ING

Origins in insurance and banking

ING Group traces its roots to two major insurance companies in the Netherlands and the banking services of the Dutch government.

Insurance branch

In 1845, the fire insurance company Assurantie Maatschappij tegen Brandschade de Nederlanden van 1845 ("Fire Insurance Company of the Netherlands of 1845") was founded. It grew to be the leading Dutch insurance company with branches outside the Netherlands (139 the world over by 1900). It later changed its name to "De Nederlanden van 1845". Two decades later, in 1863, the life insurance company Nationale Levensverzekerings Bank ("National Life Insurance Bank") was founded in Rotterdam. These two insurance companies made multiple acquisitions, and in 1963 merged to form the insurance company Nationale-Nederlanden. It expanded significantly during the 1970s and 1980s.^[22]

Banking branch

In 1881, the Dutch government created the Rijkspostspaarbank, a postal savings system to encourage workers to start saving. In 1918, they added giro-based payment services allowing working families and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to manage their income and expenses through post offices. Separately in 1927, the Dutch government initiated a re-organization of Dutch banks which resulted in the creation of the Nederlandsche Middenstands Bank (NMB). NMB provided retail banking services in the Netherlands and abroad. During the 1960s, NMB increasingly focused on the retail market and expanded its operations internationally.

In 1986, the Rijkspostspaarbank and the Postcheque- en Girodienst (PCGD) were privatized as Postbank N.V., which had more than 7.5 million private customers. Three years later it would merge with NMB bank to form NMB Postbank Groep, which became one of the five largest Dutch banks of its time.

Merger and formation of ING Group

In 1991, the banking business of NMB Postbank Groep and the insurance business of Nationale-Nederlanden were merged to create ING Group.^[23] The merger, completed on 4 March 1991, was made possible by the liberalization of Dutch financial law in 1990, which permitted cross-ownership between banking and insurance institutions. The newly formed group adopted a bancassurance model, distributing Nationale-Nederlanden's insurance products through Postbank's extensive retail deposit base.

International expansion and major acquisitions

Since the ING Group was founded, it has made many acquisitions. In the mid-1990s, ING broadened its asset management capabilities through the purchase of Parcom (1994) and Clarion (1998), and expanded in insurance through Wellington (1995), Equitable of Iowa (1997) and Guardian (1998). A defining moment came in 1995 with the acquisition of Barings Bank for a symbolic one pound following its collapse, which gave ING a significant investment banking platform and international brand recognition. Banking operations were also strengthened through the acquisitions of Furman Selz, Bank Mendes Gans and Bank Brussels Lambert – the last of which established ING's leading position in the Belgian market. In 1999, ING took over the German BHF-Bank and Canadian Group Underwriters.

The early 2000s brought further geographic expansion: Aetna's financial services and international units and ReliaStar (both 2000), Seguros Comercial América in Latin America (2001), Bank Śląski in Poland (2001) and DiBa in Germany (2002). In 2004, ING added Alliance of Canada to its insurance portfolio and Rodamco Asia to its asset management operations. In 2021, ING acquired Johnson Insurance of Canada.

The 1995 purchase of Barings Bank for one pound after its dramatic failure led to a boost in the company's wholesale banking investment banking business. Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London and one of England's oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank. It was founded in 1762 by Francis Baring, a British-born member of the German–British Baring family of merchants and bankers

Expanding its retail banking business overseas, ING used the direct banking business model it had developed with NMB Postbank to launch direct banking in other countries. The first of these was set up in Canada in 1997, and was soon followed in several other countries including the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Australia. ING Direct started with a high-interest savings account and later introduced additional banking and insurance products; it became a fast-growing and profitable part of the group.

Acquisition of Oyak Bank

In June 2007, ING announced the acquisition of the Turkish bank Oyak Bank for approximately €2 billion, marking its entry into the Turkish market. Oyak Bank, founded in 1984, was among the ten largest banks in Turkey with a market share of around 3%. The bank had a total of 360 branches, 1.2 million active retail customers and 10,000 SME customers. In 2006, the bank reported a pre-tax profit of 165 million Turkish lira (€94.6 million), with total assets of 11.8 billion Turkish lira (€6.77 billion) and a book value of 998 million Turkish lira (€572 million).

