ING Wholesale Banking today announced a number of initiatives aimed at further enhancing client centricity, addressing clients' daily challenges and their strategic needs. The international network, currently spanning more than 40 countries will be strengthened, as we put more resources into Asia and the Americas. We are also investing in our advisory functions including core banking services such as the Debt Capital Markets and Corporate Finance franchises. 

"ING Wholesale Banking is an important contributor to the success of ING's Think Forward strategy," said Isabel Fernandez, head of ING Wholesale Banking. "We've seen wholesale lending assets grown by more than thirty percent over the past five years and pre-tax results have grown by more than 70 percent. We expect lending growth to continue, as we support our clients in their business needs. But our key assets are our people and the trust of our clients, which we need to earn every day. The measures we are announcing today aim to make us even more relevant to our clients and to earn the primary relationship in line with ING's Think Forward strategy." 

"We will enhance and further integrate our daily banking service offering, which includes payments- and cash management, working capital solutions, trade finance, overdrafts and FX transactions. We will focus on providing clients uniform services across our extensive network, offering relevant and proven solutions through their preferred channel, while also moving to open banking platforms. In support of these changes, we will roll out the agile way of working across the product and client service delivery departments."

"In order to better understand and anticipate our clients' needs, we will increase our investments in data analytics capabilities and enhanced data management. We will strengthen our sector expertise and research coverage to put our knowledge to work for our clients and help them stay ahead of competition. We will reinforce our focus on Sustainable Finance initiatives, further supporting our clients in becoming more sustainable."

"We will continue to prioritise innovation, developing new services to improve the client experience and reimagine what we do today. Recent examples include the use of blockchain technology to disrupt areas like Trade and Commodity Finance. At the same time we look at solutions that go beyond banking. In line with the launch of our EUR 300 million fintech fund, ING Ventures, we will expand our efforts to partner with and invest in start-up or scale-up companies to benefit our clients." 

"In past years ING Wholesale Banking has grown into a sector specialist in lending areas such as Metals and Mining, Trade and Commodity Finance and Technology, Media and Telecom. To help deliver a global, consistent client approach across the Americas, Asia and Europe, ING Wholesale Banking will move from the current, largely product-based orientation to a stronger sector organisation while putting more emphasis on the regions. To reflect these changes and the increased focus on innovation, the regions, sector organisation and innovation function will report directly into the Head of Wholesale Banking." 

The organisational changes are expected to come into force in January 2018. The growth initiatives announced today will lead to hires in selected areas. The measures and related investments will be fully funded by increased revenues and cost benefits that stem from these initiatives and from business growth.