ING sees large companies becoming careful due to trade war

This article was last updated on May 2, 2025

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ING sees large companies becoming careful due to trade war

ING has little trouble with the trade war that the United States has unleashed worldwide, but especially large business customers of the bank have become more careful. “Transport customers, electronics or car industry are now paying great attention to investments,” says ING CEO Steven van Rijswijk. “Consumer confidence is falling, which means that people spend a little less.

ING’s profit over the first three months of this year amounted to 1.45 billion euros. That is almost 8 percent lower than in the same period last year.

Nevertheless, Van Rijswijk is satisfied with the result. “You do not yet see the falling trust in the figures. Not in the mortgage market and also at SMEs you actually don’t see it yet. Only the large business customers pay more attention, especially companies that make machines and where the supply of parts is fragmented. They naturally have to do with the import tariffs.”

Savings interest

In addition to economic growth, ING benefited from the historically high interest rate at the European Central Bank (ECB) a year ago. In June last year, the ECB began to reduce the interest rate of 4 percent rapidly, to the meantime 2.25 percent. This is done to control inflation throughout the euro zone. At the same time, the European Bank also wants to drive the economy with a lower interest rate, by making borrowing cheaper.

For the time being, of that low interest rate, ING notices more than of the trade war. The interest margin, the difference between interesting interest on savings and collecting interest on loans, dropped to 1.36 percent in the first three months of this year. A year ago it was a lot higher with 1.51 percent. The interest income at ING therefore fell by more than 5 percent.

Two weeks ago, ING was the first of the three large banks in the Netherlands to lower the savings interest for private customers to 1.25 percent. A week later ABN Amro the same.

Last year 4.2 million customers invested with us. That is now 4.6 million, 12 percent of our customer base.

Steven van Rijswijk, CEO ING

Savers who secure their money for a longer period of time get a higher interest rate, Van Rijswijk emphasizes. “Then you fix your money for three months or a year. We see people now choosing it, but we see that more customers are going to invest.”

The latter yielded more income from commissions in the first quarter. These are income in which customers pay for services. “Last year 4.2 million customers invested with us. There are now 4.6 million, still only 12 percent of our customer base,” says Van Rijswijk.

Digital ING Munt?

Last week, various technology websites reported that ING has advanced plans to step into the world of digital coins. The bank would develop its own stablecoin. Stablecoins are crypto coins that are linked to the euro or the dollar in terms of value.

Van Rijswijk does not want to elaborate on that opposite the NOS. “We look at technologies that can make it possible to link the real world to the virtual world. We are experimenting with that, but I don’t have to announce a concrete project yet.”

When asked whether it is unthinkable that ING comes with its own stablecoin, Van Rijswijk is short and concisely: “No, certainly not.”