Former ING CEO Jaap van Rijn passes away

Jaap van Rijn was – as CEO of Nationale-Nederlanden – one of the founding fathers of ING Group, which was created in March 1991 from the merger between Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Group.

Jaap van Rijn was also ING Group's first CEO.

“ING says goodbye to a pioneer who made a supreme effort first to secure the merger between Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Group and then to get ING off to a good start nationally and internationally”, says Ralph Hamers, current CEO of ING Group. “He did a lot for our company with his philosophy that the Netherlands needed strong financial institutions in this day and age of globalisation.”

In the nearly one and a half years that he stood at the helm of ING as CEO, Van Rijn strongly advocated a number of ING values, including – besides the provision of excellent services – professionalism, reliability, social responsibility and the creation of a clear business culture, with ‘integrity’ at its core. He also believed that ‘it is people who make a difference for customers’.

“And, in fact, all those values still hold true for us today”, continues Hamers. “Jaap van Rijn was a man of vision, and he put his heart and soul into ING. We are extremely grateful to him for that, and we owe him many thanks. We are indeed saddened by his death.”

Jaap van Rijn was CEO of ING Groep N.V. from the date of its establishment (January 1991) to July 1992. He resigned his post when he retired. He remained connected with the company as a member of its Supervisory Board from 1 July 1992 to 7 May 1999.