Vaughn Richtor
One of the biggest disrupters in Australias banking industry, ING Direct is continuing rank well with customers under the guidance of CEO Vaughn Richtor.
Three years since returning as CEO of ING Direct Australia, Vaughn Richtor is continuing to disrupt and innovate in order to make ING the biggest independent bank in Australia. An arm of the Dutch multinational ING Group, ING Direct was founded in Australia in 1999, and has made significant inroads in the 16 years since its establishment. Currently focusing on a brand overall and growing the type of customers ING services, Vaughn is confident that the organisation will only continue to grow.
Unlike many other banks, ING Directs strategy isnt to simply attract new customers, but to change the way people interact with the bank and to focus on making ING Direct each customers main financial institution. This has been extremely successful, with ING increasing its customer numbers and profits. What were looking to grow is those customers that regard ING Direct as their main financial institution, Vaughn explains. [Customers] who have their transaction account with us put their salary in there and have one or two other products.
In October last year, we introduced what we call the primary bank bonus. If you are a primary bank customer and you have a transaction account that you put at least part of your salary into and you have a savings account, then you get the best rate. If you have a primary bank account relationship with us, a transaction or salary account, if you have a mortgage, we actually give you cash back on your mortgage payment. So thats an innovation in terms of the customer experience.
Last year, we grew the clients who had their transaction account with us by 40 per cent, and the previous year was about 30 to 33 per cent. Today, that rate of growth has increased again pushing 45 to 50 per cent. To that extent, in line with our strategy, we continue to accelerate the growth in our primary bank customers and those customers who have their transaction account with us in a very satisfactory manner. That led to better financial results: our profit increased by about 10 per cent last year.