Barclays Bank Plc is to acquire the deposits, mortgages and business assets of ING Direct UK.
This follows the announcement by ING on 2 August 2012 of a review of its strategic options for the ING Direct UK business, and its subsequent decision to exit the UK retail banking market.
Barclays will acquire a deposit book with balances of £10.9 billion and a mortgage book with outstanding balances of £5.6 billion.
The mortgage book had a loan to value ratio of 50% as at 31 August 2012 and is being acquired at an approximate 3% discount. The deposit book is being acquired at par.
On completion, approximately 750 ING Direct UK employees and 1.5 million customers will transfer to Barclays. Barclays intends to integrate the ING Direct UK business into its UK Retail and Business Banking division. Until integration, Barclays will continue to utilise ING Direct UK’s operations and platforms to service existing customers.
Completion is subject, amongst other things, to regulatory approval and is expected to occur early in the second quarter of 2013.
“We will be delighted to welcome ING Direct UK customers to Barclays,” said Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of Barclays UK Retail and Business Banking.
“We intend to maintain the high standard of service and honour the existing terms and conditions they have experienced with ING Direct UK. The acquisition of ING Direct UK is a good fit with Barclays existing UK retail banking business.”
