The Dutch banking and insurance group held talks with the government over the weekend and sought up to €9bn after it acknowledged it wanted to bolster its balance sheet on Friday.
The deal with the government makes ING the first Dutch financial group to apply to a €20bn ($26.8bn) fund created a week ago to recapitalise banks and insurers. It had said it would explore other options.
Ahead of a formal announcement last night, it was not clear what the Dutch government would seek in exchange for a cash injection. The government has said taking preference shares – which pay fixed rate of interest but have no voting rights – in companies that it invests in is an option but it is also open to other methods of reflecting its equity.