Tag: dividends

12 February 2015 – Expansión

ING Direct España increased its client portfolio and balance sheet again last year. The bank was the only entity that managed to increase its mortgage book, with an increase of 5.1% to €9,949 million. It is offering one of the best mortgages in the market, having lowered its spread over Euribor to 1.49%.

The growth in its portfolio of other loans was even more significant; it rose by 29.7% to €961 million. ING Direct launched a new strategy in September 2013 to gain a foothold in the SME segment. As a result, its balance sheet increased by 12.3% to €25,277 million in 2014, whilst its funds and pension plans soared by 45.8% to €4,148 million. Its client portfolio in Spain grew by 7.3% to 3.1 million.

Despite these figures, ING Direct España’s bottom line for the year is unknown, since the Dutch entity does not provide a breakdown of its gains and losses by country.

At the global level, the group made a profit of €1,251 million in 2014, down by 64.7% due to extraordinary items and a change in the perimeter. Excluding the impact of extraordinary items, its net profit amounted to €3,424 million, i.e. 8.5% more than in 2013.

ING finished paying back the aid it received during the crisis (€10,000 million) in 2014, and so it announced yesterday that it will begin paying dividends to shareholders again, with the first payment of €0.12 per share being disbursed in May. Yesterday, ING’s shares increased by 3.62% to €11.62.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Romani)

Translation: Carmel Drake