ING Direct 2013 Annual Report Download - page 36

a year-long recession, with a pickup in externally-orientated sectors
such as industry and transport helping to offset continued weak
domestic demand.
The overall performance of Retail Netherlands (Retail NL) was good,
despite the ongoing adverse economic circumstances. Income has
improved despite the current low interest rate environment in
combination with a weak demand for business loans and a still
fragile housing market. Underlying expenses were slightly down,
when not taking into account the strong increase in pension costs.
The poor economic climate, however, is also reflected by higher
riskcosts.
Retail NL has a top two market position in the Netherlands, serving
almost eight million retail and private banking customers and nearly
700,000 SME and Mid-Corporate customers. Although customer
demand for digital banking services continued to increase, ING
maintained asubstantial physical presence with 268 branches and
375 ING Service Points.
Retail NL’s mortgage market share declined by 1.4%-point, mainly
due to the transfer and sale of part of the WUB portfolio. The
full-year net production in mortgages (excluding transfers and sales)
was EUR -0.4 billion (2012: EUR 1.8 billion). The non-performing
loans ratio increased to 1.9% (2012: 1.4%) oftotal mortgage loans,
which is still relatively low.
In recent years we have substantially reduced, among other things,
the number of savings and related products from over 60 to a
much smaller and more convenient product range. We kept
improving our product range by screening and review product
processes, making them simpler and more customer-friendly.
We have to constantly adapt to changing market circumstances and
control costs in order to remain efficient. Following the measures
announced, the number of full-time employees (FTEs) will be
reduced by 4,400 by the end of 2015. So far, the headcount has
been reduced by 2,900 FTEs.
Customer centricity
We make daily banking easy and stand by customers at decisive
moments in their lives by providing personal, active and service-
oriented solutions. To this end, we have launched a new campaign,
“Orange Banking” (Orange is ING), illustrating our engagement with
Dutch society. This campaign, which is driven by the needs of our
customers, was rolled out in 2013 and will be continued in 2014.
Based on the principle “Customer Interest First”, Retail NL maintains
a customer-centric organisation. A programme has been in place
for several years to ensure that the customer’s interest is always at
the centre of our activities. This programme aims at simplifying
customer processes, improving our products and services and
motivating employees to put the customer’s interest first. These
Customer Interest First-focused objectives are also included in the
Key Performance Indicators for all our employees, including those
of management.
We are in a constant and meaningful dialogue with customers and
regulators to get their feedback and improve our performance.
Forexample, customer feedback told us that SME customers would
appreciate more personal contact with ING. As a result, in 2013, a
further 30,000 SME customers were given access to a relationship
manager. Under our Net Promoter Score (“NPS”) programme,
which has been in place since 2009, some 250,000 customers a
year give us their opinion on their customer experience. We also
get customer feedback from several Customer Advisory Boards.
Weletcustomers know how we follow-up on their feedback via
adedicated page on our website.
We also get in touch with our customers via online media, from
online seminars on topics such as housing, business lending, and
the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) to the use of social media. In
November, the CEO of ING Netherlands used Google Hangout, the
instant messaging and live video chat platform, to talk with
customers about various issues, including mobile banking, online
communications with the bank and the future of banking.
We are also constantly improving our successful mobile banking
apps for retail and corporate customers by adding functionalities
requested by them. We achieved an important milestone in the
third quarter of2013 when mobile log-ons exceeded internet
banking log-ons forthe first time. Mobile traffic increased from
over 25 million at year-end 2012 to over 41 million visits a month at
the end of2013.
We have introduced a number of tools that help customers make
the right financial decisions, such as the Mortgage Stress Test
(Hypotheken Stress-test) and the Buffer Calculator (Buffer-
berekenaar). ING has also introduced the Mortgage Repayment
Calculator (Afloswijzer) – an online tool to help consumers decide
whether it is better to save or repay their mortgage. As part of our
social engagement efforts, we also offer customers who face an
involuntary and substantial decline in income a mortgage
repayment scheme called the Interest Payment Freeze (Hypotheek
Rentepauze) to help them out.
At ING Zakelijk (ING Corporate), we launched the Entrepreneurial
Financing (Ondernemend financieren) campaign in 2013 which,
among other things, allows relationship managers to have a
dialogue with customers about the various credit options.
We hosted a number of roundtable sessions with SME and
Mid-Corporate customers in 2013 on relevant topics during which
we shared our financial and sector knowledge. ING Mid-Corporate,
together with ING Private Banking, launched a platform for
family-owned businesses to share knowledge and provide benefits
to the customer from the expertise of these two business lines.
ING Private Banking started a strategy to enhance customer centricity
internally and the customer experience externally. This involved
relocating staff to branches to increase our local presence and increasing
the number of Client Service Teams. We opened our first Private
Banking branch in Wassenaar and nine more will be added in 2014.
Another initiative to support Dutch businesses is the Orange Trade
Mission Fund (Oranje Handelsmissiefonds), founded by ING, KLM
and MKB-Nederland in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Each year, the fund offers 10 businesses the opportunity to
develop their international plans with an Orange Trade Mission
package, which provides fully-supported participation in official
trade delegations, a customised trade mission or participation in
international fairs. The 10 winners in 2013 are being monitored and
their know-how, experience and stories will eventually be shared
asan example for other Dutch businesses.
34 ING Group Annual Report 2013
Retail Banking continued