When was ING Group N.V. founded?

ING Group N.V. was founded in 1991, in Amsterdam, Netherlands by Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Merger Committee.

Who are the founders of ING Group N.V.?

The founder of ING Group N.V. is Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Merger Committee. The company was established in 1991 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Where was ING Group N.V. founded?

ING Group N.V. was founded in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1991 by Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Merger Committee.

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ING Group N.V.

Global Retail and Commercial BankingFounded 1991- Updated July 2025

Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya

Last reviewed: July 2025

Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.

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Search brand historiesSearchK Contact

ING Group N.V.

Global Retail and Commercial BankingFounded 1991- Updated July 2025

Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya

Last reviewed: July 2025

Founders

Who Founded ING Group N.V.?

Q: Who founded ING Group N.V.?

ING Group N.V. was founded by Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Merger Committee in 1991 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Merger Committee · Founded 1991 · Amsterdam, Netherlands

Last reviewed: July 2025 · By Swet Parvadiya

Quick Answer

ING Group N.V. was founded by Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Merger Committee in 1991 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Founding Story

The origin of ING Group is a complex tale of Dutch mercantile history, culminating in one of the most audacious and successful financial mega-mergers of the late 20th century. The bank's deepest roots trace back to 1845 with the founding of the Kooger Spaarbank, a modest savings institution in The Hague, and the 1863 establishment of Nationale-Nederlanden, an insurance company that grew to dominate the Dutch life and non-life insurance markets. Parallel to this, the Nederlandsche Middenstands Bank (NMB) was founded in 1881 to serve small and medium-sized enterprises, eventually evolving into a major domestic retail and commercial bank. For over a century, these entities operated independently, shaping the financial landscape of the Netherlands. However, the catalyst for the modern ING Group was the European Union's push for financial integration and the impending deregulation of the European banking sector in the late 1980s. Recognizing that standalone domestic banks would be crushed by emerging pan-European financial conglomerates, the leadership of Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank (the latter having merged with the state-owned postal giro system) initiated secret merger talks. On November 15, 1991, the merger was officially announced, creating the Internationale Nederlanden Groep, or ING Group. The strategic rationale was revolutionary for its time: combining the massive, long-term capital reserves and actuarial expertise of a premier insurance company with the high-frequency transactional cash flows and vast distribution network of a retail bank. This 'bancassurance' model was designed to create immense cross-selling synergies, allowing ING to offer a complete suite of financial products to a captive audience. The newly formed ING, under the leadership of its first CEO, Claus Huber, immediately embarked on an aggressive global expansion strategy, acquiring banks and insurance companies across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, including the landmark creation of ING Direct, a pioneering online bank that disrupted the high-fee retail banking markets in Canada, the UK, and eventually the United States. This rapid, debt-fueled global expansion transformed ING into a systemic global financial behemoth, but it also sowed the seeds of immense vulnerability. The complex, sprawling conglomerate structure that drove ING's rise in the 1990s and early 2000s would ultimately become its greatest liability when the global financial crisis struck in 2008, forcing a dramatic and painful restructuring that would strip the bank down to its core European banking operations and redefine its identity for the modern era.

Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Merger Committee

Co-founder 1991

Background

The modern ING Group was not founded by a single entrepreneur, but was engineered in 1991 by the executive boards and merger committees of Nationale-Nederlanden (a dominant Dutch insurance firm) and NMB Postbank (a major retail and postal giro bank). Their defining strategic decision was to execute a 'bancassurance' mega-merger, combining long-term insurance capital with high-frequency retail banking deposits to create a diversified European financial conglomerate capable of competing globally.

Role at ING Group N.V.

The creation of ING Group in 1991 was the culmination of decades of consolidation within the Dutch financial sector. Nationale-Nederlanden, with roots tracing back to 1863, had grown into the Netherlands' premier life and non-life insurance provider, possessing massive actuarial reserves and long-term investment horizons. NMB Postbank, formed from the 1881 Nederlandsche Middenstands Bank and the state-owned postal giro system, commanded the largest retail deposit base and SME lending network in the country. As European financial deregulation loomed in the late 1980s, the leadership of both institutions recognized that standalone domestic entities would be vulnerable to aggressive cross-border expansion by larger British and German banks. The merger committees orchestrated a highly complex integration, officially launching Internationale Nederlanden Groep (ING) to leverage cross-selling synergies between insurance policies and retail banking products. This foundational strategic vision transformed ING from a domestic utility into a global financial powerhouse, setting the stage for its aggressive international expansion and the pioneering launch of its direct banking model in the late 1990s.