Capital injection and divestiture

In 2008, as part of the 2008 financial crisis, ING Group, together with many other major banks in the Netherlands, took a capital injection from the Dutch government. Following reports of alleged capital shortfalls, on Friday, October 17, 2008, ING's share price fell by more than 27%.^[24] ING also recorded a loss of €478 million in the third quarter of 2008, its first quarterly loss ever. For the full year 2008, ING posted a net loss of €171 million. This support increased ING's capital ratio above 8%, however as a condition of Dutch state aid, the EU demanded changes to the company structure, including the sale of insurance businesses in Latin America, Asia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and ING Direct units in the US, Canada and the UK.^[25] This included the sale of the ING Direct US operations to Capital One, ING Direct Canada to Scotiabank (doing business as Tangerine) and the ING Direct UK operations to Barclays Bank in 2012.^[26][27] The spun-off insurance businesses in North America were renamed Voya Financial in 2014.

In 2009, Postbank and ING Bank were merged into a single brand, ING. In October 2009, ING announced that its insurance arm would again be separated from ING Group. In April 2016, ING sold the last shares in NN Group, making it exclusively a bank again.

Repayment of the capital injection

In October 2008, in a move to increase its core Tier 1 capital ratio above 8%, ING Group accepted a capital injection plan from the Dutch Government.^[28] The plan supplied €10 billion (US$13.5 billion) to the operation, in exchange for securities and veto rights on major operational changes and investments. The European Commission also required ING to divest itself of its insurance and investment management operations by the end of 2013 as a condition of approving the state aid.^[29]

In December 2009, ING Group repaid half of the state aid (€5 billion, plus interest and an agreed early-repayment premium) through a rights issue that raised €7.3 billion.^[24][30] A dispute between ING and the Dutch government on one side and the European Commission on the other, concerning the partial withholding of approval, was referred to the Court of Justice of the European Communities.^[31]

In May 2011, ING Group repaid a further €2 billion in a second tranche, plus a 50% premium, bringing the total payment to €3 billion; by then a total of €8 billion had flowed back to the State.^[31] The bank stated its intention to repay the remaining €3 billion of the state loan by May 2012 at the latest. On 26 November 2012, ING Group repaid a further €1.125 billion,^[32] and on 6 November 2013 another €1.125 billion was transferred to the State.^[33] On 25 March 2014, it was announced that ING would repay a penultimate tranche of €1.225 billion – €100 million more than planned – with a final payment of €1.025 billion to follow by May 2015 at the latest.^[34]

On 7 November 2014, ING repaid the final tranche of state aid; with this payment, ING had repaid a total of €13.5 billion to the Dutch State, representing an average annual return of 12.7% for the State.^[35][36]

In early 2011, public debate arose over ING's intention to once again award its CEO a substantial bonus, which many considered particularly inappropriate given that ING was still dependent on state aid at the time. In response, the Dutch House of Representatives adopted a motion to fully and retroactively tax away bonuses at banks receiving state aid, and the Minister of Finance announced a statutory ban on bonuses for directors of banks receiving state support.

Alt-A mortgage guarantees

On 26 January 2009, ING Group and the Dutch Ministry of Finance announced that the Dutch State would provide an 80% guarantee on the value of a €27.7 billion portfolio of US Alt-A mortgages held in the portfolios of subsidiaries ING Direct and ING Insurance Americas. The arrangement was named the Illiquid Assets Back-up Facility (IABF). As part of the deal, ING committed to extending €25 billion in loans to Dutch clients. CEO Michel Tilmant resigned, and the dismissal of 7,000 employees was announced. The Financial Times described the move as a clever move by the Dutch authorities, while questioning whether it concealed approximately €5 billion in disguised state aid.^[37] In September 2009, the European Commission concluded that the transaction constituted (prohibited) state aid, as it judged that ING had not paid sufficiently for the guarantee.^[38]

By September 2010, through repayments and refinancing, the size of the portfolio had fallen from €30.9 billion to €23.8 billion, although its average quality had declined. Up to that point, the State had made a profit of €461 million on the arrangement, which was reserved to absorb expected future losses.^[39]

