ING goes back to basics
ING will divest its insurance and investment management businesses globally to raise funds to repay its Dutch Government loans granted at the height of the financial crisis.
ING said it would completely separate its banking and insurance operations, including investment management, over the next four years. The company has already sold its investment management and insurance operations in Australia, with ANZ buying ING’s half of the company's joint venture agreement late last month.
The divestment of the remaining global businesses could include sales, initial public offerings or combinations of the two.
The planned divestments form part of ING’s ‘back to basics’ plan. A statement from the group’s head office in Amsterdam said while ING had been a “strong advocate for combining banking and insurance in one company”, the financial crisis had “diminished” the benefits offered by the model. In addition, there is now a greater demand for “simplicity, reliability and transparency”, the group said.
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