December 02, 2009

An interview with Arkadi Kuhlmann, the founder and CEO of ING Direct.Imagine entering a heavily regulated ultracompetitive industry as a start-up. That's what The Dutch-based ING Group decided to do in 1998. It founded ING Direct as a Robin Hood of the banking industry, a new kind of bank aiming to bring back saving to the average American. The idea was to have a bank without branches and pass the savings from reduced overhead on to the customer in the form of higher rates. ING Direct opened for business in 2000 and was an immediate success.

By early 2001 it had passed the 100,000 customer mark, and just six months later it passed 200,000. Through unconventional but focused advertising and marketing outreach, the word spread so explosively that today ING Direct is America's largest savings bank, with more than $90 billion in assets. I talked to Arkadi Kuhlmann, its founder and chief executive officer, about how he introduced something truly new into the banking industry.