On 1 November 2013, ING and the Dutch State reached an agreement to terminate the IABF.^[40] Under the agreement, the IABF in its existing form would be wound down, regular fee payments would be settled, and the remaining conditions of the IABF agreement would lapse. The Dutch State intended to sell the Alt-A securities on the market over the following year. At then-current market prices, the Alt-A portfolio had a market value of approximately €6.4 billion as of 1 November 2013; the proceeds of a sale at that price would be sufficient to repay ING's remaining €6.0 billion loan, leaving a profit of approximately €0.4 billion for the State. The agreement was finalized on 17 December 2013.^[41] The government's right to appoint two members of ING's supervisory board lapsed, and the remaining government-appointed supervisory board members no longer held greater voting rights on certain decisions than their fellow supervisors.^[41] On 4 February 2014, the final portion of the Alt-A portfolio still held by the State was sold at auction to Credit Suisse.^[42] Two days later, it was reported that the rescue operation had yielded the State a profit of €1.4 billion – €1 billion more than had been expected as of the previous November.^[43]

Splitting of the ING Group

The restructuring process began in 2009. Within the group, the two main divisions were organizationally separated from one another. Since 1 January 2011, ING Bank has operated as an independent company, separate from ING Insurance/Investment Management.

ING Bank comprises two divisions: Retail Banking and Wholesale Banking. Retail Banking covers retail and direct-banking services for individuals and SMEs in Europe, Asia and Canada. Wholesale Banking provides banking services such as lending, payments and cash management to companies, governments and financial institutions in more than 40 countries.

ING's insurance and asset management activities comprised life insurance, non-life insurance, pension and investment activities. These activities were split into two further units, one for US operations and one for European operations, each to be listed separately on the stock exchange.

NN Group

In May 2014, ING announced that it would bring its insurance arm, NN Group, to the stock exchange.^[45] NN Group, whose main component is Nationale-Nederlanden, is active – besides the Netherlands – in countries including Poland, Hungary, Romania, Turkey and Japan. ING initially sold less than half of the shares and intended to have sold all remaining shares by the end of 2016.^[45] In April 2014, investment companies from Hong Kong and Singapore had already subscribed for €1.3 billion.^[45] This marked the final step in ING's five-year restructuring process, after which ING remained a pure banking company.^[45]

The IPO of NN Group was priced on 1 July 2014.^[46] In May 2015, ING's remaining stake in NN Group stood at 42.4%, at which point the European Commission's restrictions on ING regarding matters such as acquisitions and price leadership lapsed.^[47] In April 2016, ING sold its remaining 14% stake in NN Group for approximately €1.4 billion.^[48]

Sale of non-core activities

From 2009 onward, business units that did not fit the new group structure were divested. The proceeds were used to strengthen ING's capital position and to repay state aid.

In 2010, ING's Private Banking activities in Asia were sold for €985 million, generating a sale profit of €332 million. The sale of the Private Banking activities in Switzerland to Julius Baer Group for €345 million was also completed. In August of that year, ING announced the sale of a 50% stake in a portfolio of Canadian industrial real estate; the sale was completed in November 2010 at a transaction value of €1.4 billion including assumed liabilities. By the end of 2010, the company had 107,000 employees, more than 18,000 fewer than at the end of 2008.

In 2011, ING sold ING Car Lease to BMW. The transaction generated proceeds of €696 million, of which approximately half was profit. In December 2011, ING completed a large sale of its Latin American life insurance and asset management activities to the Grupo Sura (with €1 billion in profit for ING). By the end of 2011, ING Group's workforce had further declined by 10,000 to around 97,000 employees.

In February 2012, ING Direct US was sold to the American bank holding Capital One (as announced in 2011). The sale price was approximately €7 billion, part of which was paid in Capital One shares. ING subsequently held a 9.7% stake in Capital One. This transaction resulted in a profit of approximately €0.5 billion for ING.

In December 2012, ING completed the sale of its insurance business in Malaysia to AIA Group. The sale proceeds were €1.3 billion, resulting in a profit of approximately €750 million.^[49] This sale was part of ING's plans to divest its Asian insurance and asset management activities. In February 2013, ING sold its life insurance operations in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand.^[50] ING achieved a net book profit of approximately €950 million on the sale. The transaction with the Pacific Century Group, which paid a total of €1.64 billion, had already been announced in October 2012.

In August 2013, ING announced the sale of its life insurance business in South Korea to the investment firm MBK Partners. ING retained an indirect stake of 10% in ING Life Korea and received €1.24 billion. ING recorded a loss of €950 million on the sale.^[51] The transaction was completed in December 2013. With this sale, ING had divested all of its Asian insurance activities, a process that had begun in early 2012.

