ING Group

ING Group N.V. (Dutch: ING Groep) is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale banking, private banking, asset management, and insurance services. With total assets of US$967.8 billion, it consistently ranks among the largest banks globally.

ING is the Dutch member of the Inter-Alpha Group of Banks, a co-operative consortium of 11 prominent European banks. Since the creation^{[clarification needed]} in 2012, ING Bank is a member in the list of global systemically important banks. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.

In 2020, ING had 53.2 million clients in more than 40 countries. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. The long-term debt for the company as of December 2019 is €150 billion.

ING is an abbreviation for Internationale Nederlanden Groep (lit. 'International Netherlands Group'). The orange lion on ING's logo alludes to the group's Dutch origins as the color of NN and logo of Postbank N.V.

ING Group traces its roots to two major insurance companies in the Netherlands and the banking services of the Dutch government. In 1991, the insurance branch of Nationale-Nederlanden and the banking branch of "NMB Postbank Groep" merged. NMB stands for "Nederlandsche Middenstands Bank".

In 1845, the fire insurance company Assurantie Maatschappij tegen Brandschade de Nederlanden van 1845 ("Fire Insurance Company of the Netherlands of 1845") was founded. It grew to be the leading Dutch insurance company with branches outside the Netherlands (139 the world over by 1900). It later changed its name to "De Nederlanden van 1845". Two decades later, in 1863, the life insurance company Nationale Levensverzekerings Bank ("National Life Insurance Bank") was founded in Rotterdam. These two insurance companies made multiple acquisitions, and in 1963 merged to form the Nationale-Nederlanden insurance company. Nationale-Nederlanden expanded significantly during the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1881, the Dutch government created the Rijkspostspaarbank, a postal savings system to encourage workers to start saving. Four decades later, they added Postcheque and Girodienst services allowing working families to make payments via post offices. Separately in 1927, the Dutch government initiated a re-organization of Dutch banks which resulted in the creation of the Nederlandsche Middenstands Bank (NMB). NMB provided retail banking services in the Netherlands and abroad.

In 1986, post office banking services were privatized as Postbank N.V. and three years later it would merge with NMB bank to form NMB Postbank Groep.