ING Group N.V.
Acquisitions
5
Major Deals Covered
$8.8B
Disclosed Deal Value
ING's largest disclosed acquisition here is ReliaStar Financial Corp for $6.1B in 2000. This page covers 5 major deals from 1995 to 2026, each with its price where disclosed and the reason behind it.
| Company | Year | Price | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barings Bank | 1995 | Undisclosed | Rescued Barings for a nominal £1 after rogue trader Nick Leeson's losses collapsed the London merchant bank. |
| ReliaStar Financial Corp | 2000 | $6.1B | Built a US life insurance and retirement platform. |
| DiBa (Allgemeine Deutsche Direktbank) | 2003 | Undisclosed | Took full control of the German direct bank after an earlier minority stake. |
| Oyak Bank (Turkey) | 2007 | $2.7B | Entered Turkish retail banking. |
| Singular Bank (strategic investment) | 2026 | Undisclosed | Strategic investment in a leading Spanish wealth manager to accelerate Private Banking growth. |
2026
Strategic investment in a leading Spanish wealth manager to accelerate Private Banking growth.
Strengthens ING in one of Europe's largest wealth markets.
Announced with 2Q2026 results; expected to close in 1Q2027.
2007
$2.7B
Entered Turkish retail banking.
Became ING Bank Turkey.
ING continues to operate in Türkiye as a growth market.
2003
Took full control of the German direct bank after an earlier minority stake.
Created ING-DiBa, now ING Deutschland, one of ING's largest retail markets.
Remains a core growth market for ING.
2000
$6.1B
Built a US life insurance and retirement platform.
Made the US a major insurance market for ING.
The US insurance business was later separated as Voya Financial between 2013 and 2015.
1995
Rescued Barings for a nominal £1 after rogue trader Nick Leeson's losses collapsed the London merchant bank.
Gave ING an international investment banking and Asian network as ING Barings.
Barings units were later wound down or sold as ING refocused.
ING's strategy, branded "accelerating growth", focuses on adding more than 1 million mobile primary customers a year, growing Retail lending (mortgage growth of ~$32.2 billion (€28.5 billion) in 2025), diversifying into fees through investment products and private banking, and using capital more efficiently in Wholesale Banking through significant risk-transfer deals. It also mobilised ~$188 billion (€166 billion) of sustainable finance volume in 2025.
ING runs two business lines on one shared digital platform. Retail Banking serves consumers and small businesses with current accounts, savings, mortgages, consumer loans, investment products and Business Banking; it is a full-service market leader in the Netherlands and Belgium and a branch-light challenger in Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia and other markets, with Poland, Romania and Türkiye as growth markets. Wholesale Banking provides corporate lending, Working Capital Solutions, trade finance, cash management and Financial Markets services to large companies and institutions. Cheap, stable retail deposits fund the lending book, and ING is growing fee income from investment products and private banking to depend less on interest rates.
In March 1995, ING acquired the bankrupt British merchant bank Barings plc for a nominal £1 and injected ~$871 million (£660 million) in capital, creating ING Barings and rapidly expanding ING's global investment banking and emerging markets presence.
In 1999, ING acquired German merchant bank BHF-Bank for ~$2.03 billion (€1.8 billion), integrating its commercial lending operations before later divesting non-core private banking to focus strictly on digital retail and wholesale banking.
In 1994, ING acquired a strategic stake in Poland's Bank Śląski, later taking majority control to form ING Bank Śląski, which grew to become one of the top four commercial and digital retail banks in Poland.
In 1998, ING acquired a 49% stake in German direct bank Allgemeine Deutsche Direktbank (DiBa), taking 100% control in 2003 for ~$542 million (€480 million). Rebranded as ING-DiBa (now ING Germany), it grew into Germany's third-largest retail bank with nearly 10 million customers.
As part of its European Commission post-bailout restructuring commitments, ING sold its online US banking unit (ING Direct USA) to Capital One in February 2012 for $9.0 billion ($6.2B cash and $2.8B stock), allowing Capital One to rebrand it as Capital One 360.
Between 2013 and 2016, ING completed the full spin-off and IPOs of its European insurance business (NN Group on Euronext Amsterdam) and its US retirement and insurance business (Voya Financial on the NYSE), completing its transformation into a pure-play banking group.
Through its ~$395 million (€350 million) venture capital fund ING Ventures, ING invests in advanced fintech startups (including open banking platforms, AI fraud prevention, digital asset infrastructure, and SME working capital tech) to integrate capabilities into the ING mobile app.
ING focuses strictly on organic digital customer growth, strategic fintech partnerships, and bolt-on digital platform acquisitions, while avoiding large, capital-intensive cross-border bank takeovers.
Yes, in one of the most famous banking acquisitions in history. In 1995, Barings Bank (the oldest merchant bank in London, which counted the Queen as a client) spectacularly collapsed because a single rogue trader, Nick Leeson, lost $1.3 billion. ING swooped in and bought the massively prestigious but completely bankrupt institution for exactly £1.
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