Retail banking business of ING Group has posted an underlying profit before tax of EUR1.04bn for the first quarter of 2015, a jump of 22% compared to EUR850m a year ago.
The unit’s total underlying income rose 6.6% from a year ago to EUR2.92bn, or 9.5% excluding the deconsolidation of ING Vysya Bank, driven by higher interest results in most countries and positive hedge ineffectiveness results on derivatives in the mortgage hedge accounting programmes.
The group’s retail banking attracted EUR8.9bn in net customer deposits in the first quarter while net customer lending grew by EUR1.6bn.
Operating expenses were EUR1.62bn, up 1.9% from the first quarter of 2014.
The cost/income ratio for the retail banking division in the first quarter was 55.6% as compared to a 58.2% a year earlier.
Overall, ING Group posted a total underlying net result of EUR1.77bn, including insurance result, while ING Bank reported an amount of EUR1.2bn as underlying net result, a 43% rise from the first quarter of 2014.