* Savings and mortgage business to be transferred to Barclays
* Expected capital release of approximately EUR 330 million due to RWA
release
* Transaction loss expected of approximately EUR 320 million after tax
* Impact of transaction on ING's core Tier 1 ratio capital neutral
ING announced today that it has reached an agreement to sell ING Direct UK to
Barclays. The transaction is part of ING's ongoing evaluation of its portfolio
of businesses and is in line with ING's strategic objective to sharpen the focus
of the bank.
Under the terms of the agreement, the £10.9 billion (EUR 13.4 billion at current
exchange rates) of savings deposits and £5.6 billion of mortgages (EUR 6.9
billion) Â of ING Direct UK will be transferred to Barclays, who will eventually
integrate these businesses in its UK Retail and Business Banking division.
 "ING Direct UK operated in a very competitive market over the past years and I
am proud of the excellent customer experience our UK team has built, as proven
by the customer satisfaction scores. In Barclays we have found a company who
will continue to provide the excellent service our approximately 1.5 million ING
Direct customers in the UK have grown accustomed to," Â said Jan Hommen, CEO of
ING.
Launched in 2003, ING Direct UK is a direct banking platform which offers a
focused range of savings and mortgages products to our customers in the UK
through secure online and mobile internet channels, supported by call centres in
Reading and Cardiff. Over the past years, ING Direct UK has received numerous
awards for its products, customer service and employee engagement. At 31 August
2012 ING Direct UK had approximately 750 employees.
The ING Direct units in Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are
not affected by today's announcement. ING continues to invest to evolve the ING
Direct business model, increasing the product offering and extending
distribution, while integrating the balance sheet with the rest of ING Bank. The
ING Commercial Banking activities in the UK are also not affected by the
transaction announced today.
The transfer of ING Direct UK's savings deposits and mortgages to Barclays will
be executed by way of a court approved banking business transfer pursuant to
Part VII of the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Â The transfer is
expected to result in an after tax loss of approximately EUR 260 million.
ING Bank will retain part of the UK investment portfolio of EUR 9 billion as per
31 August 2012 as part of ING Bank's total investment portfolio. Another part of
the UK investment portfolio will mature or be liquidated in the coming months to
facilitate the transaction which is expected to result in an after tax loss of
approximately EUR 60 million to be reported in the fourth quarter of 2012.
The combined loss for the transfer of the business and the investment portfolio
will be offset by an expected total capital release of approximately EUR 330
million due to Risk Weighted Assets release. The total transaction will
therefore be capital neutral to ING Bank's core Tier 1 ratio.
With approximately 140,000 employees and operations in more than 50 countries,
Barclays is a major global financial-services provider  engaged in personal
banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth and
investment management. Barclays UK Retail and Business Banking has more than 15
million retail customers and 700,000 business customers across the UK. Â It
offers a wide range of products and services including savings accounts,
mortgages, loans and credit cards through online, telephony, mobile and around
1600 branches across the UK.
The transfer of ING Direct UK's savings deposits and mortgages is subject to
various regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second quarter of
2013. Information relating to the transfer of business pursuant to Part VII of
the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 will be sent to ING Direct UK
customers in due course and will be made available via www.ingdirect.co.uk.
Press enquiries Investor Inquiries
Carolien van der Giessen Investor Relations
+31 20 576 6386 +31 20 576 6396
Carolien.van.der.Giessen@ing.com Investor.relations@ing.com
About ING
ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin, offering banking,
investments, life insurance and retirement services to meet the needs of a
broad customer base. Going forward, we will concentrate on our position as an
international retail, direct and commercial bank, while creating an optimal
base for an independent future for our insurance and investment management
operations.
ING Direct UK is a branch of ING Direct N.V. a wholly owned subsidiary of ING
Groep and operates in the UK under a European passport. As such, ING Direct UK
is authorised and regulated by De Nederlandsche Bank and eligible deposits
fall under the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme. In addition, the UK Financial
Services Authority regulates ING Direct UK for the purposes of liquidity,
conduct and anti-money laundering.
IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION
Certain of the statements contained in this document are not historical facts,
including, without limitation, certain statements made of future expectations
and other forward-looking statements that are based on management's current
views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially
from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual results,
performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due
to, without limitation: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in
particular economic conditions in ING's core markets, (2) changes in
performance of financial markets, including developing markets, (3)
consequences of a potential (partial) break-up of the euro, (4) the
implementation of ING's restructuring plan to separate banking and insurance
operations, (5) changes in the availability of, and costs associated with,
sources of liquidity such as interbank funding, as well as conditions in the
credit markets generally, including changes in borrower and counterparty
creditworthiness, (6) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, (7)
changes affecting mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (8) changes
affecting persistency levels, (9) changes affecting interest rate levels, (10)
changes affecting currency exchange rates, (11) changes in investor, customer
and policyholder behaviour, (12) changes in general competitive factors, (13)
changes in laws and regulations, (14) changes in the policies of governments
and/or regulatory authorities, (15) conclusions with regard to purchase
accounting assumptions and methodologies, (16) changes in ownership that could
affect the future availability to us of net operating loss, net capital and
built-in loss carry forwards, (17) changes in credit-ratings, (18) ING's
ability to achieve projected operational synergies and (19) the other risks
and uncertainties detailed in the risk factors section contained in the most
recent annual report of ING Groep N.V.
Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of ING speak only as of
the date they are made, and, ING assumes no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information
or for any other reason. This document does not constitute an offer to sell,
or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities.
pdf version of press release:
http://hugin.info/130668/R/1647524/531080.pdf
This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of
Thomson Reuters clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that:
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and
other applicable laws; and
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and
originality of the information contained therein.
Source: ING Group via Thomson Reuters ONE
[HUG#1647524]
