ING SCRAPS STANDALONE SALE OF BELGIAN INSURANCE OPS

Netherlands-based financial services group ING is understood to have abandoned its plan to sell its Belgian life and non-life businesses on a standalone basis. The sales process began in August, being part of an insurance business divestment required by the EU in return for the Dutch state being allowed to bail out the banking side of the business. Mathieu Blondeel, head of ING's European Works Council, said that employees had been told that the sale would not now go ahead because the offers that it had received had been too low. He told the Wall Street Journal that "the offers were ridiculous and couldn't be considered.". ING was ranked seventh in the Belgian insurance market in 2009, with a combined premium of around €1bn ($1.3bn) and a profit of €4m. The life and non-life businesses together employ about 360 people.