ING Group successfully prices inaugural holding company Tier 2 bonds

16 February 2017

ING Group successfully priced EUR 750 million of 12NC7 Tier 2 bonds to be issued to a group of European institutional investors. The bonds qualify as CRD-IV compliant Tier 2 instruments, thus strengthening ING’s capital base, but also serve for TLAC and MREL purposes.

The bonds provide ING Group with attractive pricing conditions for the coming years. They have a call date in 2024 and pay a coupon of 2.500%. This represents the lowest pricing level ever on a Tier 2 bond issued by ING.

This is the first Tier 2 bond issued by ING Group. The issue follows the recent confirmation by the Single Resolution Board that ING Group will be the relevant entity as part of its resolution strategy. In the past, Tier 2 bonds were always issued by ING Bank. This successful issuance allows ING to shift the focus to issuing senior unsecured bonds out of ING Group to further fulfill TLAC/MREL needs. The proceeds of the transaction will be on lent to ING Bank.

The deal was settled on Wednesday 15 February 2017. Joint bookrunners were Deutsche Bank, ING, JP Morgan, Societe Generale and UniCredit.