ING has completed the sale of its ING Direct UK internet bank to Barclays.
As part of the transaction, announced in October 2012, ING has transferred £11.6bn ($17.5bn) of ING Direct UK’s savings and deposits and £5.5bn of mortgages to Barclays.
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The transaction will lead to a capital release of approximately 242m in the first quarter of 2013.
Approximately 750 ING Direct UK employees and 1.5m customers will transfer to Barclays, which will continue to utilise the firm’s operations and platforms to service existing customers until integration is completed.
In August, ING announced that the future of its ING Direct operations in the UK and Canada were under review.
ING Direct has enjoyed contrasting success in Canada and the UK. ING Direct Canada posted an accumulated profit before tax of 603m in the period from 2005 to the end of 2011.
In the UK by contrast, business success has eluded ING Direct.
The UK unit of ING Direct has accumulated losses of 321m since setting up shop in 2003. In that period, it has only posted a profit in two years (2006 and 2009).
ING sold its direct banking arm in the US to Capital One for 489m in early 2011.
ING said that the future of its direct banking units in Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Spain were not under review.
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