Netherlands Selling €6.4B ING U.S. Mortgage Bonds

The Dutch government will sell €6.4 billion of ING Groep U.S. mortgage bonds that it acquired during a 2009 bailout, Bloomberg News reports. ING will pay about €400 million to the Netherlands from a provision it took in 2009 to unwind the transaction. The government may make a gain of almost €800 million, though there will be a one-time impact on this year’s budget deficit of €223 million, according to Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem. ING Group / Bloomberg The government plans to return money to taxpayers after it provided more than €95 billion to rescue companies including ING, ABN Amro Group NV and SNS Reaal NV. ING received a €10 billion capital injection in October 2008, when mortgage-backed securities held at its U.S. units plunged in value. In a second round of aid in January 2009, the Netherlands assumed 80% of the risk on the €27.7 billion portfolio of the Alt-A mortgage bonds.