ING Bank reaches agreement with US Authorities
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
ING Bank announced today that it has entered into a Settlement Agreement with
U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and
Deferred Prosecution Agreements with the Department of Justice, the United
States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the District Attorney
of the County of New York (together the "U.S. Authorities") in relation to the
investigation by those agencies into compliance with U.S. economic sanctions and
U.S. dollar payment practices until 2007.
Under the terms of the Deferred Prosecution Agreements, no further action will
be taken against ING Bank if it meets the conditions set forth in the
agreements. As part of the settlement, ING Bank has agreed to pay a total
penalty of USD 619 million. As announced on 9 May 2012, ING Bank took a
provision in the first quarter of 2012 to cover this issue.
ING Bank previously disclosed in its annual reports and other public filings
that it was in discussions with authorities concerning compliance with OFAC
requirements in relation to transactions executed by Commercial Banking. Since
2006, prior to receiving inquiries from the U.S. Authorities, ING initiated two
extensive internal investigations. Much of the findings, which were voluntarily
disclosed to OFAC, focused on conduct relating to transactions associated with
ING Bank's Cuban operations, as well as business with counterparties in other
OFAC sanctioned countries. The discussions with authorities on these issues did
not involve ING's Insurance and Investment Management operations, nor Retail
Banking or ING Direct.
ING Bank has cooperated closely and constructively with regulators and other
authorities throughout this process. The U.S. Authorities have recognized ING's
substantial cooperation in the resolution and ING's efforts and commitment to
continuously enhance compliance within the organisation.
"The violations that took place until 2007 are serious and unacceptable. The
facts as compiled in the statement of the Department of Justice describe a very
different ING than the company we're all working so hard for today," said Jan
Hommen, CEO of ING Group. "Since starting the investigations in 2006, ING Bank
has taken decisive actions to strengthen compliance throughout the organisation
and heighten employee awareness of compliance risks. This continues to be a key
priority in the interests of our customers, employees and other stakeholders,
and serves to ensure we remain abreast of compliance risks in an increasingly
complex financial services industry."
ING Bank is fully committed to conducting its business with the highest levels
of integrity, which includes strict compliance with all applicable laws,
regulations and standards in each of the markets and jurisdictions in which it
operates. ING Bank has taken various steps to strengthen global compliance risk
management. The Bank:
· Voluntarily terminated relationships with sanctioned banks and
entities, including closing its representative office in Cuba in 2007 and
liquidating the Netherlands Caribbean Bank, which was concluded in 2009.
· Created a central team focused on preventing and detecting money
laundering and terrorist financing and related policies and procedures.
· Implemented enhanced compliance and risk management procedures on a
global basis to improve the Compliance function and increased the number of
compliance staff, which now has in excess of 400 full time ING employees
dedicated to Compliance across our worldwide operations.
· Enhanced its global compliance training programme as part of ING's
continuing focus on building a compliance-based culture.
· Amended key policies and guidelines and the international rollout of
several programmes for education, awareness and monitoring of sanctions and
compliance issues.
All enhancements that have been implemented in the past years are designed to
meet or exceed current rules and regulations of law enforcement agencies and are
aimed at preventing practices of this type from occurring in the future.
Press enquiries Investor enquiries
Carolien van der Giessen ING Group Investor Relations
+31 20 576 6386 +31 20 576 6396
Carolien.van.der.Giessen(at)ing.com Investor.relations(at)ing.com
ING PROFILE
ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin, offering banking,
investments, life insurance and retirement services to meet the needs of a broad
customer base. Going forward, we will concentrate on our position as an
international retail, direct and commercial bank, while creating an optimal base
for an independent future for our insurance and investment management
operations.
IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION
Certain of the statements contained in this document are not historical facts,
including, without limitation, certain statements made of future expectations
and other forward-looking statements that are based on management's current
views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from
those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual results, performance or
events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, without
limitation: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular economic
conditions in ING's core markets, (2) changes in performance of financial
markets, including developing markets, (3) consequences of a potential (partial)
break-up of the euro, (4) the implementation of ING's restructuring plan to
separate banking and insurance operations, (5) changes in the availability of,
and costs associated with, sources of liquidity such as interbank funding, as
well as conditions in the credit markets generally, including changes in
borrower and counterparty creditworthiness, (6) the frequency and severity of
insured loss events, (7) changes affecting mortality and morbidity levels and
trends, (8) changes affecting persistency levels, (9) changes affecting interest
rate levels, (10) changes affecting currency exchange rates, (11) changes in
investor, customer and policyholder behaviour, (12) changes in general
competitive factors, (13) changes in laws and regulations, (14) changes in the
policies of governments and/or regulatory authorities, (15) conclusions with
regard to purchase accounting assumptions and methodologies, (16) changes in
ownership that could affect the future availability to us of net operating loss,
net capital and built-in loss carry forwards, (17) changes in credit-ratings,
(18) ING's ability to achieve projected operational synergies and (19) the other
risks and uncertainties detailed in the risk factors section contained in the
most recent annual report of ING Groep N.V.
Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of ING speak only as of the
date they are made, and, ING assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise
any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or for
any other reason. This document does not constitute an offer to sell, or a
solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities.
pdf version of press release:
http://hugin.info/130668/R/1619220/517141.pdf
This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of
Thomson Reuters clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that:
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and
other applicable laws; and
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and
originality of the information contained therein.
Source: ING Group via Thomson Reuters ONE
[HUG#1619220]
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 12.06.2012 - 18:02 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 155772
Anzahl Zeichen: 8631
contact information:
Town:
Amsterdam
Kategorie:
Business News
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