2013-03-06 08:33:09 -

ING announced today that it has completed the sale of ING Direct UK to Barclays.

As announced on 9 October 2012, the transaction is a result of ING's continuous
evaluation of its portfolio of businesses and is in line with ING's strategic
objectives of sharpening the focus of the bank and further strengthening its
capital position.

As part of the transaction, ING has transferred GBP 11.6 billion (EUR 13.4
billion at current exchange rates) of ING Direct UK's savings and deposits and
GBP 5.5 billion (EUR 6.4 billion) of mortgages to Barclays.  As previously
announced, part of the UK investment portfolio has matured or has been
liquidated to facilitate the transaction. The impact of these two transactions
was booked in the third and the fourth quarter results of 2012.

The combined   loss for the transfer of the business and the investment portfolio
is approximately EUR 260 million, which is lower than the expected loss of EUR
320 million at announcement, as favourable market circumstances have resulted in
a lower loss on the investment portfolio.

The transaction will lead to a capital release of approximately EUR 280 million
in the first quarter of 2013 due to a reduction in Risk Weighted Assets. This is
expected to result in a positive impact on ING Bank's core Tier 1 ratio of 12
basis points based on ING Bank's core Tier 1 ratio of 11.9% at 31 December 2012.

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 today's
announcement.

  Press enquiries                        Investor enquiries
  Carolien van der Giessen               Investor Relations
  +31 20 576 6386                        +31 20 576 6396
  Carolien.van.der.Giessen@ing.com       Investor.relations@ing.com


ING PROFILE
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.

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: 
 hugin.info/130668/R/1683282/550854.pdf



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Source: ING Group via Thomson Reuters ONE
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