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.
Recommended for you
With the final tally for FY25 now confirmed, how many advisers left during the financial year and how does it compare to the previous year?
HUB24 has appointed Matt Willis from Vanguard as an executive general manager of platform growth to strengthen the platform’s relationships with industry stakeholders.
Investment manager Drummond Capital Partners has announced a raft of adviser-focused updates, including a practice growth division, relaunched manager research capabilities, and a passive model portfolio suite.
When it comes to M&A activity, the share of financial buyers such as private equity firms in Australia fell from 67 per cent to 12 per cent in the last financial year.
