雅虎香港財經 ING Groep N.V. (NYSE:ING) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
ING Groep N.V. (NYSE:ING) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript February 1, 2024
ING Groep N.V. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Good morning. This is Saskia, welcoming you to ING's Fourth Quarter 2023 Conference Call. Before handing this conference call over to Steven van Rijswijk, Chief Executive Officer of ING Group, let me first say that today's comments may include forward-looking statements such as statements regarding future developments in our business, expectations for our future financial performance and any statement not involving a historical fact. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements as discussion of factors that may cause actual results to differ from those in any forward-looking statements is contained in our public filings, including our most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Noting in today's comments constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Good morning, Steven, over to you.
Steven van Rijswijk: Thank you very much, Saskia. Good morning, and welcome to our results call for the fourth quarter. I hope you're all well and had a good start of the year. And as usual, I'm joined by our CRO, Ljiljana Cortan; and our CFO, Tanate Phutrakul. In today's presentation, I would like to highlight our exceptional results in 2023, discussed that the developments that we saw in the fourth quarter and share our outlook for 2024. And as always, there will be room for questions at the end of the call. First, I will start with explaining how we were impacted by the developments in the world around us on Slide 2. Notably, we live in a world with increasing geopolitical tensions and conflicts in many countries, resulting in the loss of many lives.
And we're saddened and concerned by the devastating impacts that these conflicts are having and the threat that they pose to international stability and security and these tensions also have an ongoing effect on the global economy and have led to heightened economic uncertainty and increased pressure on supply chains. At the same time, inflation remained elevated for most of 2023 and only came down towards the end of the year. To take this inflation, central bankers around the world have increased policy rates at an unprecedented speed. And now with inflation at a much lower level, the market expects rates to come down during 2024. The economies have proven to be resilient and the IMF is forecasting '24. We've also witnessed political and regulatory uncertainty in 2023.
Several government elections have already had a surprising outcome and other important elections are coming up in '24. On the regulatory side, we've seen increased volatility following the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse. And in the aftermath, the European banking sector has proven its strength. Lastly, we see a continued and accelerating transition to a more sustainable economy, also reinforced by a promising outcome of and giving our strong ESG focus, the transition of significant opportunities for ING, and we look forward to continuing this front-runner role. Then we go to Slide 3. We have shown exceptional results in this challenging environment. And more importantly, we are well positioned to deliver value through the cycle.
Through our continued investments in our digital capabilities and our focus on offering a superior customer experience, we are able to grow our Retail Bank across our countries. Our well-diversified Wholesale Bank is highly regarded by our clients who appreciate our global reach, local knowledge and strong sector expertise. Our pioneering role in sustainability and our ESG focus positions us well to capture growth opportunities. The bank is built on healthy fundamentals with a highly insured retail funding base, a senior well-diversified and mostly collateralized loan portfolio, resulting in the lowest risk cost in -- Eurozone peer group. Finally, our capital position is strong, with ample and all this has resulted in an excellent track record of delivering value to all our stakeholders and market-leading returns, and we are confident that we will continue to do so.
See also 15 Cheapest Countries to Get Second Citizenship and 15 Highest Quality Olive Oil Brands in the US.
To continue reading the Q&A session, please click here.
