ING the money

2 March 2012 By George Hay Follow @gfhay

An EU court has found in favour of the Dutch bank in its battle against the European Commission over state aid penalties imposed after its 2008 bailout. That’s good for ING. But it could also ease the burden on other crisis casualties like RBS, Lloyds and Commerzbank.

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ING has won its appeal against the European Commission’s decision in 2009 over the Dutch bancassurer’s restructuring plan.
ING was initially told to pay a 50 percent premium on the 10 billion euro capital injection it received in October 2008. However, after this was amended by the Dutch state, ING repaid 5 billion euros in 2009 with a premium of 500 million euros – equivalent to around 10 percent. ING and the Dutch state appealed when the Commission ruled that this premium should have been 2 billion euros higher.
The General Court of the European Union on March 2 partly annulled the Commission’s ruling. It said the Commission had not established that the Dutch state’s amendment created an advantage a private investor in the same situation would not have gained.
The European Commission may appeal within two months. ING shares initially rose 3.3 percent to 7 euros on March 2.

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