ING Pays €1.225 Bln To Dutch State; Updates Financial Targets In Ambition 2017

(RTTNews) - Dutch financial services company ING Group N.V. (ING) reported paying 1.225 billion euros to the Dutch State, including 817 million euros repayment of core Tier 1 securities and 408 million euros in interest and premium. This was approved by the Dutch Central Bank. This transaction brings the total paid to the Dutch State to 12.5 billion euros, including 9.3 billion euros in principal and 3.2 billion euros in interest and premium.

Separately, the company announced updating its financial targets in its Ambition 2017. Purusuant to this, ING aims to increase its lending book by nearly 4% annually, and the balance sheet by about 3%, mainly funded through customer deposits. Further, the company sees expansion of interest margin to 150-155 bps, maintaining cost-income target of 50-53% combined with declining risk costs leading to RoE of 10-13%.

"We will maintain strong discipline on operating expenses and will continue to seek further efficiency gains in areas such as IT and procurement. Our target for the cost/income ratio remains 50-53%. Declining risk costs coupled with business growth and new initiatives, partly offset by higher capital, should deliver a return on equity of 10-13% (based on IFRS-EU equity)," the ING bank said in a statement.

In addition to the full repayment of Dutch State, ING plans to resume dividend payments over the fiscal year 2015, growing into a pay-out ratio of at least 40%.