The fact that the bank can continue to operate is because many employees work from home due to corona. According to the spokesman, it is therefore still possible to work safely. He adds that the safety and well-being of the employees is a priority. Incidentally, ING’s staff in Ukraine do not employ any Dutch people.
The question is how busy the bank is in the area at the moment. ING focuses on banking services for business customers in Ukraine and Russia. Insiders have already told Bloomberg news agency that financing for the commodities trade would be limited, now that there are many fears of stricter sanctions due to the Russian invasion. According to the sources, ING would have imposed restrictions itself, but the bank’s spokesperson did not want to confirm this.
ING has the strongest presence in the region of the Dutch banks. The bank has provided nearly 5 billion euros in business loans to Russian-based companies, it was previously disclosed. In Ukraine, according to older figures, the exposure amounted to hundreds of millions of euros. This makes ING relatively still a small player.
The other two major Dutch banks have less links with the area. ABN AMRO recently said that the exposure is nil. Rabobank in turn emphasized that it is not active in Ukraine at all. In Russia, Rabobank only conducts business through its subsidiary DLL.
Banks are now also busy with the sanctions package announced by the European Union on Wednesday. This mainly involves screening the customer base for names of persons on the sanctions list, such as Duma members who supported the recognition of renegade regions in eastern Ukraine. That is fairly simple work, outlines the Dutch Banking Association (NVB). This will change if banks are not allowed to provide certain services for certain goods under new sanctions, because they then have to ask customers all kinds of extra questions.