ING scraps sale of Russian subsidiary after Kremlin blocks buyer approval
ING, the largest Dutch bank by total assets, announced Tuesday it had terminated its agreement to sell its Russian subsidiary to Moscow-based Global Development JSC, more than 14 months after the deal was first announced. The bank said there was "no realistic prospect" that the buyer would obtain the required regulatory approvals from Russian authorities.
The failed transaction highlights the mounting difficulties faced by Western financial institutions seeking to exit Russia, where the Kremlin has used regulatory approval requirements as leverage to prevent multinationals from leaving the country since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
ING announced on January 28, 2025, the planned sale of ING Bank (Eurasia) JSC to Global Development, in what was intended to mark the end of three decades of activity on the Russian market. The deal was originally expected to close in the third quarter of 2025, but by September of that year, ING disclosed that the buyer had still not secured the necessary approvals and that there was "no realistic prospect" of completing the transaction on schedule.
In March 2026, Dutch financial daily Financieele Dagblad reported that the Kremlin was effectively blocking the sale, with Russia relying on Western banks as a conduit to international payment flows and unwilling to see them depart.
In its Tuesday statement, ING said it remained committed to withdrawing from Russia and was "assessing next steps" to achieve that goal. The bank warned that any alternative exit scenario would carry a financial impact "broadly similar" to that of the original sale, which was estimated to reduce its CET1 capital ratio by approximately seven basis points. ING had previously projected a negative after-tax profit impact of around 0.8 billion euros under the terms of that transaction.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, ING has signed no new deals with Russian companies, scaled back operations, and reduced its total credit exposure to Russian clients by more than 75 percent. By mid-2025, the bank's offshore exposure to Russian clients had fallen to 0.7 billion euros.
ING's failed exit attempt reflects difficulties encountered by other major European lenders. Raiffeisen Bank International and UniCredit have each faced obstacles in their own efforts to leave Russia, blocked by Moscow's expanding network of counter-sanctions and regulatory restrictions. In late 2024, Bloomberg reported that Russia had signaled its intention to block Western banks from selling assets to local buyers, leaving many institutions with few alternatives. A Russian decree issued in October 2025 compounded the situation by creating mechanisms for the accelerated sale of expropriated foreign assets.
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