In preparation for war in Ukraine, ING increased loans to the Russian state

Good morning!

In the years before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ING lent hundreds of millions of euros to the Russian state, with which it financed the war. After the downing of flight MH17 and the invasion of Crimea in 2014, the bank did not scale back investments, but increased them, as long as this was not strictly prohibited. That reports RTL News based on research into the annual accounts of the Russian branch of ING.

In 2015, ING had built up several million in Russian government bonds, in 2020 this was 280 million euros. A year later, closer to the outbreak of war, this had been reduced slightly to 250 million. For example, ING financed the ‘construction phase’ of the war, writes RTL Z, with which the bank earned tens of millions of euros through interest rates of up to 8 percent. Karel Burger Dirven, the first honorary consul of Ukraine in the Netherlands: “They should have focused on extensification instead of intensification in 2014 (after the annexation of Crimea). Just leave. Lock the door, throw away the key.”

The latter happened after the European Union imposed sanctions following the invasion in February 2022. Banks were quickly banned from financing the Russian state. There is no more information about Russian government bonds in the 2022 annual accounts. ING has since said it has not done business with Russia and that its portfolio has now shrunk to a negligible amount.

RTL asked several MPs for a response, each of whom condemned the news. Jan Paternotte (D66) calls it “downright unwise” that the bank “has contributed to financing Putin’s war machine.” GroenLinks-PvdA calls ING’s loans to Russia “morally reprehensible”. Sarah Dobbe of SP: “This shows again how capital works and has no morals.”

This is what we noticed this morning:

• Are China and the US getting out of their ‘escalation spiral’? as colleague Tabitha Speelman recently put it in an analysis? The forced sale of the American TikTok branch and strict Chinese export restrictions on rare earth metals have put the relationship on edge, but something seems to be happening tonight. The US and China have agreed on a ‘framework’ for a trade deal.
• The giant online store Amazon does not yet beat Bol.com. Bol is the market leader in the Netherlands and Belgium, and after five years in the Netherlands, Amazon hopes to change that with an investment of 1.4 billion euros. That reports it F.D this morning, and is confirmed by ANP. Jeff Bezos’ online store wants to make it easier for entrepreneurs to sell in the Netherlands.
• Dutch companies must themselves better prepare for attacks from Russia, say intelligence experts against NOS. Waterworks, airports or telephone traffic, among others, are interesting targets for cyber attacks. Today, parliamentarians from NATO states will speak in Poland about these threats.