ING, one of Europe's biggest financial groups, is to be broken up under pressure from the European Commission competition authorities stemming from the state aid it received during the financial crisis.
The Commission's order yesterday that ING must sell its insurance business – worth an estimated €12bn-€15bn ($18bn-$22bn) – and focus solely on banking goes further than expected and also includes a requirement that ING sell ING Direct USA, its US direct bank.
It is one of the toughest interventions yet by Europe's competition authorities, which waved through state aid to financial groups but made clear these would be subject to scrutiny if they appeared too generous.