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Former ING CEO Ralph Hamers has been reprimanded for violating the code of conduct for bankers. The Appeals Committee Disciplinary Law Banks states that he violated that code because of the – later withdrawn – proposal from 2018 to increase his salary at ING in one fell swoop by 50 percent, to more than 3 million euros per year. According to the committee, the proposal has “damaged social confidence in banks”.
It is the first time that a chairman of the board of a bank in the Netherlands has been reprimanded for his behaviour. Two ING supervisory directors have also been reprimanded for the salary plan, which caused a stir at the time and was withdrawn within a few days.
The Appeals Committee of the Bank Disciplinary Law says that those involved acted negligently. For example, the proposal was to increase the salary in one go, while the committee believed that this could also have been done in steps. In addition, there had already been internal warnings about public and political criticism of the proposal, but this was not listened to. Criticism from the Minister of Finance was also brushed aside.
Hamers had been acquitted in an earlier case at the Disciplinary Court. But he was overruled on appeal. The prosecutor had asked for a two-year disqualification for the commissioners and a one-year suspended disqualification for Hamers. However, the committee considers a strict disapproval of the behavior to be sufficient. The reprimand also plays a role in the fact that the three ING employees “did not want to provide information about the content of the conversations they had with each other”, according to the judgment.
In the meantime, a criminal investigation was also underway at ING into the bank’s non-compliance with money laundering legislation. ING later had to pay 750 million euros as a settlement for this. The Supervisory Board had agreed that there would be no salary increase if the investigation turned out negative.
Criminal prosecution Hamers
Ralph Hamers was ING’s CEO from 2013 to 2020. Under his leadership, the Dutch bank came under fire on several occasions, including a money laundering affair that led to a settlement of 775 million euros between ING and the Public Prosecution Service. He is personally being prosecuted for that matter.
Hamers left ING in 2021 to lead the Swiss bank UBS. There he earned 12.7 million euros a year. Last week he had to leave the Swiss bank. The supervisory board found someone else more suitable to lead UBS after the takeover of ailing Credit Suisse.
