ING Bank will no longer provide retail product services
25 July 2022
ING Bank, a Dutch financial conglomerate, is gradually discontinuing its retail banking products and services in order to exit the consumer banking space in the Philippines by the end of the year.
Inward fund transfers via InstaPay or PESONet, including QR (quick response) services, fund transfers between ING accounts, and bill payments, will be discontinued beginning September 1.
Similarly, debit card services such as online, in-store, and ATM transactions, as well as card issuance, mobile check deposits, and bank certificate requests, would be phased out.
Outward fund transfers via InstaPay and PESONet, transfer limit management, in-app chat and notifications, uploading personal documents, account recovery, e-statement generation, personal information update, and an easy account closure feature, according to ING, will remain available after September 1.
The ING mobile banking app will be decommissioned before the end of 2022, according to the Dutch financial behemoth.
ING announced its exit from the Philippine retail product services banking market on June 24. It was the second foreign bank to exit the country’s consumer banking sector, following the sale of Citi’s business to Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines.
ING is increasing its investment in wholesale banking and expanding its global shared services operations.
As of the end of 2021, ING Bank NV was the 32nd largest bank in the Philippines in terms of assets (P31.46 billion) and capital (P4.51 billion). It was 57th in deposits with P15.77 billion and 31st in net loans with P11.28 billion.
Since 1990, ING has served corporate and institutional clients in the Philippines. It employs approximately 120 people in both wholesale and retail banking in the country.
The Dutch financial behemoth entered retail banking in late 2018 and now serves over 380,000 customers with savings accounts, current accounts, and consumer lending.
The retail business of ING in the Philippines was intended to be the first step and foundation for a larger Asia retail banking strategy. Since its inception in 2018, the company has shown significant progress, commercial momentum, and growth potential.
However, due to the uncertain global macroeconomic situation in recent years, ING decided not to expand the activities to other countries, requiring the retail operations in the Philippines to be re-assessed for their scalability as a standalone business.
In June of last year, ING announced that it was exiting the retail product services banking market in France, where it had been active as an online bank since 2000. In France, it serves approximately one million customers.
