ING profits hit €6.39bn, bank under fire over oil investments

ING booked a net profit of €6.39 billion last year, down 12% on 2023, the biggest Dutch bank announced at the publication of its annual figures on Thursday.

Q4 net profit dropped almost 26% to €1.15 billion compared to the same period in 2023. Analysts told news agency Bloomberg they had expected a Q4 profit of €1.26 billion.

An increase in the number of credit accounts, loans, and savings contributed to a full-year turnover of €22.6 billion, up marginally on 2023’s figure.

Meanwhile, campaign groups Somo and Milieudefensie claimed on Thursday that ING is under-reporting its investments in oil and gas, suggesting the actual investments could be 10 times higher than registered in official documents.

“ING uses a very narrow definition of upstream in its reporting, looking only at the company classification code and not whether a company is starting new oil and gas fields,” Somo said.

Van Rijswijk dismissed the report as “rubbish.” “We report in line with the accountancy regulations,” he was quoted as saying in Dutch media.

Earlier this week, chief executive Steven van Rijswijk told news agency Reuters that the bank is back on the takeover trail.

“We want to get bigger in bigger markets, including Italy, Spain, and Germany,” Van Rijswijk said. “M&A (mergers and acquisitions) is an option everywhere if it would suit our criteria.”