ING gets £7.7bn cash from Dutch Government

[caygs]

And so the fallout of the credit crunch continues:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7679021.stm

Dutch banking and insurance company ING is to receive a 10bn euro ($13.4bn; £7.7bn) cash injection from the Netherlands government.

The deal was agreed between ING, the finance ministry and the central bank.

The move follows a weekend of meetings with Dutch finance officials, after ING revealed it expects to make a 500m euro ($670m; £387m) third quarter loss.

The government is to make 20bn euros available to protect the financial sector from the credit crisis.

ING is one of the world's largest banks, with more than 75 million customers worldwide, Reuters news agency says.

The bank has some 338 million euros in deposits, Reuters says, and offers banking, insurance, asset management, leasing and real estate services.

ING has a prominent presence in the UK, with thousands of savers depositing their cash in the group's ING Direct banking service.

ING Direct also took over responsibility for £2.5bn of deposits of 160,000 UK customers with the Icelandic bank Kaupthing Edge - part of Iceland's largest bank, which failed almost two weeks ago.

Starting to wonder if we are going to be left with any banks in Europe that have not had cash assistance from their respective governments, I can only think of HSBC and Santandar off the top of my head.

[mjb1975]

I moved my savings out of Kaupthing t'other week and have just moved them in to my ING account!

Bloody typical.

They're covered by the Dutch scheme - £77k equivalent compo coverage.

[Mr Silly]

why did they buy the other bank accounts if they were in trouble?

[Ono]

Let's not all panic here.

The cash injection was part of the "stress testing" done by the UK, US and European governments to prevent disasters happening again. Doesn't necessarily mean these banks are in trouble.

[Kryten]

Yeah, they take the capital injection to free up lending (hopefully). Does not mean they do not have any money to do business with! Having said that ING do have large US exposure though, but both savings and mortgages.

[daveyb]

I think the cash is needed coz the first deposit is due on the ING Xmas party.

Imagine them having to make do with Talc and Asti Spewmante?....shudder

[Grandmaster]

Got a sizeable amount in an ING high interest account and I do admit that I'm tempted to move the cash into a UK bank. Have the Dutch moved to guarantee all savings as the UK has?

[Coolio]

Our govt game them like 3.2bn to help them with our KE savings

[gagsy]

I was surprised at this move. I've got some savings at ING. They were one of the last I would have thought needed help, especially given their none too competitive rates to existing customers.(Suggesting to me that they weren't that desperate for cash. Perhaps the introduction of the high interest for new customers was a sign things weren't all rosey.)

Taking Kaupthing and Heritable deposits onto their books should have improved their capital figure a smidge. €10billion from the Dutch Government will have improved it some more.

They're also selling their Taiwan insurance arm to a company called Fubon Financials for $600million and getting some shares in FF as well.