Our progress on restructuring - body

What is, in short, ING's progress on restructuring?

ING has substantially completed the separation of its banking and insurance operations. This is required by the European Commission (EC), but ING also thinks it is in the interests of all stakeholders, especially our customers. The main reason is that it simplifies the organisation, making it easier to manage. We made significant progress with our restructuring programme in 2013. As a result, we have now reached the final stage of this process.

During 2013, ING reached several milestones, for example:

The unwinding of the illiquid assets back-up facility (IABF) was agreed upon in 2013. It was completed in early 2014.
A successful initial public offering (IPO) of the US insurance business (ING U.S.).
Divestment of ING’s Asian insurance and investment management operations largely completed.
An agreement in November 2013 with the EC on revised timelines for the European and Japanese insurance and investment management divestments, which together formed ING Insurance and were renamed NN Group on 1 March 2014.
An agreement in November 2013 with the EC on revised timelines for the European and Japanese insurance and investment management divestments, which together formed ING Insurance and were renamed NN Group on 1 March 2014.

What are the timelines now for the divestment of the Insurance and investment management businesses?

On 6 November 2013 ING announced that, together with the Dutch State, it had reached an agreement with the EC on revised timelines for the European and Japanese insurance and investment management divestments:

The timeline to divest more than 50% of these businesses remains unchanged at year-end 2015.
The deadline to divest 100% of these businesses was accelerated from year-end 2018 to year-end 2016.
The entity for the base case IPO of ING’s European insurance and investment management activities will include ING Life Japan. ING Life Japan is therefore to be divested in line with timelines for the European insurance and investment management units.

After carefully exploring and evaluating the options available to ING for the divestment of ING Life Japan, it was concluded that a standalone sale of the business was not feasible in a manner that met the demands of ING’s stakeholders. In that context, ING Life Japan was included in the scope of the base case IPO of NN Group.

ING U.S.

The 2012 Amended Restructuring Plan requires ING Group to divest at least 25% of ING U.S. by December 31, 2013; more than 50% by December 31, 2014; and 100% by December 31, 2016. On 18 March 2014, ING Group announced that it plans to sell approximately 33.5 million ING U.S. shares, representing a stake of approximately 12% in ING U.S. This sale will reduce ING Group’s stake in ING U.S. to approximately 45% from approximately 57% at year-end 2013.