Kremlin blocking ING’s sale of Russian branch

ING is still struggling to get rid of its Russian subsidiary, Financieele Dagblad reported from the bank’s annual report on Monday. According to the newspaper, the Dutch bank is one of several Western banks that the Kremlin is preventing from leaving in order to maintain Russia’s connection to international transactions.

Over three years ago, ING CEO Steven van Rijswijk told parliament that the bank was working on its exit from Russia. In the third quarter of last year, ING was set to sell its Russian subsidiary to Global Development JSC, a company owned by a Russian investor. But JSC was unable to obtain the necessary approvals. So ING is now reassessing “the likelihood of the sale,” the bank said in its annual report.

“The sale depends on approval by Russian regulators and the government, making the outcome uncertain,” an ING spokesperson told FD. The spokesperson stressed that the bank’s intentions remain to complete the sale of ING Russia as quickly as possible.

According to the newspaper, the problem is that the Western banks that are still active in Russia are the country’s only access to the international payment system SWIFT. Russian banks no longer have access to SWIFT, so the remaining Western banks are the country’s only way to pay for imports or get money out of the country.

ING isn’t the only major European bank struggling to leave Russia, Max Hammer of the civil society organization BankTrack told FD. “Any bank that reacted slowly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is having a hard time leaving.”

Company sales are subject to regulator approval, so whether they can leave largely depends on the Kremlin’s whims, Hammer said. “The financial sector is important to the Russian economy, so banks have to do what the Kremlin wants.”

There are ways to expedite an exit, but they are very expensive, Hammer said, referring to Citibank, which more or less let its Russian subsidiary bleed to death. “That's better from a moral standpoint than supporting the Russian economy. But it’s also better when you consider the bank’s own interests. Staying on would mean more legal costs, plus financial and reputational risks.”

While ING is stuck in Russia, its Russian subsidiary continues to grow. Total assets rose by 42.1 percent to €1,086 million last year, and gross profits jumped 58.6% to €157 million. ING paid €35 million in taxes to the Russian government in 2025.

The ING spokesperson told FD that the increase in profit is due to the legal obligation to accept inflows of funds from existing customers. “We can only deposit these funds with the Russian central bank. The interest rate is currently 15.5 percent, and it was even higher in 2025.” The spokesperson stressed that there is no way to extract the profit or capital from the Russian company. The bank anticipates a net loss of €800 million if the sale is completed.