Adjustments to the restructuring

ING found it difficult to complete the restructuring plans to have sold its insurance and asset management activities by the end of 2013. In November 2012, ING reached an agreement with the European Commission giving ING more time and flexibility to complete the divestments.^[52] The deadline was extended to the end of 2016 or 2018, depending on the region in which the activities were located.^[52]

Negotiations for the sale of the Dutch consumer bank WestlandUtrecht Bank (WUB) did not lead to a result. Its commercial activities were incorporated into the retail banking arm of Nationale-Nederlanden, while the mortgage portfolio largely remained with ING Bank.^[52] Finally, ING submitted a schedule for the repayment of the remaining €3 billion in state aid plus a 50% premium (€1.5 billion), in four equal instalments between 2012 and 2015.^[52]

Latin American divestment

In July 2011, ING sold all its Latin American insurance operations to the Colombian insurance company Grupo Sura for US$3.85 billion (generating a profit for ING of €1 billion), excluding ING's 36 percent holding in Brazilian insurer SulAmérica Seguros, which was sold at a later date.^[53] The actions were in line with EU demands to split the Group's banking and insurance operations as a condition of Dutch state aid.^[54] In 2013, ING reduced its stake in SulAmérica Seguros by 7.2%.^[55]

Selected recent transactions

In 2004, ING sold CenE Bankiers, a subsidiary inherited from NMB, to F. Van Lanschot Bankiers.^[56] The following year, ING acquired a 19.9% stake in the Bank of Beijing for approximately 1.7 billion yuan ($200 million).^[57] In January 2013, ING divested its 26% stake in India's Vysya Life Insurance to joint partner Exide Industries.^[58]

In the fintech space, ING's banking unit invested in the Chinese mobile-lending platform WeLab, in January 2016,^[59][60] and in early 2018 acquired a 75% stake in the Dutch payments company Payvision, founded by Rudolf Booker for €380 million.^[61][62]

In March 2018, ING and Credit Suisse completed the first live securities lending transaction using an application from HQLAx application built on a distributed-ledger platform Corda, worth €25 million.^[63] ING has also invested in Komgo, a Blockchain-based platform on the Ethereum network designed to automate trade-finance transactions.^[64]

In July 2025, ING Group finalized the acquisition of a 17.6% stake in private bank Van Lanschot Kempen, bringing its total holding to 20.3%.^[65] In October 2025, ING launched a share buyback program of up to €1.1 billion accompanied by a €0.5 billion cash payment.^[66] In December 2025, ING introduced instant EUR incoming payments without fees for retail and business customers.^[67]

Legal structure

ING Groep N.V. is the parent holding company of the group. All banking activities are carried out through its wholly owned subsidiary ING Bank N.V. The management board of ING Groep N.V. and the management board of ING Bank N.V. are identical in composition, which reflects the fully integrated banking structure of the group.^[72] ING Bank N.V. holds a 75.00% stake in ING Bank Śląski S.A. (Poland).^[73]

Stichting Continuïteit ING

As a protection against hostile takeovers, ING Groep N.V. has established the Stichting Continuïteit ING (ING Continuity Foundation). The foundation holds a contractual option to acquire cumulative preference shares in ING Groep N.V., up to a maximum of one-third of the company's total issued share capital at the time of exercise. The foundation may activate this option when the continuity, independence or identity of ING Group is considered to be at risk, providing the Supervisory Board with time to deliberate on an appropriate response.^[74]

Principal shareholders

As of early 2026, the following institutional investors held declared stakes exceeding 1% in ING Groep N.V., compiled from regulatory filings:

Retail banking

ING offers retail banking services in 10 countries Australia, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, and Turkey. It has over 40 million individual customers. Business Banking, or banking for small and medium sized enterprises is offered in eight Retail countries including Australia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the Netherlands and Türkiye. Private Banking and Wealth Management services are offered in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Poland.

Most of ING Group's activities are carried out under its own brand name. Worldwide, it operates the savings bank ING Direct. In the Netherlands, ING is the largest retail bank by market share, holding 40% of current account deposits,^[75] and by total assets.^[76] ING is followed by Rabobank (30%), ABN AMRO (20%), and others (10%). The Dutch brands Postbank and ING Bank were merged in 2009 and continued under the ING name. ING also operates the brands: Bank Mendes Gans (multi-currency cash pooling and netting solutions, ING holds 99%; delisted from Euronext in 2000),^[77] Movir, Nationale Borg Maatschappij, Parcom Ventures, RVS Verzekeringen, Victoria Loyalty, WestlandUtrecht Bank, Makelaarsland.

