ING Groep N.V. Scored 83 On ESG Evaluation; Preparedness Strong

PARIS, Jan. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (S&P Global Ratings) S&P Global Ratings said today that ING Groep N.V. (ING) scored 83 in its ESG Evaluation. On our scale, 100 indicates the lowest risk and 0 the highest. The company's ESG Evaluation score is the result of an ESG profile of 76 combined with strong preparedness.

ESG Evaluation: ING Groep N.V.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, ING is one of the 10 largest European banks. It provides a wide range of financial services to retail, midsize, and large corporate customers. The bank operates in about 40 countries, but has a particularly strong competitive position in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. ING benefits from an advanced digital business model. In 2019, ING generated about €18.3 billion of revenues and €4.8 billion of net profit.

Our ESG Evaluation score of 83 on ING mainly reflects our belief that the bank is among the strongest players in the banking industry in terms of its ability to leverage its role as financier to influence society's transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon economy. The breadth and depth of ESG integration allows the bank to manage ESG risks and opportunities along the entire value chain. In addition, the bank aims to progressively decarbonize its entire loan portfolio, in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. We think ING's climate strategy and implementation frameworks, known as the Terra approach, enables the bank to meet this goal in a structured manner. Policies and measures addressing the social challenges that its large workforce and customer base pose are robust. This is crucial as the banking industry is facing profound changes in customer and employee behavior. Our ESG Evaluation score also reflects some governance deficiencies that have come to light recently, such as a money-laundering case finally settled in 2018, and a series of unexpected changes among the bank's senior management team over the past two years.

ING's preparedness to face long-term risks and potential disruptions is strong, reflecting stronger-than-average awareness, action-planning capabilities, and decision-making, as management has demonstrated its ability to make choices aligned with the long-term strategic goals.

Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC or its affiliates (collectively, S&P) receives compensation for the provision of the S&P Global Ratings ESG Evaluation product, including the report (Product). S&P may also receive compensation for rating the entity covered by the Product or for rating transactions involving and/or securities issued by the entity covered by the Product.

The Product is not a credit rating, and is not indicative of, nor related to, any credit rating or future credit rating of an entity. The Product provides a cross-sector, relative analysis of an entity's capacity to operate successfully in the future and is grounded in how ESG factors could affect stakeholders and potentially lead to a material direct or indirect financial impact on the entity. ESG factors typically assess the impact of the entity on the natural and social environment and the quality of its governance. The Product is not a research report and is not intended as such.

S&P's credit ratings, opinions, analyses, rating acknowledgment decisions, any views reflected in the Product and the output of the Product are not investment advice, recommendations regarding credit decisions, recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions, an offer to buy or sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security, endorsements of the suitability of any security, endorsements of the accuracy of any data or conclusions provided in the Product, or independent verification of any information relied upon in the credit rating process. The Product and any associated presentations do not take into account any user's financial objectives, financial situation, needs or means, and should not be relied upon by users for making any investment decisions. The output of the Product is not a substitute for a user's independent judgment and expertise. The output of the Product is not professional financial, tax or legal advice, and users should obtain independent, professional advice as it is determined necessary by users.

While S&P has obtained information from sources it believes to be reliable, S&P does not perform an audit and undertakes no duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives.

S&P and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively S&P Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of the Product. S&P Parties are not responsible for any errors or omissions (negligent or otherwise), regardless of the cause, for reliance of use of information in the Product, or for the security or maintenance of any information transmitted via the Internet, or for the accuracy of the information in the Product. The Product is provided on an "AS IS" basis. S&P PARTIES MAKE NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDED BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE ACCURACY, RESULTS, TIMLINESS, COMPLETENESS, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE WITH RESPECT TO THE PRODUCT, OR FOR THE SECURITY OF THE WEBSITE FROM WHICH THE PRODUCT IS ACCESSED. S&P Parties have no responsibility to maintain or update the Product or to supply any corrections, updates or releases in connection therewith. S&P Parties have no liability for the accuracy, timeliness, reliability, performance, continued availability, completeness or delays, omissions, or interruptions in the delivery of the Product.

