The financial institution said it expected ‘no material impact’ from the US subprime mortgage crisis and turbulent debt markets.
Posting second-quarter profits helped by selling part of a stake in ABN Amro, its rival at the centre of a takeover fight, ING said it had tightened risk management this year, anticipating a potential downturn of the leveraged finance market.
Michel Tilmant, chief executive, said: “There has been a wake-up call on risk pricing. The market has reached the limit of what is acceptable and we have refused to price a number of deals.”
Separately, exposure to subprime mortgages was limited to $4.4bn through asset-backed securities representing 0.25% of total assets, of which 93% carried a triple or double-A credit rating.
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