Exclusive | ING has three-pronged plan for boosting commercial banking in Asia

Dutch financial services group ING has a big question for Asia - how to earn more money from its commercial banking business in the world's fastest-growing economic region? The answer, in short, from its top regional boss is you have to get three markets right: China, Japan and South Korea.

Mark Newman, chief executive for ING Commercial Banking in Asia, told the South China Morning Post he had raised ING's internal business target to expand the contribution from its Asia commercial banking to global commercial banking business to 20 per cent of its income from the current 13 per cent. Global commercial banking income accounts for 50 per cent of total group income, with the remainder coming from retail banking.

"I hope to see that figure (13 per cent) grow closer to 20 per cent in the next few years," said Newman, adding that commercial banking globally makes up about half the group's total profit before tax; the other half comes mainly from its Europe-focused retail banking business.

To raise the profit contribution target to 20 per cent is not an easy mission for any foreign bank in Asia due to the extremely competitive market and strong growth of home-grown players.

In the past few years, particularly since the 2008 global financial crisis that upended the global financial industry landscape, many international banks have been forced to scale back their business in Asia to refocus on their home markets, due to weak capital bases and tightening market liquidity.

"Asian banks now definitely provide a lot of competition. I will say many Singapore and Japanese banks are very aggressive," said Newman, who worked for ING in various senior positions in Asia for about two decades, previously in Hong Kong and now based in Singapore.