ING, a systemically important bank in the European Union that was rescued with 10 billion euros in 2008, has managed to distance itself in Spain from the reputation problems that worry the banking industry. The Dutch bank entered the market in 1999 as an "outsider," and its first operations were carried out over the phone in an era when internet penetration was far from what we have today.

Thanks to its steady growth in the market, ING had 3.9 million customers in 2019, a figure that still does not allow it to sit at the same table as the major banks in the Spanish market, which have 14 million accounts (Caixabank), 10 million (BBVA), eight (Santander) and seven (Bankia). But it is a fantastic figure compared to the resources and employees that the Dutch bank has in Spain.

Ultimately, and with all the caveats that must be applied to different types of structures, it can be concluded that ING outperforms the Spanish big banks in terms of customer numbers per employee, serving 3.9 million customers with only 1,419 employees, of which around 2.2 million have salary accounts. The Dutch bank has 2,748 customers per employee and 1,550 salary accounts per employee, figures that bring it closer to online banking and leave it light years away from the figures of the big Spanish banks.

The large banks most comparable to ING in terms of structure are Bankia and Caixabank, with the former only doing business in Spain and the latter having the vast majority of its business in its local market.

For example, Caixabank will have slightly less than 30,000 employees once its redundancy plan is over, serving about 14 million accounts. This works out to 466 customers per employee. Virtually all of Caixabank's business is done in Spain, except for the small part of BPI in Portugal. That is why the bank's management presented reports to its employees stating that its staff was the least productive of the big banks in Spain.

The case of Bankia is even clearer. The public entity has 17,000 employees serving seven million accounts in Spain. Its business is entirely national, meaning that it has a ratio of 411 customers per employee.

While this comparison should be taken with caution because ING does not have a Spanish banking license and benefits from central, technological, and regulatory services carried out from its headquarters in Amsterdam, it shows how the Dutch bank has managed to position itself in Spain with a productivity level similar to that of new online banks (such as N26 and Revolut, which also have client-to-employee rates that decimate traditional banks).

In the case of Spain's two major international banks, we will also make the comparison, although the "headquarters effect" must be taken into account even more so. BBVA will have slightly over 30,000 employees and 10 million accounts in Spain. This gives it a ratio of around 333 clients per employee in Spain, lower than that of Caixabank.

In the case of Banco Santander, with slightly less than 30,000 employees and eight million accounts, it would serve 266 customers per employee in Spain. In both cases, these figures cannot be taken literally, since both Santander and BBVA are multinational banks that receive most of their revenue from America (Brazil for Santander and Mexico for BBVA).