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ING posts 1Q underlying net profit of EUR 1,018 million


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* 1Q underlying net profit increases to EUR 1,018 million vs. EUR 236 million loss in 1Q2009

* Net profit increases to EUR 1,326 million from loss of EUR 793 million in 1Q2009
* Divestments & special items totalled EUR 306 million vs. EUR -558 million a year earlier
* Net result per share increase to EUR 0.35 from EUR -0.39 a year earlier
* Return on equity increases to 11.3% from 3.3% in full year 2009

* Bank posts 1Q underlying profit before tax of EUR 1,278 million vs. EUR 769 million in 1Q2009

* Income recovers to pre-crisis levels as margins improve and volumes increase, particularly in Retail Banking
* Impairments & other market impacts decline to EUR -181 million vs. EUR -219 million in 1Q2009 and EUR -992 million in 4Q2009
* Cost/income ratio improves to 57.5%, or 53.5% excluding impairments & other market impacts
* Loan loss provisions decline to EUR 497 million, or 59 bps of average risk-weighted assets

* Insurance posts 1Q underlying profit before tax of EUR 269 million vs. EUR 954 million loss in 1Q2009

* Operating profit increases 62.7% to EUR 415 million on higher margins and cost containment
* Administrative expenses/operating income for Life & ING IM improves to 43.4% from 47.0%
* Sales increase 20.5% from 4Q2009 to EUR 1,242 million and are back on par with 1Q2009 level

* Shareholders’ equity increases by EUR 4.4 billion to EUR 38.2 billion, or EUR 10.10 per share

* Bank core Tier 1 ratio increases to 8.4% from 7.8% at year-end 2009, well above 7.5% target
* Insurance Groups Directive Solvency I ratio improves to 261% from 251%
* Group debt/equity ratio improves to 11.8% and FiCo ratio increases to 162%

CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

“ING made a strong start in 2010 with earnings recovering in both banking and insurance,” said Jan Hommen, CEO of ING Group. “The performance of both businesses improved, while market-related impacts diminished in the fi rst quarter as markets generally improved. Insurance sales regained momentum from the fourth quarter, and savings volumes increased although loan growth remained muted. The return on equity for the Group improved substantially to 11.3%.”

“The bank has made good progress on the performance improvement initiatives announced in October, posting an underlying profit before tax of EUR 1,278 million. Income rebounded to pre-crisis levels, surpassing the first quarter of 2008, as savings and mortgage volumes increased and margins improved, particularly in Retail Banking. The cost/income ratio has been reduced to 53.5% excluding impairments and other market impacts, illustrating ongoing cost containment following the significant cuts made last year. Loan loss provisions declined from previous quarters, as provisioned loans were restructured and the US housing market stabilised. However risk costs on the Benelux mid-corporate segment remained elevated given the weak economic environment.”

“The insurance operations also showed early results on their performance improvement plans announced in April. Cost containment and improving investment margins drove a strong increase in operating profit, which rose 62.7% to EUR 415 million. Sales momentum also gained pace, up 20.5% from the fourth quarter and matching the sales volumes from the first quarter last year. The market recovery helped reduce the impact of impairments and revaluations, leading to an improvement in the underlying result before tax to EUR 269 million, up from losses in the previous quarters.”

“The results to date are clearly encouraging, and they serve as evidence of the commitment of our management and employees to drive performance improvements while keeping a sharp eye on costs. We will work hard to build on these successes in the coming quarters, but we must remain vigilant as markets are still volatile and the economic recovery could prove fragile, as we have seen in recent weeks with severe market volatility amid concerns about sovereign risk. As we work to increase the value of our banking and insurance franchises coming out of this crisis, our primary focus must remain on our customers and we aim to differentiate ourselves by providing simpler and more transparent products, reliable advice, efficient processes and better customer service.”

“Our priorities for this year are to ensure an orderly operational separation of banking and insurance and to improve the performance of both organisations to create strong independent companies going forward – and we are making good progress on all fronts.” “In the first quarter we also completed an inventory of all integration issues that need to be addressed in the separation project. Now we are designing solutions that aim to keep restructuring costs to a minimum while at the same time ensuring that both the bank and insurer benefit from lower operating expenses going forward.”

DISCLAIMER

ING Group’s Annual Accounts are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (‘IFRS-EU’).

In preparing the fi nancial information in this document, the same accounting principles are applied as in the 2009 ING Group Annual Accounts. All fi gures in this document are unaudited. Small differences are possible in the tables due to rounding.

Certain of the statements contained herein are not historical facts, including, without limitation, certain statements made of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, without limitation: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular economic conditions in ING’s core markets, (2) changes in performance of financial markets, including developing markets, (3) the implementation of ING’s restructuring plan to separate banking and insurance operations, (4) changes in the availability of, and costs associated with, sources of liquidity such as interbank funding, as well as conditions in the credit markets generally, including changes in borrower and counterparty creditworthiness, (5) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, (6) changes affecting mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (7) changes affecting persistency levels, (8) changes affecting interest rate levels, (9) changes affecting currency exchange rates, (10) changes in general competitive factors, (11) changes in laws and regulations, (12) changes in the policies of governments and/or regulatory authorities, (13) conclusions with regard to purchase accounting assumptions and methodologies, (14) changes in ownership that could affect the future availability to us of net operating loss, net capital and built-in loss carry forwards, and (15) ING’s ability to achieve projected operational synergies. ING assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or for any other reason.



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