ING Bank Śląski (Poland)

In 1996, the Group became a majority shareholder of Poland's Bank Śląski ("Bank of Silesia"), one of nine banks spun off in the late 1980s from the National Bank of Poland, which ended the country's single-tier banking system. In 2001, Bank Śląski merged with an ING Bank branch in Warsaw, and since then the bank operates as ING Bank Śląski.

ING Wholesale Banking

ING Wholesale Banking provides banking and financial services to corporations and other institutions. The primary geographic focus of the wholesale banking business is the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Romania, where it offers a range of products, from cash management to corporate finance. Elsewhere, it takes a more selective approach to clients and products.

ING Wholesale Banking was strengthened in 1995, when ING took over Barings Bank. This acquisition increased the brand recognition of ING around the world and strengthened its Wholesale Banking presence in the emerging markets. Following the acquisition and up until 2004, ING's investment banking division was called ING Barings, at which point it severed its ties with the Barings name and combined with ING's other wholesale banking operations. However, the top floor of ING's London office is still home to the famous Baring art collection,^[85] and the Baring Foundation,^[86] a charitable foundation.

Wholesale Banking is divided into a number of sub-divisions, including Structured Finance, Financial Markets, Transaction Services and Corporate Finance. ING Wholesale Banking is the new name for ING Commercial Banking as of 20 January 2016. The new name better reflects the large corporate and institutional, international offering that makes up the vast majority of ING WB's business.^[87] In 2024, ING migrated its European payments infrastructure to a next-generation technology stack and rolled out its InsideBusiness digital banking platform for corporate clients across Central and Eastern European markets.

NN Investment Partners

In June 2014, ING announced the IPO of its investment management arm as part of a wider corporate restructuring.^[88] The business are to be consolidated in NN Group and subsequently floated. The IPO was priced on 1 July 2015.^[89] ING Investment Management was subsequently rebranded as NN Investment Partners.^[90] On 19 August 2021, was announced an acquisition of NN Investment Partners by Goldman Sachs for approximately €1.6 billion.^[91] The sale was completed in April 2022.^[92]

ING Direct Canada

ING's history in Canada dates back to 1997 when it founded ING Direct Canada, the first ING Direct operation in the world.^[93] By July 2011, ING Direct Canada had over 1.7 million clients, employed over 900 people and had over US$37.6 billion in assets. ING Direct Canada operated five 'Save Your Money Cafés' (branches) in the major cities of Toronto, Montréal, Calgary and Vancouver.

Its products included savings accounts, tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs), mortgages, retirement savings plans (RSPs), guaranteed investments (GICs), mutual funds, business accounts and a no-fee daily checking accounts. They were known for using a referral program as part of their advertising, allowing members to refer friends whereby both the referrer and referee receive a cash bonus.^[94]

On 29 August 2012, Scotiabank announced the acquisition of ING Direct Canada for C$3.13 billion.^[95] The sale was completed on 15 November 2012.^[96] In November 2013, Scotiabank announced the rebranding of ING Direct Canada as Tangerine Bank with the rebranding taking effect on 8 April 2014.^[97]

ING Direct France

Founded in 2000, ING in France had around 1 million customers at peak. It started offering current accounts in 2009 and home loans in 2015. Formerly ING Direct, the bank changed its name to ING in January 2019.^[98]

In 2022 ING closed its direct banking business in France^[99] which was never profitable, and sold its retail customer portfolio (but not the business itself) to Boursorama, a direct banking subsidiary of Société Générale. ING kept its wholesale and investment banking business in France.

ING Direct United Kingdom

ING Direct began operations in the UK in May 2003 and had over one million customers by 2009. Operations were based in Reading, where the company head office was situated as well as an office based in Cardiff. The bank picked up awards for its customer services and mortgage product in 2008 and 2009.^[100]

On 8 October 2008, ING purchased the savings accounts of collapsed Icelandic bank, Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, the UK Treasury used the Banking (Special Provisions) Act 2008 to transfer the Kaupthing Edge deposit business to ING Direct.^[101] Through this, ING Direct took over responsibility for £2.5 billion of deposits of 160,000 UK customers with the Icelandic bank Kaupthing Edge. ING Direct products in the UK included savings accounts, Cash ISAs, mortgages and home insurance.

