Area served Australia Profit A$295 million (2016) Founded 1999 Revenue 679 million AUD (2015) Motto How banking can be | Key people Uday Sareen, CEO CEO Uday Sareen (1 Jun 2016–) Number of employees 1,056 Headquarters Sydney Parent organization ING Bank N.V. | |
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Type Subsidiary (of ING Group) Industry Banking, financial services Products Finance and insurance
Consumer banking
Corporate banking
Superannuation
Mortgages Profiles | ||
ING Bank (Australia) Limited (traded as ING Direct) is an Australian direct bank and a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Dutch bank, ING Group.
Contents
ING Bank (Australia) operates as a series of controlled entities: trusts and the primary bank division, ING Direct, which operates under the segments of Mortgages, Savings and Commercial Loans. Founded in 1999 as a subsidiary of ING Group, ING Direct was Australia's first direct bank and has since grown to become the largest mortgage lender outside of Australia's big four banks. ING Direct scores favourably with customer satisfaction and has the highest net promoter score of any financial institution in Australia.
As of December 2016, the bank had 1.7 million customers and over 500,000 transaction accounts. In December 2015, ING Direct had a mortgage portfolio valued at AU$38.6 billion and AU$1.6 billion super funds under management, with 34,000 active superannuation accounts in 2014.
History
Vaughn Richtor was the founding CEO of ING Direct Australia in 1999 after first joining ING Group in 1992. Richtor left Australia in 2005 to head ING Group's Indian operations, India Vysya before overseeing commercial and retail management in Asia from 2009. Erik Drok served as ING Direct Australia CEO from 2005 to 2009, followed by Don Koch until 2012. Vaughn Richtor returned as CEO 2012 whilst remaining to oversee management in Asia for ING Group.
In September 2009 ING Bank Australia sold its AU$1.86 billion insurance and wealth management stake it had shared with ANZ in a joint venture since 2002 (51% ING Group ownership; 49% ANZ ownership), making ANZ the sole owner. The divestment of ING Insurance Australia followed similar measures globally as part of ING Group's structural changes as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. In 2010, ING Insurance was subsequently rebranded as OnePath.
In December 2009, a former ING Bank Australia employee faced court after defrauding the company of US$45million over the course of five years, of which US$13million had been taken during the previous year alone. The accountant had been employed at ING Bank for almost 20 years and was arrested by police after investigation by the organisation's internal security department. For the time from 2001 to 2012, the ING Direct incident was reported to be the largest case of financial fraud in Australia. Following a review in 2013, the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal reduced her maximum sentence from 15 years to 12.
Announced in March 2012, ING Direct Australia completed an upgrade of IT infrastructure in 2014. The "Zero Touch" project involved moving the bank's entire operations into a private cloud - which was claimed to be the first for any bank in Australia. Dubbed 'Bank in a box', virtualization of the entire banking platform allows for simultaneous copies of the banking platform to exist on the company's servers. This provides greater flexibility and efficiency for developing new products and services, and the new virtualization technology will also improve redundancy measures and customer experience.
In September 2012, ING Direct entered the superannuation market with Living Super, a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF).
Uday Sareen replaced Vaugn Richtor as CEO for ING Direct Australia in June 2016 after Richtor announced his plans to retire from business.
Retail Banking Services
ING Direct offers a variety of banking accounts and financial services to Australian residents. Operating as a direct bank, ING Direct has no ATM network or branches, with exception of the customer service lounge at the ING Direct headquarters in Sydney. Services and support are provided over the phone or through online banking. No-fee access to any Australian ATM is provided through a loyalty program.
Products
Financial Claims Scheme
ING Direct deposits are guaranteed up to AU$250,000 under the Australian government's Financial Claims Scheme, since ING Direct operates as a foreign subsidiary with an Australian banking license.
In October 2008, ING Direct suffered a US$749 million outflow of deposit funds, with retail outflows totaling AU$1.5 billion during 2008. The loss of deposits came amid consumer uncertainty as to whether the Australian government's deposit guarantee measures put in place during the Global Financial crisis applied to foreign-owned banks. Despite the outflow, deposits soon stabilized with ING Direct achieving a net income of AU$182 million for 2008, up from 2007.
Advertising
In 2007, Billy Connolly was recruited to be in the first major advertising campaign for the bank, launching the new slogan: It's your money. Connolly had previously served as the face for the insurance arm, ING Insurance.
'Charles', an animated orangutan appearing in a series of ads, replaced Billy Connolly in 2010 in part of an AU$5 million campaign over ten weeks.
ING Direct changed its slogan to Spend your life well in 2012.
In June 2015 Isla Fisher became the brand ambassador for the bank, alongside a new tagline How banking can be, as part of an AU$10 million brand overhaul.