996 1,836 14.9 12.5 7.4 7.1 1.6 0.9
Australia 1,395 1,363 13.2 9.2 22.2 16.9 ––
France 762 751 11.3 10.3 0.0 – 1.5 1.0
United States 7,633 7,546 52.1 51.5 23.4 21.8 0.3 0.2
Italy 1,164 1,103 15.6 14.6 5.8 5.1 0.4 0.3
Germany/Austria 6,873 6,646 74.9 63.2 47.1 42.5 5.3 3.8
United Kingdom 1,442 1,330 17.8 16.2 1.3 1.3 0.0 –
Total 22,913 22,172 217.1 191.0 124.2 108.3 9.3 6.4
ING Group Annual Report 2009 33