ING trims to size by riding on momentum

Singapore

IN paying down the last of its debt to the Dutch government this month, ING Group has mostly emerged from a six-year bailout scheme that forced deep restructuring.

It also came with sharp timing of sales of its non-core assets, with the bank taking advantage of strong appetite in emerging markets to quickly offload its insurance arm in Latin America and its private bank in Asia, said Ralph Hamers, global CEO of ING, in an interview. OCBC bought ING Asia's private bank, now known as Bank of Singapore, in 2009.

"Honestly, you have to be a bit opportun…