ING Bank NV will retain its legal entity in India but change its name to ING from ING Barings and continue with the lion logo. The move follows ING's global strategy that by end-2002, ING will be the dominant brand for its wholesale business across the globe.
On February 1, the Netherlands-based ING announced that it is creating a single global brand, as its shareholders felt that there was no common feature among all group entities, said officials. All the wholesale entities will adopt the ING name in 2002.
The switch-over will help integrate ING's financial service offerings under a single brand name. The move follows a similar exercise of integrating ING's other lines of business including retail banking, insurance and asset management in America, Australia and much of Central and Eastern Europe.
Early last year, ING began integrating its wholesale operations within the businesses of BHF-Bank, ING Bank, BBL, ING Barings, Charterhouse Securities, Vermeulen Raemdonck, Nationale-Nederlanden and ING Ferri into one unit under the Executive Centre (EC) Europe. The wholesale business of ING includes corporate banking, investment banking, financial markets and employee benefits. With the integration process of all its businesses almost completed, ING is now branding its wholesale business to operate under the single ING name and ING lion logo.
In the Netherlands, the banking and insurance businesses of Nationale-Nederlanden, Postbank, CenE Bankiers and RVS also introduced an ING endorsement below their existing logo. The leading Belgian bank Bank Brussels Lambert (BBL), which is part of ING, has also announced its plans to migrate to the parent company name. BBL is also increasing the name recognition of the ING brand in Belgium through an endorsement strategy.
The wholesale businesses of ING include corporate financial services (eg structured finance, debt products, and financial institutions), investment banking (eg mergers & acquisitions, equity capital markets), financial markets (eg equities, foreign exchange, money markets, derivatives and treasury) and employee benefits.
