ING has shelved plans to apply for a banking licence in China for now and plans to exit one of its two insurance joint ventures there, as it looks to shore up its capital needs, a top executive said on March 26.
The Dutch financial group is also in the process of cutting 900 jobs in Asia-Pacific as part of a plan to cut 7,000 globally, said Hans van der Noordaa, chairman and chief executive of INGS Asia-Pacific insurance and investment management business.
"We are doing a global review of our activities given the fact that we need to, as a company, make sure that we are in line with what I call a new environment," Noordaa told Reuters. "We looked into the opportunities to start our own bank in China. For the time being its not on the priority anymore," he said. Late last year, ING had said it was looking to expand its business in China and expected to make a decision on whether to apply for a banking licence early 2009.
The Amsterdam-based banking and insurance group is looking into making divestments outside its core business. The job cuts from a workforce of about 130,000 are aimed at cutting 1 billion euros of costs in 2009.
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