FD reports that ING Direct has, in its first half year of activity, attracted 250.000 savings customers in the United Kingdom. ING was using 25 million pounds for the launch, of which 15 million to be used for marketing. ING offers 4,3 % on its Internet-savings accounts and requires 400.000 customers to reach break-even.
Meanwhile Rabo has succeeded to attract 275 million euro of savings from the Belgium market, where its Rabobank.be active for one year now. On average, the 13.500 customers save an amount of € 21.000. Rabobank wishes to reach a number of 32.000 customers at the end of 2004 and hopes to reach break even in 2005. Also, expansion to other Eu-countries is on the agenda. Technically, Rabobank uses the digipas-technology of Vasco for authentication.