ING announced a plan to exit the UK in August 2012, as it sought to raise funds to repay the Dutch government. On 9 October 2012 Barclays announced that it had agreed to buy ING Direct UK, taking on its £10.9bn deposits and £5.6bn mortgage book. ING said it would incur a €320m (£260m; $415m) after-tax loss on the sale, which would involve the transfer of 750 ING Direct staff and 1.5 million customers.^[27]

ING Direct United States

In 2000, ING launched a direct bank in the United States, with headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.^[102] In September 2007, ING Direct acquired 104,000 customers and FDIC insured assets from NetBank after it suffered from bank failure.^[103] Two months later, ING Direct acquired a financial company Sharebuilder.^[104]

In February 2012, Capital One acquired ING Direct USA from ING for US$6.3 billion in cash and 54 million shares of Capital One.^[102] As a result of the share component of the deal, ING held a 9.7% stake in Capital One following the transaction, and the sale generated a profit of approximately €0.5 billion for ING. ING sold the Capital One shares later that year.^[105] Between November 2012 and February 2013, ING Direct's U.S. operations were rebranded Capital One 360.^[106]

Voya Financial

In 2013, ING U.S. was spun off in an initial public offering ahead of its planned rebranding as Voya Financial. The IPO took place on 2 May 2013 on the New York Stock Exchange.^[107] ING sold approximately 25% of the shares in ING U.S., raising around €1 billion. Voya had approximately 13 million customers and reported a profit of $473 million in 2012, with around 7,000 employees. Across three transactions in 2014, ING further reduced its stake in Voya to approximately 19% by the end of that year. In March 2015, ING sold its remaining shares in Voya for €1.8 billion, realizing a profit of €285 million.^[108] As of 2014, ING Group is no longer the controlling shareholder of its former subsidiary, owning 47% of its shares.^[109]

ING Vysya Bank

ING Vysya Bank was a privately owned Indian multinational bank based in Bengaluru since 2002, with retail, wholesale, and private banking platforms.^[110]

Money laundering investigations

Since the largest settlement ever in the Netherlands by Vimpelcom in 2016, its house banker ING has also come under fire from the Public Prosecutor's Office.^[115] As a result of the Vimpelcom case, among others, it was announced in 2018 that ING reached a €775 million settlement with the Public Prosecutor's Office.^[116] According to the prosecution, the bank was negligent in preventing money laundering. Between 2010 and 2016, clients misused accounts at ING to launder hundreds of millions of euros.^[117]

In February 2019, an investigation found that ING had provided a total of US$3.5 billion in financing to the companies Odebrecht, Gunvor, Shell and SBM Offshore, all of which had for years been linked to corruption scandals.^[118] In 2019, it also emerged that ING's Moscow branch had continued for years to work with a company that the bank itself had suspected of involvement in money laundering as early as 2009.

In September 2020, FinCEN Files disclosed that ING in Poland helped Russian and Ukrainian clients to launder huge amounts of money out of Russia.^[119]

2012 settlement with US Treasury Department

On 12 June 2012, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a US$619 million settlement^[120] with ING Bank N.V. to settle potential liability for conspiring to violate^[121] the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Trading with the Enemy Act, and for violating New York state laws by illegally moving billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of sanctioned Cuban and Iranian entities.^[122]

Beginning in the 1990s, at the instruction of senior bank management, ING Bank employees in Curaçao began processing payments for ING Bank's Cuban banking operations through its branch in Curaçao on behalf of Cuban customers without reference to the payments' origin. The practice of removing and omitting such information was used by other branches of ING Bank's Wholesale Banking Division, including in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, in processing US dollar payments and trade finance transactions through the United States. In addition, ING Bank's senior management in France authorized, advised in the creation of, and ultimately provided fraudulent endorsement stamps for use by Cuban financial institutions in processing travelers check transactions, which disguised the involvement of Cuban banks in these transactions when they were processed through the US. ING Bank's Trade and Commodity Finance business at its Wholesale Banking branch in the Netherlands routed payments made on behalf of US-sanctioned Cuban clients through other corporate clients to obscure the sanctioned clients' identities and its Romanian branch omitted details from a letter of credit involving a US financial institution to finance the exportation of US-origin goods to Iran.

