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A non-major bank has reported strong growth in 2018, exhibiting a surge in consumer lending which exploded from $11m in 2017 to $105m in 2018.
ING Australia announced a net profit after tax of $401m for 2018, up 15% on the previous year.
The bank added 400,000 new customers, bringing the total number of primary bank customers up 57% from 2017. It also grew its loans to more than $58bn, up by 11%.
CEO Uday Sareen said, “ING has performed strongly in what has been a difficult year for banking. Our continuing focus on customer advocacy is driving results.
“We were Australia’s first real fintech and I would like to think that customers have benefitted from our simple customer focused banking model.”
ING Australia was launched 20 years ago as a direct branchless bank with online savings and home loans delivered through brokers. They have since developed a larger range of products and services.
In the past year, ING has launched a number of features intended to help customers get ahead with their home loans in easy and maintainable ways, such as a ‘set-and-forget’ option that lets customers set up automatic savings triggers that are specifically catered to the particulars of their everyday lives.
Another measure – Everyday Round Up for Home Loans – allows customers to choose to digitally round purchases on their card to the nearest $1 or $5, so that the extra money can be automatically allocated to paying down eligible home loans.
“We know customers want to pay off their home loans sooner and this gives them a tool to help them do it without thinking,” said Sareen.
