ING, a systemic bank in the European Union that was bailed out in 2008 with 10 billion euros, has managed to distance itself from the reputation problems that worry the banking industry in Spain. The Dutch bank entered the Spanish market in 1999 as an "outsider" and its first operations were carried out over the phone at a time when internet penetration was not as high as it is today.

However, its continuous and measured growth in the market has allowed it to have 3.9 million customers in 2019, a figure that still does not allow it to sit at the same table as the large banks in the Spanish market, which accumulate 14 million accounts (Caixabank), 10 million (BBVA), eight (Santander) and seven (Bankia). But this is fantastic compared to the resources and employees that the Dutch brand has in Spain.

In other words, and with all the caveats that must be applied to different types of structures, it can be concluded that ING beats the client-to-employee ratio of the large Spanish banks, serving 3.9 million customers with just 1,419 employees, of which approximately 2.2 have a payroll account. The Dutch have 2,748 clients per employee, 1,550 payroll accounts per employee. This figure approaches that of online banking and leaves the figures of the large Spanish banks light years away.

The large banks with which it can be compared to based on structure are Bankia and Caixabank, as the former only has business in Spain while the latter has the vast majority of its business in its local market.

For example, Caixabank will have just under 30,000 employees once its ERE is completed, serving about 14 million accounts. This works out to 466 clients per employee. Practically all of Caixabank's business is conducted in Spain, except for the small part of BPI in Portugal. That is why the bank's management presented reports to its employees claiming that its workforce was the least productive among the large 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 exclusively national, which means that it has a ratio of 411 clients per employee.

This means that if we compare the productivity of ING's workforce in Spain with that of Bankia, we can see that the workers at the Dutch bank serve almost seven (6.6) times more clients than Bankia employees do.

This comparison must be taken with caution, however, as it should be noted that ING does not have a Spanish banking licence and benefits from the central, technological and regulatory services carried out from its head office in Amsterdam. That is, part of the employees' cost is not seen in this comparison, as the "head office effect" must also be taken into account. But this does not prevent us from observing how the orange bank has positioned itself in Spain with productivity that is typical of the new online banks (N26 or Revolut, which also have client-to-employee ratios that overwhelmingly beat traditional banking).

The international banks

In the case of the two major Spanish international banks, we will also make the comparison, but it must be borne in mind that the head office effect is even more relevant. 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 BBVA's.

In the case of Banco Santander, with slightly less than 30,000 employees and 8 million accounts, they would serve 266 clients per employee in Spain. In both cases, these figures should not be taken literally, as both Santander and BBVA are multinational banks that receive most of their income from America (Brazil for Santander, Mexico for BBVA).