ING is in some ways similar and in others quite different
to most of the other western banks targeting markets in central and
eastern Europe. An early entrant, the Dutch bank focused like
rivals on building a presence among the region's most active
consumers of financial services - the emerging local corporates
that needed cash, know-how and international connections to help
transform their businesses.
But the bank's approach to the provision of financial services has
placed it among the pioneers. By distributing a full range of
integrated products and services through its regional branch
network to a base of clients that stretches well beyond top-tier
corporates and multinationals, ING is growing both its brand and
its business.
"We are an integrated financial services company and that's the
way we've chosen to approach the [regional] market," says Jan
Nijssen, the Amsterdam-based group's chairman for the central
European region. "We recognized in the...
