ING’s 13th Investor Relations Symposium: Managing Capital Efficiently

* ING will continue to build on the momentum it has established in delivering profitable growth thanks to its excellent portfolio of businesses
* Strong capital management is fundamental to ING, and the Group could create additional free capital of around EUR 4-6 billion in 2007. This creates further opportunities to create value for shareholders, including additional organic growth, fill-in acquisitions or the return of capital to shareholders
* The Wholesale Bank has been transformed into a well focused business centred on generating attractive assets, real estate and financial markets

In introducing the 13th Investor Relations Symposium, Michel Tilmant, Chief Executive Officer of ING Group, says ING’s earnings momentum over the past 3 years demonstrates the impact of portfolio management and execution on delivering both returns and growth. While the whole industry has benefited from a generally favourable economic environment, with the exception of flat yield curves, the bulk of ING’s underlying net profit growth was driven by core business growth independent of the economic cycle. ING has successfully shifted capital to higher return businesses, with 84 % of economic capital invested in businesses yielding returns above ING’s hurdle rate of 12%.

Going forward ING will focus on driving further profitable growth, while helping customers manage their financial future and developing in the wealth accumulation space. As customers live longer, they are becoming increasingly concerned that they will outlive their assets. This creates strong demand for savings, life insurance, mutual funds, mortgages, retirement services, real estate funds, private banking and other wealth accumulation products.

In this changing environment, ING is well positioned with a strong business model to continue to deliver robust profitable growth, benefiting from its strong distribution reach and leading product offerings and skills. ING also increasingly benefits from the strength of its brand and has recently launched its first global brand campaign around Formula One, which is primarily targeting retail customers.