“We have had a very good start to 2024 with good financial and commercial results while implementing our strategy,” said ING CEO Steven van Rijswijk.
The Dutch banking giant ING saw its net profit fall by 0.8% in the first quarter year-on-year, standing at 1.58 billion euros (1.55 billion francs).
Turnover for its part increased slightly, by 0.3%, to 5.58 billion euros, the leading banking group in the Netherlands said in a press release on Thursday.
ING has also announced a new share buyback in which it will pay shareholders a maximum amount of an additional 2.5 billion euros, which is due to end at the end of October.
“We have had a very good start to 2024 with good financial and commercial results while implementing our strategy,” said ING CEO Steven van Rijswijk, quoted in the press release.
“We have achieved very good results despite the persistent challenges in the geopolitical landscape,” he added.
The bank welcomed 99,000 new primary customers and noted “customer lending growth, driven by mortgages, as we helped more people buy homes,” the CEO said.
ING announced in February that it was being sued by investors who accuse it of financial losses linked to an agreement reached in 2018 with the courts in a money laundering investigation.
The bank reached an agreement in September 2018 with the authorities, providing for the payment of a fine of 775 million euros to settle this affair, which cost the group’s financial director his job.
Milieudefensie, the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth which inflicted a “historic” legal setback on Shell in 2021, announced in January the launch of a climate legal case against ING.
Milieudefensie demands that the institution, which “finances polluting companies with more money than all other Dutch banks”, reduces its emissions by almost 50% in 2030 compared to 2019.
ING announced in December 2023 the phasing out of financing for upstream oil and gas activities by 2040, while aiming to “triple new financing for renewable energies by 2025”.
ING employs around 60,000 people in around 40 countries.
