Total administered assets grew by €2.8 billion in the second quarter, at ING Private Banking, driven by a net inflow of €1.3 billion and favourable equity markets which added €1.5 billion.

Net inflows were mainly raised in Asia (€0.8 billion) and Belgium (€0.5 billion).

Overall, underlying net profit was up 36.7 per cent to €2,747 million at the Dutch bank.

Last month ING announced the opening of a private banking operation in London to expand its European offering.

The venture is a new front-end operation for an existing private client business in the UK and the initial focus for the new business will be clients from Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Ex-pat Europeans and UK non-domiciles will also be targeted in the first stage of the launch.