ING Bank (Australia) Limited (trading as ING since 2017, and as ING DIRECT 1999–2017) is a direct bank operating in Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Dutch bank, ING Group. ING Australia holds an Australian banking licence as a foreign subsidiary company.ING operates through a number of controlled entities: trusts and the primary bank division, ING, which operates under the segments of Mortgages, Savings, Everyday Banking, Consumer Lending, Superannuation, Insurance and Commercial Lending.Founded in 1999, ING Australia was Australia's first direct bank. It has since grown to become the largest mortgage lender outside of Australia's Big Four banks. ING scores favourably with customer satisfaction and has the highest net promoter score of any major financial institution in Australia.As of December 2016, the bank had 1.7 million customers and over 500,000 transaction accounts. In December 2015, ING had a mortgage portfolio valued at AU$38.6 billion and AU$1.6 billion super funds under management, with 34,000 active superannuation retirement accounts in 2014.