The FINANCIAL — Dutch bank ING and the European Commission said Monday they have agreed to an extension for the bank to repay bailout loans granted during the financial crisis.
The new agreement gives the bank more time to sell its insurance interests and to repay the remainder of the 10 billion euros ($13 billion) it received in state aid in 2008.
The bank will now repay the remaining three billion euros from the loan along with a 50 percent premium in four equal payments of 1.125 billion euros, it said in a statement.
The first payment will be made on November 26 of this year and the final payment in May 2015.
"We are pleased that the agreement announced today gives us more time and flexibility to complete the required restructuring while leaving our strategic objectives unchanged," CEO Jan Hommen was quoted as saying.
As part of the original 2009 agreement, ING was committed to selling its insurance operations by the end of 2013, but the new agreement gives them more time, potentially up to the end of 2018.
"Our agreement with the Dutch authorities preserves the balance of the original plan," Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquin Almunia said in a separate statement.
"In the next three years, ING will repay to the Dutch state all the state support it received, including a premium," he said.
ING has already separated its insurance and banking operations and sold its Latin-American businesses in 2011 as well as ING Direct USA in February of this year.
Executing the restructuring plan has so far cost the bank 500 million euros, it said.
As EUbusiness announced, after the last payment, ING will have paid a total of 13.5 billion euros to the Dutch state.
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