Dutch banking group ING is to bring together its diverse domestic operating units into four basic divisions, comprising retail, wholesale, intermediary and operations/IT.
On the Dutch market, ING is now active with a large number of companies, which all operate more or less autonomously. In the new structure, ING Netherlands will be comprised of four divisions:
retail (including Postbank, RVS and the retail activities of ING Bank and CenE Bankiers);
wholesale (including ING Bank's wholesale activities, ING Corporate Clients and ING Lease);
intermediary (including Nationale-Nederlanden, Westland/Utrecht, Movir, Regio Bank and the intermediary activities of Postbank and ING Bank); and
operations/IT, headed by Henk Kruidenier.
Under the shake-up, business units will co-operate more closely in marketing and distribution, while administrative and operational activities will be further centralised in service centres. An example of such a service centre is the already operational mortgage service centre, whereby the mortgage back-offices of the various business units have been merged into one organisation.
Further centralisation is expected to lead to job cuts among IT and operations staff.