Could it be that ING knows something about Asia that other
global financial institutions do not? Increasingly, global players
have been cutting back in Asia: Morgan Stanley has closed its
retail brokerage business in Japan, ABN Amro has exited that
country's domestic cash equities business altogether, and last
month Citibank and Salomon Smith Barney merged their Asian sales
coverage for fixed-income products.
ING has been taking the opposite tack. It is busy buying its way
back into the region, not least in China - a country in which it is
notoriously difficult to turn a profit - where it is setting up a
second joint venture in insurance.
Nor would it seem that ING is complaining about the costs
involved. Cees Maas, the chief financial officer of ING Group, says
of the company's greenfield or start-up operations in Asia: "The
faster you grow, the faster you lose. But this is healthy loss."
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