To the extent permitted by law, in no event shall the S&P Parties be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs or losses caused by negligence, loss of data, cost of substitute materials, cost of capital, or claims of any third party) in connection with any use of the Product even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

S&P maintains a separation between commercial and analytic activities. S&P keeps certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P may have information that is not available to other S&P business units. S&P has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain nonpublic information received in connection with each analytical process.

Copyright ©2020 by Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. All rights reserved. This report does not constitute a rating action.

The report is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect at www.capitaliq.com. If you are not a RatingsDirect subscriber, you may purchase a copy of the report by calling (1) 212-438-7280 or sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Ratings information can also be found on S&P Global Ratings' public website by using the Ratings search box located in the left column at www.standardandpoors.com. Members of the media may request a copy of this report by contacting the media representative provided.

This report does not constitute a rating action.

The report is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect at www.capitaliq.com. If you are not a RatingsDirect subscriber, you may purchase a copy of the report by calling (1) 212-438-7280 or sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Ratings information can also be found on S&P Global Ratings' public website by using the Ratings search box located in the left column at www.standardandpoors.com. Alternatively, call one of the following S&P Global Ratings numbers: Client Support Europe (44) 20-7176-7176; London Press Office (44) 20-7176-3605; Paris (33) 1-4420-6708; Frankfurt (49) 69-33-999-225; Stockholm (46) 8-440-5914; or Moscow (7) 495-783-4009.

Copyright © 2021 by Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. All rights reserved.

No content (including ratings, credit-related analyses and data, valuations, model, software or other application or output therefrom) or any part thereof (Content) may be modified, reverse engineered, reproduced or distributed in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC or its affiliates (collectively, S&P). The Content shall not be used for any unlawful or unauthorized purposes. S&P and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively S&P Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of the Content. S&P Parties are not responsible for any errors or omissions (negligent or otherwise), regardless of the cause, for the results obtained from the use of the Content, or for the security or maintenance of any data input by the user. The Content is provided on an "as is" basis. S&P PARTIES DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE, FREEDOM FROM BUGS, SOFTWARE ERRORS OR DEFECTS, THAT THE CONTENT'S FUNCTIONING WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE CONTENT WILL OPERATE WITH ANY SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION. In no event shall S&P Parties be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs or losses caused by negligence) in connection with any use of the Content even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Credit-related and other analyses, including ratings, and statements in the Content are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact. S&P's opinions, analyses and rating acknowledgment decisions (described below) are not recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions, and do not address the suitability of any security. S&P assumes no obligation to update the Content following publication in any form or format. The Content should not be relied on and is not a substitute for the skill, judgment and experience of the user, its management, employees, advisors and/or clients when making investment and other business decisions. S&P does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor except where registered as such. While S&P has obtained information from sources it believes to be reliable, S&P does not perform an audit and undertakes no duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives. Rating-related publications may be published for a variety of reasons that are not necessarily dependent on action by rating committees, including, but not limited to, the publication of a periodic update on a credit rating and related analyses.

To the extent that regulatory authorities allow a rating agency to acknowledge in one jurisdiction a rating issued in another jurisdiction for certain regulatory purposes, S&P reserves the right to assign, withdraw or suspend such acknowledgment at any time and in its sole discretion. S&P Parties disclaim any duty whatsoever arising out of the assignment, withdrawal or suspension of an acknowledgment as well as any liability for any damage alleged to have been suffered on account thereof.

S&P keeps certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P may have information that is not available to other S&P business units. S&P has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain non-public information received in connection with each analytical process.

S&P may receive compensation for its ratings and certain analyses, normally from issuers or underwriters of securities or from obligors. S&P reserves the right to disseminate its opinions and analyses. S&P's public ratings and analyses are made available on its Web sites, www.standardandpoors.com (free of charge), and www.ratingsdirect.com (subscription), and may be distributed through other means, including via S&P publications and third-party redistributors. Additional information about our ratings fees is available at www.standardandpoors.com/usratingsfees.

STANDARD & POOR'S, S&P and RATINGSDIRECT are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC.

SOURCE S&P Global Ratings