ING Hubs Romania

Over the past years, ING Hubs Romania has steadily evolved into a 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐮𝐛 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐍𝐆, becoming an integral part of how the bank builds and scales technology globally.

In a recent interview with Ziarul Financiar, 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚, chief technology officer and member of the Management Board Banking at ING Group, shares more about this evolution and reflects on the role our teams in Romania play today in 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐍𝐆'𝐬 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞.

They contribute to 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐈-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, working on shared platforms and products used in 24 ING markets. For example, they drive instant payments implementations in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, and contribute to Wero, the European digital wallet backed by 16 financial institutions, including ING.

Our focus goes beyond delivery, with an emphasis on ownership, long-term expertise and close collaboration with business partners across the organisation.

𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐏𝐢𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐚̆, IT lead for the Global Products and Technology Services area, 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬, reflecting on how this journey has been shaped by building strong capabilities in tech, data and risk, and by working as part of one global community.

Curious to see how this comes together in practice? 👇🏻 See the full perspective in the comments. 🔗

We had our summer celebration, and these snapshots say it all: full-on fun, with sun, sand, games, and a touch of beach mood. ☀️

Every year, we make time for a summer evening by the lake, with music, dancing, great chats, and a big toast to our ever-growing ING Hubs Romania community. 🥂

Here's to us and everything we create together!

On Saturday we hosted the 7th edition of our annual event, 𝐑𝐮𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭. 🌳
It all started in 2020, with colleagues running in their neighbourhoods, backyards or on treadmills, coming together for a shared cause, even in the imperfect context of the pandemic.

Last year, we welcomed cyclists 🚴 alongside runners, and the energy only grew stronger, with everyone supporting reforestation. This year, we were glad to also welcome colleagues from ING Romania, whose involvement made the event even more special.

🌳 The rule stays simple: 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝.

Now a true tradition, we met again in Băneasa forest to run or bike alongside colleagues, family and friends. There was laughter, good vibes, green trails, mud and sun, and we welcomed it all! ⛅

Those who couldn’t join there have been contributing from wherever they are in Romania and abroad: Amsterdam, Lisbon, Warsaw, the Lofoten Islands. For them, we extended the challenge until 31 May, and we’re still counting the kilometres covered. We’ll be sharing this year’s results soon.

Over the past six editions, more than 28,000 trees have been planted in southern Romania, one of the most deforested regions, together with our partner, Viitor Plus. With this year’s edition, we expect thousands more trees to be added to the areas that need them most.

Thank you to everyone who moved for good, volunteered, or cheered us on! 👏🏻

Curious where money movement is heading? Join us and find out.
On 10 June, we're opening our 🏢 doors for an evening of ideas and real examples on what comes next, bringing together speakers from ING Hubs Romania, ING Bank Romania, ING Group, along with external voices.

If you work in 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, or 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡, or simply want to understand where 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 is heading, this is for you.

On the agenda:
✔️ customer experience in the new European financial ecosystem ✔️ digital wallets
✔️ instant payments
✔️ insights into how Europe is shaping its payments landscape through initiatives like Wero

We’ll hear directly from speakers who are shaping this space every day: Violeta Negruța, Product lead Open Banking at ING and Ailin Alzaitri, Customer journey expert at ING Hubs Romania will deliver a joint presentation, alongside Raluca Gogu, Product area lead Digital Payments at ING Romania.

Enjoy listening to the speakers, contribute to the fireside chat with Raluca Micu from Netopia, then connect with the community and exchange perspectives.

🎟️ Free to attend, with limited spots available. We're collaborating with Wall-Street.ro for this event. If you don’t already have an account on their events platform, you'll be asked to create one and confirm your email.
🔗Secure your spot with the link below.

Our ongoing interest in data and the tech community is bringing another Bucharest Big Data meetup/Big Data Week to our office. 🏢 This time, the focus is on 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐲𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, on the evening of 9 June.

🎤 Our colleagues, Anamaria Lauric, chapter lead engineer and Catalin Duta, DevOps engineer, will share how they are enabling 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥-𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥-𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐧‑𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬, and what it takes to keep them consistent, scalable, and ready for both operational and analytical use cases.

Together with Roberto Comsa, data engineer at eSolutions, the session will also cover lessons from building streaming pipelines, with a focus on data validation and trust.

📌 𝐑𝐒𝐕𝐏 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 with the link below and join us at Calea Victoriei 174-176, Bucharest.

✨ 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝟑.𝟓% 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐱 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧 𝐍𝐆𝐎 𝐲𝐞𝐭? 𝐀 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.

NGOs support vulnerable communities, advocate for meaningful change, and drive impactful initiatives. It is why we partner up with local organisations in supporting programmes focused on education, social inclusion, and environmental protection.

Our colleagues give time and energy to volunteer work and act to advance the causes they believe in. One such opportunity is still open to every taxpayer in Romania looking to help: by redirecting 3.5% of your income tax to an NGO, you can directly support causes you care about, without incurring any cost.

If you have an NGO in mind, you'll find all the details on their website.
🔗 Alternatively, access 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐳𝐚.𝐫𝐨 to first choose your cause, fill in & submit the standard form [230] there by 25 May.

📅 Our colleague, Bogdan Stan, senior software engineer, is set to take the stage on Day #1 of Cloud Native Days Romania (18-19 May).

🎤 Bogdan’s session, ‘𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬! 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐊𝐮𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬’, introduces a shift from reactive firefighting to proactive resilience, from responding to outages to preventing them.

𝐐. We build on Kubernetes for scale, but how can we be sure our clusters withstand a network partition, a “noisy neighbour,” or a pod that simply refuses to stay alive?
𝐀. From the theory of chaos to controlled destruction, practical chaos engineering takes you on a journey. Through three live experiments, you’ll test common architectural weaknesses like network chaos, pod faults, stress scenarios.

🔗 See the link below for the full schedule and event details.

𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘒𝘶𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴.

It was invigorating to see students take on this year’s 𝗛𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗜𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝟮𝟰𝗵 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 with such confidence. This weekend, HackITall, organised by LSAC Bucureşti, brought together 240 participants. 60 of them worked on the challenge proposed by ING Hubs Romania, supported by eight of our colleagues who stepped in as mentors.

The theme we proposed was 𝐀𝐈 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠. Students explored how technology and responsible AI can support healthier lifestyles, guided by our mentors through feedback, questions and hands‑on support.

We saw a strong range of ideas and recognised the most promising ones:
🥇 place went to a team that developed a holistic wellbeing app combining mental and physical health, with mood tracking, smart workout recommendations and personalised content.

🥈 place went to a team that created a health aggregator; with data gathered there, an AI coach recommends workouts and nutrition plans, tracks meals and exercise, and connects users to communities suggesting health meal options.

🥉 place was awarded for a recovery app that tracks precise limb movement using wearable data, and compares movement, measures progress and supports both physical and emotional recovery.

We’re proud of what students achieved and thankful to our colleagues for mentoring them along the way. Here’s to more moments where young talent and experience come together. 🙌🏼