Dutch banking and financial services corporation ING Group has reported a 15% year-on-year increase in profit in the third quarter of 2015, boosted by its retail banking operations and lower loan-loss provisions.

Net profit stood at €1.06bn (£759m) in Q3 2015, compared to €928m in the same period of 2014. However, profit was lower than the previous quarter when it reached €1.36bn.

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ING Bank’s third-quarter underlying profit before tax was €1.5bn, 0.6% higher year-on-year. However it was 6.6% lower than the previous quarter.

"The underlying result before tax rose 0.6% from a year ago, but declined 6.5% excluding CVA/DVA [credit valuation adjustment/debt valuation adjustment] impacts, which were reported within commercial banking and the corporate line. This decline was mainly caused by the impairment and lower commission income. Higher expenses, mainly due to business growth and the new resolution fund charge in Belgium, were partly offset by lower risk costs. Compared to the previous quarter, the pre-tax result declined 6.6%, but improved 4.5% excluding CVA/DVA impacts, driven primarily by lower risk costs," the company wrote.

ING Bank recorded €261m of risk costs in the third quarter, down from €322m a year ago and €353m in the previous quarter.

Ralph Hamers, chief executive officer at ING Group described the third quarter as successful and said that the group made good progress on its ‘think forward’ priorities.

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In his statement Hamers, highlighted the company’s "continuous innovation" and gave as an example the group’s partnership with Kabbage to serve SME customers.

Hamers said: "ING is constantly looking to develop new and improved services for our customers. To complement our in-house capabilities and maximise the potential of relevant technologies, we are steadily investing in partnerships and other forms of cooperation with outside parties.

"An example of our continuous innovation and commitment to develop our SME business in a digital way is the strategic partnership we launched with Kabbage, a leading US-based technology platform that provides automated lending to SMEs, reducing the loan application and approval process to just a few minutes. In addition to taking a small equity stake in the company, we will run a pilot project with Kabbage in Spain. We are excited about bringing this technology to our customers.

"Furthermore, in both Belgium and the Netherlands, we have set up facilities where start-ups can experiment with their new business models, enabling us to share expertise and benefit from each other’s creativity and innovative spirit."