ING’s 11th Investor Relations Symposium: ING Leverages Group Benefits to Create Value for Shareholders

Amsterdam, 12 April 2006, Investors benefit from ING Group’s combination of banking, insurance and asset management through revenue synergies, risk diversification, earnings stability, capital benefits and strategic flexibility, said Michel Tilmant, Chairman of ING Group, at the company’s 11th Investor Relations Symposium in Amsterdam.

ING simplified the Group’s internal structure in 2004 and the top priority of managers is to be successful in the markets in which they operate. “We want to be a good bank, a good insurer, and a good asset manager,” Mr. Tilmant told investors. “The benefits of that strategy are fully evident in our 2005 results, which showed solid growth across the business lines.”

On top of that, the combination of banking, insurance and asset management means ING is better positioned to benefit from convergence of the wealth accumulation, wealth management and wealth protection markets.

“Clients’ product needs change with their life cycle, and as the population ages we see an increasing convergence between the banking, insurance and asset management industries. ING is well positioned to capitalise on this convergence through product development and diverse sales expertise, so we can continue to offer our clients the products they need to manage their financial futures,” Mr. Tilmant said.

In addition, ING benefits from risk diversification because the banking and insurance portfolios offer a natural hedge on interest rate sensitivity, as well as diversification of credit risk, market risk, insurance risk, and non-financial risk. ING is making important steps to manage Group-wide risk on an integrated basis, which allows the group to weigh risk appetite against value creation potential as part of product pricing, capital allocation and performance management.

This risk diversification contributes to greater earnings stability as well as lower capital requirements. The economic capital requirements of the Group are approximately 10%-17% lower than the sum of the capital requirements for the individual banking and insurance subsidiaries. This results in a lower cost of capital and means ING is able to achieve higher returns on shareholders’ equity.

The combination of banking and insurance also provides strategic flexibility to capture growth in the wealth accumulation market via the most effective channel.

Other presentations during the Investor Relations Symposium highlight the Group’s continued growth potential, particularly in developed markets.

Asset Management
ING Investment Management is focusing on leveraging its global investment capabilities and increasing cooperation between the regions to strengthen investment performance, product innovation and distribution. The business is well positioned for growth in Western Europe, where pension assets are expected to grow at 8% a year until 2015. The businesses in Central Europe and Asia have experienced rapid growth, and in the U.S. the strong performance in fixed-income and senior loans is being leveraged for new products and growth opportunities.

ING Real Estate
Institutional investors are expected to allocate more assets to real estate in the coming years, and ING Real Estate is well positioned to profit from this trend. The company is the global leader with an integrated platform that spans the value chain from property development to real estate financing and investment management. In addition ING Real Estate has a global reach to capture the expanding cross-border flows in real estate and to provide global investment opportunities for investors.

Nationale-Nederlanden
Nationale-Nederlanden has delivered on its promises to improve product profitability and customer satisfaction over the past two years. The company is continuing to invest in the renewal of its business processes and IT systems and working to reduce costs by the expected EUR 235 million by end-2007. In addition, Nationale-Nederlanden will focus on top-line growth by leveraging ING’s distribution power through retail banking, tied agents and intermediary channels in the Netherlands, and potentially also in Belgium.

Retail Banking
ING’s retail banking business units in the Benelux are focused on above-market growth in mortgages, savings and the SME sector through cross-selling to an already large customer base. At the same time they are striving for cost leadership through simplicity in products and processes, streamlining and outsourcing.

The Investor Relations Symposium can be followed live via webcast at www.ing.com starting at 9:00 a.m. CET. The presentations will also be available online from that time.

ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset
management to over 60 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 50 countries. With a diverse workforce of about 115,000 people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent companies that increasingly serve their clients under the ING brand.

Note to Editors
The programme for the Investor Relations Symposium is as follows:

09.00 am Introduction by Michel Tilmant
09.30 am Asset Management by Angelien Kemna and Bob Crispin
10.45 am Tea/coffee break
11.00 am ING Real Estate by George Jautze
12.00 pm Lunch
01.30 pm Nationale-Nederlanden by Ludo Wijngaarden, John Boers and Merel Engelbert van Bevervoorde
02.45 pm Tea/coffee break
03.00 pm Retail Banking by Eli Leenaars, Hans van der Noordaa and Jan Op De Beeck
04.30 pm Wrap up by Cees Maas
05.00 pm End of the day

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