ING Direct Australia

ING Bank (Australia) Limited

Type	Subsidiary (of ING Group)
Industry	Banking, financial services
Founded	1999
Headquarters	60 Margaret Street, Sydney, Australia
Area served	Australia
Key people	Uday Sareen, CEO
Products	Finance and insurance Consumer banking Corporate banking Superannuation Mortgages
Revenue	A$693 million (2016)[1]
Profit	A$295 million (2016)[1]
Total assets	A$53.4 billion (2016)[1]
Total equity	A$3.7 billion (2016)[1]
Number of employees	1,130 (December 2016)[1]
Divisions	Mortgages, Savings, Personal loans[1]
Website	www.ingdirect.com.au

ING DIRECT Australia's Sydney headquarters from March 2001 thru February 2017

ING Bank (Australia) Limited (trading as ING Direct) is an Australian direct bank and a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Dutch bank, ING Group.

ING Bank (Australia) operates as a series of controlled entities: trusts and the primary bank division, ING Direct, which operates under the segments of Mortgages, Savings and Commercial Loans.^[1] Founded in 1999 as a subsidiary of ING Group, ING Direct was Australia's first direct bank and has since grown to become the largest mortgage lender outside of Australia's big four banks.^[2] ING Direct scores favourably with customer satisfaction and has the highest net promoter score of any financial institution in Australia.^[3][4]

As of December 2016, the bank had 1.7 million customers and over 500,000 transaction accounts.^[1] In December 2015, ING Direct had a mortgage portfolio valued at AU$38.6 billion and AU$1.6 billion super funds under management, with 34,000 active superannuation accounts in 2014.^[5]

History

Vaughn Richtor was the founding CEO of ING Direct Australia in 1999 after first joining ING Group in 1992. Richtor left Australia in 2005 to head ING Group's Indian operations, India Vysya before overseeing commercial and retail management in Asia from 2009.^[6][7] Erik Drok served as ING Direct Australia CEO from 2005 to 2009, followed by Don Koch until 2012.^[8] Vaughn Richtor returned as CEO 2012 whilst remaining to oversee management in Asia for ING Group.^[9]

In September 2009 ING Bank Australia sold its AU$1.86 billion insurance and wealth management stake it had shared with ANZ in a joint venture since 2002 (51% ING Group ownership; 49% ANZ ownership^[10]), making ANZ the sole owner.^[11][12] The divestment of ING Insurance Australia followed similar measures globally as part of ING Group's structural changes as a result of the 2008 financial crisis.^[13] In 2010, ING Insurance was subsequently rebranded as OnePath.^[14]

Announced in March 2012, ING Direct Australia completed an upgrade of IT infrastructure in 2014.^[15] The "Zero Touch" project involved moving the bank's entire operations into a private cloud - which was claimed to be the first for any bank in Australia.^[16] Dubbed 'Bank in a box', virtualization of the entire banking platform allows for simultaneous copies of the banking platform to exist on the company's servers. This provides greater flexibility and efficiency for developing new products and services, and the new virtualization technology will also improve redundancy measures and customer experience.^[17]

In September 2012, ING Direct entered the superannuation market with Living Super, a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF).^[18]

Uday Sareen replaced Vaugn Richtor as CEO for ING Direct Australia in June 2016 after Richtor announced his plans to retire from business.^[9]

Headquarters & Physical Locations

At its launch in August 1999, ING DIRECT Australia operated out of the offices of its sister company ING Australia at 347 Kent Street Sydney.

In March 2001 the bank signed a lease on several floors of the 14 storey office building at 140 Sussex Street Sydney; subsequent growth led to the bank taking on additional floors over the next five years, culminating in ING DIRECT leasing the entire building from 2007.

By the end of 2001, ING DIRECT had a physical (non-branch) customer-facing presence, via its 'Customer Information Centres' (CICs), at 347 Kent Street Sydney, 140 Queen Street Melbourne (until August 2007), 100 Edward Street Brisbane (until November 2010) and at 45 Pirie Street Adelaide and 158 St George's Terrace Perth (both until late-2002). The Sydney CIC was relocated to the bank's headquarters at 140 Sussex Street in 2007.

In July 2002 a second office was opened in Tuggerah, approximately 100km north of Sydney on the Central Coast of New South Wales; the building was shared with ING Australia. This office serves primarily as a Contact Centre, while also providing some limited administrative functions.

In February 2017 ING DIRECT's headquarters, along with 1,000+ staff members, were relocated to 60 Margaret Street Sydney, where the bank signed a lease over seven floors of the 36 storey tower.

Retail Banking Services

ING Direct offers a variety of banking accounts and financial services to Australian residents. Operating as a direct bank, ING Direct has no ATM network or branches, with exception of the customer service lounge at the ING Direct headquarters in Sydney. Services and support are provided over the phone or through online banking. No-fee access to any Australian ATM is provided through a loyalty program.^[19]

Products

• Business savings and commercial mortgage accounts
• Retail and Self-Managed Superannuation Funds (SMSFs) with life insurance
• Savings and time deposit accounts
• Transaction accounts
• Variable and fixed-rate Mortgage loans

Financial Claims Scheme

ING Direct deposits are guaranteed up to AU$250,000 under the Australian government's Financial Claims Scheme, since ING Direct operates as a foreign subsidiary with an Australian banking license.^[20]

In October 2008, ING Direct suffered a US$749 million outflow of deposit funds, with retail outflows totaling AU$1.5 billion during 2008. The loss of deposits came amid consumer uncertainty as to whether the Australian government's deposit guarantee measures put in place during the Global Financial crisis applied to foreign-owned banks.^[21] Despite the outflow, deposits soon stabilized with ING Direct achieving a net income of AU$182 million for 2008, up from 2007.^[21][22]

Advertising

In 2007, Billy Connolly was recruited to be in the first major advertising campaign for the bank, launching the new slogan: It's your money. Connolly had previously served as the face for the insurance arm, ING Insurance.^[23]

'Charles', an animated orangutan appearing in a series of ads, replaced Billy Connolly in 2010 in part of an AU$5 million campaign over ten weeks.^[24]

ING Direct changed its slogan to Spend your life well in 2012.^[25]

In June 2015 Isla Fisher became the brand ambassador for the bank, alongside a new tagline How banking can be, as part of an AU$10 million brand overhaul.^[26]

See also

• Banking in Australia
• ING Group § ING Direct
• List of banks
• List of banks in Australia
• List of banks in Oceania

References

External links

• Official website
• ING Group