ING Bank is intensifying its investment in agentic artificial intelligence (AI) to reshape its operational backbone, with transformative projects already under way in transaction monitoring, customer due diligence (KYC), and mortgage processing. The move reflects the bank’s strategy to enhance efficiency, reduce manual workloads and refocus its human workforce on higher-value tasks.
Speaking on the bank’s evolving AI roadmap, ING Chief Operating Officer Marnix van Stiphout explained that agentic AI—systems capable of autonomous action and decision-making—is now being embedded into core operational functions. Early-stage deployments are in production, with results already surfacing in transaction oversight and customer onboarding. “When AI is introduced to an operations process, 25% fewer people are generally required,” Van Stiphout said, though he emphasised that the focus is not on job losses but on redeploying talent to more complex and growth-oriented roles.
In customer-facing areas, ING launched a chatbot across all retail franchises last year. Now, agentic AI is being applied to marketing, specifically to identify hidden affluent clients, and to mortgage origination, where AI agents will gather data and conduct credit checks without the need for human interaction. Van Stiphout confirmed that AI-driven mortgage processing will begin rolling out in 2025 or 2026.
A major transformation is also under way in KYC compliance, where agentic AI is being used to overhaul the traditionally labour-intensive due diligence process. By drawing on public data, behavioural patterns and existing internal information, the bank can now answer up to 80% of the typical data points required for regulatory checks without involving the customer. “Customer due diligence now takes seconds, rather than days or weeks,” Van Stiphout said. This shift, he added, enables staff to concentrate on actual risk analysis instead of repetitive data collection.
Transaction monitoring is another area where AI has proven effective. AI-powered analytics help investigators prioritise alerts and close routine cases more efficiently, freeing up staff to focus on higher-risk transactions. “When you do the vanilla stuff right, the risky stuff stays open, so productivity goes up and we can investigate more,” Van Stiphout noted.
The AI developments are governed under a “conservatively aggressive” strategy led jointly by Van Stiphout and Chief Technology Officer Daniele Tonella. ING has focused its AI exploration in five key areas—KYC, customer call centres, wholesale banking due diligence, retail hyper-personalisation, and tech engineering—ensuring strict oversight to prevent fragmented implementation. “Without this governance, and due to the entrepreneurial nature of our bank, we might have seen bits of AI all over the place,” said Tonella.
Van Stiphout and Tonella remain in close contact to steer the bank’s AI agenda, which is already influencing ING’s global operational model. ING operates several delivery hubs across Europe and Asia, including major centres in Poland, Romania, Turkey, Spain, and its largest in Manila, where over 7,000 staff support technology and operations.
As ING expands the use of agentic AI across its processes, the bank aims to deliver faster, more secure, and more personalised services while maintaining strong regulatory compliance and operational resilience. For Van Stiphout, the message is clear: AI is not just about efficiency, but about building a smarter, more agile bank.
