ING Bank discontinuing retail product services

MANILA, Philippines — Dutch financial giant ING Bank is slowly discontinuing its retail banking products and services as it targets to exit the consumer banking space in the Philippines before the end of the year.

The bank said inward fund transfers via InstaPay or PESONet, including QR (quick response) services, fund transfers between ING accounts, and bills payments would no longer be available starting Sept. 1.

Likewise, debit card services, including online, in-store, and ATM transaction plus card issuance, mobile check deposits, and bank certificate requests would also be discontinued.

ING said services that would remain available after Sept. 1 include outward fund transfers via InstaPay and PESONet, managing transfer limit, in-app chat and notifications, uploading personal documents, account recovery, e-statement generation, personal information update, and easy account closure feature.

According to the Dutch financial giant, the ING mobile banking app will be decommissioned before the end of 2022.

Last June 24, ING announced that it is exiting the retail banking market in the Philippines. It was the second foreign bank to leave the country’s consumer banking segment after global banking giant Citi sold its business to Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines.

ING is further investing in wholesale banking business and expanding its global shared services operations.

ING Bank NV is the 32nd largest bank in the Philippines in terms of assets with P31.46 billion and 33rd in terms of capital with P4.51 billion as of end 2021. It ranked 57th in terms of deposits with P15.77 billion and 31st in terms of net loans with P11.28 billion.

ING has been present in the Philippines since 1990, serving corporate and institutional clients. It has around 120 employees in both wholesale and retail banking in the country.

The Dutch financial giant ventured into the retail banking space in late 2018 and currently serves more than 380,000 customers with savings accounts, current accounts, and consumer lending.

ING’s retail business in the Philippines was intended as the first step and foundation for a broader Asia retail banking plan. Since its launch in 2018, the business has demonstrated good progress, commercial momentum and growth potential.

However, the uncertain global macro situation in the last few years led to ING deciding not to expand the activities to other countries, which meant that the retail operations in the Philippines had to be re-assessed for its scalability as a standalone business.

In June last year, ING announced that it was also leaving the retail banking market in France where it has been active since 2000 as an online bank. It serves around one million customers in France.