ING has launched its new private banking segment in Spain with an initial base of 6,000 clients, who have an average of one million euros in invested assets, and a team of 35 specialists that will surpass 40 by the end of 2026.
The bank has detailed that these 6,000 clients have 19 years of relationship with ING and that it has identified another 40,000 potential clients, who concentrate most of their assets, valued at 250,000 euros in total, in other entities.
The offer is structured around a financial planning tool accessible from mobile, whose objective is to "build a close relationship with clients." Through this same app, users can consult in real time how their assets are distributed.
Alongside the digital channel, ING complements the service with expert advice for those who require in-person attention. For this it has a team of 35 private bankers, a figure that will exceed 40 professionals by the close of the current fiscal year and that the entity plans to continue strengthening later on.
In addition to the newly inaugurated 'flagship' in Madrid, ING operates four other private banking offices in Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and Sabadell, which are added to its network of 29 branches spread across the country. The objective is to gradually incorporate this private banking segment "during the coming years" in these offices.
The new private banking model offers clients a discretionary portfolio management service, which is added to the execution and advisory solutions already available.
As for the investment offering, ING has more than 7,000 stocks, more than 1,000 exchange-traded funds (ETFs), funds from international managers, pension plans and EPSVs (voluntary social welfare entities). As a differentiating element, clients will be able to invest in private markets, such as 'private equity' funds, infrastructure and multi-asset funds, the latter in ELTIF format.
"We are going to be the first digital private banking more human than ever," said the chief executive of ING Spain and Portugal, Alfonso Tolcheff, who also stressed that Spain "is a strategic market" and "one of the great drivers" of the group's growth.
This move comes after ING's purchase of 40% of Singular Bank from Warburg Pincus, with the aim of accelerating its private banking and wealth management capabilities in the Spanish market.
In relation to this operation, the director of private banking of ING in Spain, Pablo Porres, has pointed out that the businesses of ING and Singular Bank are "complementary", since Singular "is capable of offering products" that the group still does not have.
At a global level, the group set as a priority for 2024 to expand its offering with the creation of a private banking segment. In this framework, the service was launched first in Poland, then in Spain and will soon be extended to Italy. The team linked to investment activity currently totals 150 professionals.