ING has made an obvious choice with the appointment of its risk director Steven van Rijswijk. With many years of service with the bank, he is a veteran at ING, just like his predecessor Ralph Hamers. In addition, regulators will be satisfied that the risk director will take charge of ING, KBC Securities analysts argue. “His appointment is a safe choice.”
The acceptance of Van Rijswijk within the bank is, according to KBC experts, the main plus of Van Rijswijk as new CEO. This allows the Dutchman to easily move on with other executives that Hamers has appointed in recent years, so there is no need to completely change management. This continuity is urgently needed, because ING wants to merge activities in the Benelux to a large extent.
Where Hamers made digitization a spearhead of the strategy, it is still unclear, according to KBC, which opportunities Van Rijswijk can present in that area. The market researchers also hope that ING will formulate clearer financial targets for the group under the new CEO.
KBC uses buy advice for ING. On Friday, after about half an hour of trading, the stock was 0.6 percent higher at 6.46 euros.
Lesley Woutersen, one of the co-founders of the EconomicInform gives away all of his free time to the project. He is interested in stock exchange and digital assets. Lesley can be reached by lesley.woutersen@economicinform.com.
