The Netherlands-based banking and financial services group reported a strong set of results in Q1; the group has continued to restructure and make divestments.

Netherlands-headquartered ING Bank said its underlying net result for the first quarter of this year stood at €1.187 billion ($1.135 billion), a surge of 43 per cent year-on-year.

The firm said the results stemmed from “robust growth” in lending and a seasonally strong period in the financial markets segment of its business.

The firm, which during the financial crisis sustained heavy losses, later requiring state assistance, has been through a period of restructuring; it has sold private banking operations in jurisdictions such as Singapore (the business that is now known as Bank of Singapore was sold to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation), and made other divestments.

"ING Bank's first-quarter underlying result before tax was €1,661 million, up 41.2 per cent year-on-year and more than double the result in the previous quarter. This strong performance was achieved despite the challenging operating environment, characterised by unprecedented low interest rates and the uneven economic recovery,” Ralph Hamers, ING’s chief executive, said.

"We continued to simplify our business portfolio through several actions in the past few months: the reduction of our stake in NN Group to 54.6 per cent, the completion of the divestment of Voya, and the completion in April of the merger between ING Vysya Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, which accelerated our vision for Vysya,” Hamers continued.

"Our capital position strengthened significantly since year-end. ING Group's fully-loaded CET1 ratio increased to 11.6 per cent, reflecting the quarterly net profit and capital relief from the NN and Voya share sales. ING Bank's fully-loaded CET1 ratio was stable at 11.4 per cent due to a €1.0 billion dividend upstream to group,” he added.