ING closes sale of three of its U.S. broker-dealers

Amsterdam, ING announced today that it has closed the sale of three of its U.S. independent retail broker-dealer units, which comprised three-quarters of ING Advisors Network, to Lightyear Capital LLC. ING did not disclose the terms of the agreement, which was previously announced on 3 November 2009.

The divested units include Financial Network Investment Corporation, based in El Segundo, Calif., Multi-Financial Securities Corporation, based in Denver, Colo., PrimeVest Financial Services, Inc., based in St. Cloud, Minn., as well as ING Brokers Network LLC, the holding company and back-office shared services supporting those broker-dealers, which collectively did business as ING Advisors Network.

ING will retain the remaining broker-dealer from the ING Advisors Network, ING Financial Partners, Inc., based in Des Moines, Iowa along with its other broker-dealer, ING Financial Advisers, Inc., based in Windsor, Conn. These broker-dealers are closely-affiliated and play a key role in ING’s strategy in the U.S.

The sale will not have a material impact on ING’s 2010 earnings.

ING Profile

ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services. As of 30 September 2009, ING served more than 85 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 40 countries. With a diverse workforce of about 110,000 people, ING is dedicated to setting the standard in helping our clients manage their financial future.


IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION

Certain of the statements contained herein are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements. These expectations are based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, among other things, (i) general economic conditions, in particular economic conditions in ING’s core markets, (ii) performance of financial markets, including developing markets, (iii) the implementation of ING’s restructuring plan to separate banking and insurance operations, (iv) 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, (v) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, (vi) mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (vii) persistency levels, (viii) interest rate levels, (ix) currency exchange rates, (x) general competitive factors, (xi) changes in laws and regulations, (xii) changes in the policies of governments and/or regulatory authorities, (xiii) conclusions with regard to purchase accounting assumptions and methodologies, (xiv) changes in ownership that could affect the future availability to us of net operating loss, net capital loss and built-in loss carryforwards, and (xv) ING’s ability to achieve projected operational synergies. ING assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this document.