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ING will again spend 2.5 billion euros on its own shares. Last year, the Dutch bank launched two large share buyback programs worth 2.5 and 1.5 billion euros and the group also invested 1.5 billion euros in itself at the end of 2022.
The announcement came on Thursday morning on the margins of the quarterly results. During the first three months, ING saw commission income increase by 11.4 percent to 998 million euros. Interest income did decline somewhat, by 4.7 percent to 3.83 billion euros.
“We got off to a strong start in 2024 with good financial and commercial results,” says CEO Steven van Rijswijk. He speaks of “strong” commission income, both from banking activities for private individuals and SMEs and for large companies, while interest income – which had already risen sharply last year – proved to be “resilient”.
Net profit ultimately fell slightly (-0.8 percent) to 1.58 billion euros. That is considerably more than the 1.45 billion euros that analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected on average.
Like other European banks, ING has benefited from higher interest rates from the European Central Bank (ECB) in recent months. With a new buyback program, the Dutch bank continues to focus on making its share more attractive to investors.
Regarding retail banking in Belgium and Luxembourg, ING reports both higher interest and commission income. These increased by 6 and 29 percent respectively to 524 and 148 million euros.
