ING believes retail banking bet will pay off

The number of new accounts opened by individual customers at ING Bank exceeded 7,000 during the three months since launch of the “Self’ Bank” programme. “Things are moving as expected,” said Paul Prodan, ING’s deputy chief executive in charge of the project. He added that, on average, the volume of cash deposited was 20% higher than that withdrawn. By the end of September, the bank had opened 15 new offices specialised in retail services. Dirk Serbruyns, ING Romania president, says the plan to expand the network aims to increase the number of locations in Bucharest to 20 by the end of the month. A further 10 locations are due to be opened in November, including cities such as Constanta, Timisoara and Brasov. ING plans to be able to offer service packages to individual customers at 45 locations by the end of the year, with the network set to expand to Pitesti, Ploiesti, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi. ZF