Record profits for ING
ING Australia has announced a record full-year after tax profit for 2007 of $314 million.
Coinciding with this news, ING has launched a two year, $50 million transformation program to increase service levels and lower costs.
ING Australia’s outgoing chief executive officer Paul Bedbrook said the ‘Refresh’ transformation program would create a more efficient organisation for the next stage in ING Australia’s growth strategy.
“[Last year] was an exceptional year for ING Australia. The full-year profit of $314 million was an increase of 22 per cent on 2006, with core operating profit up 37 per cent to $271 million. Our inflows, as measured by the value of new business, rose by 34 per cent to $156 million, driven by record inflows into our flagship OneAnswer investment platform and continuing strong insurance sales,” he said.
“We are particularly pleased with the improvement in funds management net flows, which grew by 35 per cent to $2.8 billion. On the distribution front, we continued to expand our aligned adviser network to over 1,500 advisers via organic growth and through the acquisition of the Mawsons and Financial Services Partners (FSP) dealer groups. ING Australia now has the second largest aligned dealer network in Australia.”
According to Bedbrook, despite the good results, there is more that needs to be done to enhance the flexibility and efficiency of the business.
“Refresh is a two-year transformation program that will renew our service proposition to customers and substantially improve our e-business capability, including straight-through processing.”
As part of this program, a new customer solutions business unit was established in the last quarter of 2007 to focus on customer service and project execution.
The new business unit will be headed by a new chief operating officer, Fred Bertram, who joins ING Australia on March 26. He was previously the managing director of ANZ Bank’s operations technology and shared services division, based in Bangalore, India.
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