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ING BANK SEPARATES BANKING OPERATIONS
As part of their final restructuring plan, filed with the European Commission and presented to Shareholders for approval at an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders on 25 November 2009, ING is divesting all of their insurance and investmenet management activities and moving towards complete separation of their banking and insurance operations.
Jan Hommen, CEO of ING, stated “Today we are announcing a comprehensive set of actions that, taken together, provide a clear plan for resolving the uncertainty created by the financial crisis and will launch a new era for ING. A little over one year ago, ING began to experience the direct impact of the financial crisis, resulting in two instances of government support to strengthen our capital position and to mitigate risk. Over the last six months, we have worked tirelessly - both inside ING and with the Dutch Government and the European Commission - to devise a plan that will enable us to pay back the Dutch State, address the EC’s requirements for viability and fair competition, and return our focus to the business and what matters most to our customers. We recognize the considerable efforts of the Dutch Government and the EC, and are pleased to have achieved understandings with them about how we will move forward.
Splitting the company is not a decision we took lightly. ING has a proud history as a global financial services leader and has been a strong advocate for combining banking and insurance in one company. The combination provided us with advantages of scale, capital efficiency and earnings stability through a diversified portfolio of businesses. However, the financial crisis has diminished these benefits. Now, the widespread demand for greater simplicity, reliability and transparency has made a split the optimal course of action. We will work carefully in the coming months and years to manage the separation in a way that will support the success of our businesses in the interests of our customers, employees, shareholders and other providers of capital.”
For full details of their proposal, visit http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=417610_EN.
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Josmar Hart, 01/12/2009 |
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