ING Speeding up Restructuring

Dutch financial-services company ING Groep NV is speeding up its reorganization after receiving regulators’ approval to combine its Japanese insurance unit with European operations in a 2014 initial public offering, Bloomberg News reported.

After signing a deal with the European Commission, ING will accelerate the sale of its European insurance and investment management activities by two years to the end of 2016.

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The deadline to sell more than half of ING Life Japan was extended by two years to the end of 2015 after the company failed to find a buyer.

“ING got a 10 billion-euro capital injection from the Dutch government in 2008 and transferred the risk on 21.6 billion euros of U.S. mortgage assets to the state in 2009. The rescue was approved by EU regulators on the condition that the company sells its global insurance operations and returns the financial aid with a premium and interest,” Bloomberg reported.