ING Group

ING Groep N.V.

ING Groep N.V. logo
Company type	Public (Euronext: INGA, NYSE: ING)
Industry	Finance and Insurance
Founded	1991
Headquarters	Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Key people	Michel Tilmant, CEO (since May 2004) Cornelius Herkströter, Chairman (since 2004) Cees Maas, CFO
Products	Banking Insurance Asset management
Revenue	€92.8 B EUR (4.7% FY '03 to '04)
Operating income	18,324,000,000 Euro (2018)
Net income	4,290,000,000 Euro (2016)
Total assets	845,000,000,000 United States dollar (2016)
Number of employees	115,218
Website	www.ing.com

ING House, ING headquarters in Amsterdam

ING Groep N.V. (NYSE: ING, Euronext: INGA) (known as ING Group) is a financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management services. ING once stood for Internationale Nederlanden Groep.

As of 2003, ING covers 60 million private, corporate and institutional clients in 50 countries with a workforce of over 115,000 people. It has offices in Canada, Peru, Chile, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, the United States, Germany, UK, Belgium, Austria and Australia. It owns ING Direct, a virtual bank with operations in Australia, Canada, the USA, UK, Spain and elsewhere. In the 2006 Forbes Global 2000, ING was the eleventh-largest company in the world.

ING's headquarters in Amsterdam is somewhat renowned as an autonomous building.

Advertising and sponsorship

ING's Canadian commercials feature Dutch actor Frederik de Groot. In Australia, they feature Scottish comedian Billy Connolly.

From 2007, ING will become title sponsor of the Renault Formula One team. This will continue until at least 2009. In November 2006 ING was announced as the naming rights sponsor of the Australian Grand Prix in a three-year deal; The "ING Australian Grand Prix" will be the first of the 2007 season.

History

The company was created from the 1991 merger of Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Groep.

• 1995: ING acquired investment bank and asset management firm Barings.
• 1997: ING acquired insurer Equitable of Iowa Companies.
• 1997: ING opened ING Direct Canada.
• 1998: ING acquired Banque Bruxelles Lambert (BBL) of Belgium.
• 1999: ING acquired BHF-Bank of Germany.
• 2000: ING acquired US insurers ReliaStar, Aetna Financial Services and Aetna International.
• 2000: ING opened ING Direct USA.
• 2001: ING acquired Bank Śląski of Poland, and insurer Seguros Commercial America of Mexico.
• 2002: ING acquired DiBa bank of Germany
• 2004: ING Insurance Company of Canada acquired Allianz Canada
• 2004: ING sold BHF-Bank of Germany to Sal. Oppenheim
• 2005: ING acquired AFP Integra in Peru
• 2006: ING opened ING Life Bulgaria, a branch of ING Life Hungary.

Questionable Investment and Business Practices

Over the past several years, the ING Group has come under considerable scrutiny for a series of unethical business practices. In October of 2005, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the leading private-sector provider of financial regulatory services, ordered ING Funds Distributor (IFD) to pay fines of $1.5 million for permitting improper market timing in ING funds and related violations, $1.4 million in restitution to affected mutual funds, and $25,000 fine and 30-day supervisory suspension on an IFD supervisor .

Labor Dispute at National Wire Fabric

The ING Group has become the focus of a corporate campaign by the U.S. labor union, the United Steelworkers (USW). The USW has alleged that the bank, which owns a controlling interest National Wire Fabric's parent corporation, GAMMA Holdings, has been complicit in National Wire Fabric's mistreatment of union workers.

On July 23, 2005, 56 members of the United Steelworkers at National Wire Fabric in Star City, Arkansas, went on strike seeking a fair contract . Almost immediately the company responded by hiring permanent replacement workers—an action that violates international labor standards as defined by the ILO. Both USW President Leo Gerard and AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka have written letters appealing to ING to intervene and assist. The bank refused and even went as far as defending the company's tactics.

Striking steelworkers from National Wire Fabric have since taken their story to Dutch workers and investors during an international solidarity delegation in 2006. Later that year they confronted ING at the bank's ING Direct headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. Striking steelworkers also spoke out about their fight with National Wire Fabric and the ING Group at Labor Speaks Out Day at Camp Democracy on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

See also

• ING Direct
• Care Vest Capital
• European Financial Services Roundtable
• Renault F1 Team

External links

• ING Home page
  • ING Financial Partners
  • ING Direct
• Pictures of the ING Group Headquarters, Amsterdam
• ING Direct U.S. rate history (2001-present)
• ING Asia Pacific Corporate Blog (My Cup of Cha)
• ING Asia Pacific Hub Site