LOL, talked to the director of ING Direct in Amsterdam this morning

[UNCjigga]

So why am I laughing? Read this thread. Turns out he's an alum of my school so I got in touch with him for some help with a school project.

So in a few weeks I went from being clueless about ING to being an expert! Word!

edit: holy crap its 3:30 now? Changed post title (I started writing this post at 11:30 but hibernated for a bit and now I'm posting!)

 

[sisq0kidd]

 

[Drakkon]

tell him we need more interest....3% just isnt cutting it

 

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: Drakkon
tell him we need more interest....3% just isnt cutting it

He said you should switch to Emigrant!

 

[xospec1alk]

So what did you find out about UBS AG?

 

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: xospec1alk
So what did you find out about UBS AG?

They've been kicking arse over the past 5 years while ING's been struggling. Focus for project has nothing to do on products/services, very little to do with marketing. More concerned with firm strategy. UBS has a corporate culture and philosophy much more aligned with shareholders' concerns than what ING had prior to Michel Tilmant taking over in 2004. This is reflected in UBS' compensation policy, governance structure, and decisions made by executives. ING's culture is best described as "slow"--Dutch banking has always been notoriously slow and resisting change. When the downturn hit insurance and banking in 2001/2002, they were too slow to react. They didn't sell off non-core businesses until 2004/2005. ING is doing much better now. In fact, this morning they just announced a 78% rise in profits (better than what analysts expected) and announced another 1000 layoffs. Stock has been doing good over the past year, though it slipped in April/May because analysts knew to expect writeoffs after they sold more businesses.