Russia operations and Ukraine sanctions

ING Bank has faced criticism for maintaining operations in Russia despite the sanctions and geopolitical tensions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the Leave Russia project, the bank continues to operate in the region, raising ethical concerns about its business practices and its alignment with international sanctions.^[123]

Sustainability and environmental criticism

ING states that it does not invest in controversial weapons such as anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions, although the manufacturers of such weapons are not themselves excluded from investment.^[124]

According to research by Netwerk Vlaanderen, ING, together with Bank of China, arranged the 2003 share issuance of Avichina, a Chinese company supplying military aircraft to countries subject to an EU arms embargo.^[125] In 2005 – ING, together with Axa, Fortis, Dexia and KBC – invested more than €6.6 billion in companies implicated in human rights violations. The companies and projects in which the banks invested were controversial for their support of dictatorial regimes, forced relocations and forced labor, including criticism relating to investment in a gas pipeline in Myanmar and the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline through Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia.^[126] ING invested more than US$900 million in seven major nuclear weapons manufacturers.^[127]

In 2006, ING had €200 billion invested under sustainable investment criteria and, with a score of 73.5 (versus a sector average of 47.4), ranked second in sustainability among AEX-listed companies, according to research by Dutch Sustainability Research.^[128] In 2007, ING, together with 32 other banks, provided $10 billion in credit to Freeport-McMoRan, a company criticized for serious human rights violations and for discharging polluted mining waste into rivers in the Papua province of Indonesia.^[129][130]

ING is the largest Dutch financier of seven major shale-gas and plastics companies, with US$4 billion in financing.^[131]

ING finances the palm-oil company SOCFIN, which has been linked to land grabbing, deforestation and human rights violations.^[132] ING has invested more than €1 billion in companies linked to deforestation and human rights violations, and connected to the fires in and around the Amazon.^[133]

Between 2011 and 2016, ING invested over US$5 billion in mining companies with questionable human rights and environmental records.^[134]

According to a broadcast of the Dutch television program "Pointer" in November 2022, ING Bank, with financing of approximately $7 billion, is the second-largest financier of LNG terminals in the United States.^[135] The gas originates partly from the Permian Basin in West Texas, where oil and gas production generates more greenhouse gas emissions than anywhere else in the world.^[136] From there, it is transported to ING-financed terminals on the Gulf of Mexico, where it is cooled to −162°C to be shipped in liquid form to Europe and Asia.

A report on the activities of the European financial sector, published in March 2024, found that ING, together with Rabobank, ranked among the top five European banks threatening forests and the climate; ING was said to have provided €23 billion in financing in this context. Earlier engagement with ING had not led to changes in its policy and strategy, prompting efforts to compel the bank, through European regulation, to adopt a less environmentally damaging investment policy.^[137][138]

Sports sponsorships

ING sponsors sporting events and artistic exhibitions throughout the world. For several years, ING was the title sponsor of marathons including the New York City Marathon, the Miami Marathon, the Georgia Marathon, the Luxembourg Marathon, the Hartford Marathon, the Philadelphia Distance Run and San Francisco's Bay to Breakers.

ING is a major global sponsor of association football, sponsoring the Royal Dutch Football Association, Royal Belgian Football Association and the Asian Football Confederation.^[139] It also sponsors German Basketball Federation.^[140]

ING was the title sponsor of the Renault Formula One team from the 2007 season to the 2009 season. It was the title sponsor of the Australian Grand Prix and Belgian Grand Prix, the Hungarian Grand Prix, and the Turkish Grand Prix. ING ended its sponsorship of Renault in part due to a reduction in advertising spending and in part due to controversy surrounding the Renault Formula One team.^[141]

It also sponsored the ING Cup cricket competition in Australia between 2001 and 2006, a domestic limited overs competition.

Education

ING is a strategic industry partner with Duisenberg school of finance.^[142] ING provides a series of internships and assists with student loans to the accepted students. Also, in-house events are organized for Duisenberg school of finance students to give better insight on the financial industry.

ING Unsung Heroes is a grant program for kindergarten through 12th grade educators in the United States. The program is run by the U.S. Financial Services division of global financial services company ING Group (ING).

Pride Amsterdam

Since 2008, ING has sponsored the annual LGBT event Pride Amsterdam.^[143]