ING Vysya to ramp up business

ING Vysya Bank is all set to ramp up its business in India. After ING took full control of the bank's management in 2002, the bank is now all set to double its liability book in India in the next two to three years.

The bank runs a liability book of Rs 15,419 crore as on March 2007. The Netherlands-based financial services group, which has 44 per cent stake in ING Vysya Bank, recently appointed two members on the bank's board. ING has appointed Vaughn Richtor as the managing director and Don Koch as the chief operating officer of ING Vysya Bank. The bank's net profit in March 2007 increased to Rs 89 crore from Rs 9 crore in March 2006. The profit this year is the highest recorded in the last 10 years of operations.

"ING will not dilute its 44 per cent stake in the bank. With due respect to the law in the country, we would want to increase our stake in the bank given the option. We aim to maintain ING's stake in the bank at 44 per cent, as we see India as a high potential market,'' said Eli Leenaars, member executive board, ING Group.

"ING now has better control of the bank. We have the best of people in place and have invested heavily in implementation of the core banking solution in the bank. We are committed to the investment. In the next twelve months, we would increase our capital base,'' added Leenaars.

"We may not have moved quickly, but the opportunity is still there. Our strategy is to focus on liability-led growth and become the bank of choice in India. We will focus on increasing the liability base and retail term deposit base of the bank. The growth in the liability business will help us grow the asset side of the business. The management's focus will be on increasing the productivity of the bank's 450-odd distribution points,'' said Vaughn Richtor, managing director, ING Vysya Bank.

The bank will add around 24 to 25 new branches in the next financial year. It has a retail portfolio of around Rs 7000 crore as on March 31, 2007, of which Rs 4000 crore is the small and medium enterprises business and the remaining is consumer assets. Retail constitutes around 55 per cent of the bank's assets, while corporate constitutes around 45 per cent.

"The challenge for the bank would be to reduce the costs and aggressively market and innovate products. Our focus will be to increase the distribution points to grow our liability book which will enable us fund the asset growth. The bank will capitalise on ING expertise in the wealth management, corporate banking and capital market business,'' added Richtor.