ING DIRECT introduces Canadians to forward banking

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Apr 24, 2012, 08:00 ET

Celebrating 15 years in Canada, ING DIRECT continues to revolutionize the industry with its simplified, innovative and fair approach to banking

TORONTO, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - ING DIRECT is marking 15 years in Canada by evolving its brand to reflect its emergence as an everyday bank. "forward banking™" replaces the bank's previous tagline "save your money™", which Canadians have identified with the bank since it entered the market in 1997. The new brand idea reinforces ING DIRECT's growth into an everyday bank that provides simplified banking for modern lifestyles.

"ING DIRECT has evolved and grown significantly since we began operating in Canada. We started with a high interest savings account; today we offer a full portfolio of banking products that enable the simplicity of one-stop banking. But despite how dramatically our offering has evolved, the fundamentals of our business - ease, transparency, fairness - have not changed. We continue to live up to the promise we made 15 years ago," said Andrew Zimakas, Chief Marketing Officer, ING DIRECT.

"forward banking" helps communicate how we think banking should be - simple and innovative, with products that offer value, with no unfair fees and with the tools and service to bank when, where and how you want," he added.

Since entering the market 15 years ago, ING DIRECT has evolved from being a savings-centric bank to offering products such as the new THRiVE Chequing™ Account - a no-fee, daily chequing account that pays interest, TFSAs, RSPs, GICs, index-based mutual funds, mortgages and a home equity line of credit.

"The world has changed a lot in the past 15 years. We're shopping online, buying our music and books in the cloud, and interacting with our social groups differently. There's been all this progress in so many areas of our lives, yet banking seems to be more complicated than it needs to be for Canadians," said Peter Aceto, President and CEO, ING DIRECT. "Other banks still conduct much of their business in branches, and they charge fees whenever possible. But there is a better, more forward thinking approach to banking in Canada, and the evolution of our brand helps illustrate that."

Some highlights of ING DIRECT's forward, simple and innovative approach to banking include:

Simple products - one savings account, and one chequing account that actually pays interest
Multiple channels to do banking: online, mobile, phone (we're the only Canadian bank with a 24/7 contact centre), cafés
First bank to launch mobile banking app across all platforms (iPhone^®, BlackBerry^®, Android^®, Windows^® Phone 7)
Café concept - a place for conversations about money and not just selling products
No fees on savings or daily chequing
Digital signature for mutual fund enrolment
Free ABM access (2,400+ ABMs across Canada through THE EXCHANGE^® Network)
Active social media presence to create dialogue and awareness about money matters
CEO who actively Tweets and is on Facebook^® advocating for simple banking and fair fees for Canadians

ING DIRECT's ad agency, john st., spearheaded the overall strategy of the new brand idea and creative. Arthur Fleischmann, president/partner, john st. described the new concept as a game-changer for the brand and the industry. "ING DIRECT has been pushing banking forward for years and now we're better communicating that through the new brand idea," he said. "We're altering people's perceptions and expectations of what a bank is in the 21^st century."

ING DIRECT will introduce the new brand to Canadians through a 60-second national television spot, called "Old Ways", airing from April 25 to May 1. This commercial will run in various prime time spots in English and French on both network (CBC, CTV, Global, TVA) and specialty channels (HGTV, History, TSN, Slice, Showcase, RDS, Series+, Canal D).

A separate 30-second national TV spot, titled "Coal", will run for six weeks beginning April 30.

Additionally, ING DIRECT will dominate all Postmedia newspapers and websites on May 1 with its new brand creative.

ING DIRECT worked with Initiative Media to plan the media buy for the TV spots, out-of-home advertising, Postmedia domination and digital while Dashboard led the new brand work on all digital and online components, such as website assets and banner ads. AmoebaCorp developed the design identity and visual language for the new platform.

About ING DIRECT

ING DIRECT is Canada's leading direct bank with over 1.8 million Clients and close to $40 billion in total assets. ING DIRECT is the bright way forward in everyday banking for Canadians, offering value added, simple products such as high interest savings accounts, including TFSAs, GICs and RSPs with no fees or service charges, low rates on mortgages and a no-fee, daily chequing account that actually pays interest. Low cost, index based mutual funds are sold through ING DIRECT Funds Limited. ING DIRECT has been operating in Canada since 1997, and paid more than $5 billion in interest to clients. ING DIRECT is open for banking 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at ingdirect.ca, on mobile devices at m.ingdirect.ca or by calling 1-800 ING DIRECT (1-800-464-3743).

Get social with ING DIRECT: Facebook.com/SuperStarSaver; Twitter.com/SuperStarSaver; YouTube.com/SuperStarSaver

Follow Peter Aceto: Twitter.com/CEO_INGDIRECT; Facebook.com/savingsceo; Direct Talk blog at blog.ingdirect.ca

™forward banking is a trademark of ING Bank of Canada.

™THRiVE Chequing is a trademark of ING Bank of Canada.

®BlackBerry is a registered trademark of Research in Motion.

®iPhone is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.

™Android is a trademark of Google Inc.

Windows® Phone is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation, registered in the US and other countries.

®THE EXCHANGE Network is a registered trademark of Fiserv Inc., licensed for use in Canada by FICANEX Services Limited Partnership.

®Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

SOURCE ING DIRECT

Video with caption: "Video: ING DIRECT's new 60-sec TV spot, titled "Old Ways"". Video available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/cgi-bin/playback.cgi?file=20120424_C8326_VIDEO_EN_12634.mp4&posterurl=http://photos.newswire.ca/images/20120424_C8326_PHOTO_EN_12634.jpg&clientName=ING%20DIRECT&caption=Video%3A%20ING%20DIRECT%27s%20new%2060%2Dsec%20TV%20spot%2C%20titled%20%22Old%20Ways%22&title=ING%20DIRECT%27s%20new%2060%2Dsec%20TV%20spot%2C%20titled%20%22Old%20Ways%22&headline=ING%20DIRECT%20introduces%20Canadians%20to%20forward%20banking