A quarter century later, did ING Direct live up to the hype?

In May, ING is celebrating a quarter of a century since it launched a new telephone- and later internet-only bank in Europe.

This is the closest that it will come to celebrating the birthday of what was previously known as ING Direct, a platform that allowed the Dutch firm to grow rapidly in numerous markets abroad, without doing M&A.

Globally, ING Direct’s launch was in 1997, so slightly more than a quarter of a century ago. But that was in Canada, preceding a launch shortly afterwards in the US, which was the main objective in North America.