LONDON -- Barclays (LSE: BARC.L) (NYSE: BCS) remained steady at 222 pence in early morning trade after the bank announced it is to acquire the deposits, mortgages, and business assets of ING Direct UK.
Under the terms of the transaction, the FTSE 100 (UKX) member will acquire a deposit book with balances of 10.9 billion pounds and a mortgage book with outstanding balances of 5.6 billion pounds. The purchase price was not disclosed.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is not expected to complete before April next year. On completion, 750 ING staff and 1.5 million ING customers will transfer to Barclays.
Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of Barclays UK Retail and Business Banking, said:
"We will be delighted to welcome ING Direct UK customers to Barclays. We intend to maintain the high standard of service and honour the existing terms and conditions they have experienced with ING Direct UK. The acquisition of ING Direct UK is a good fit with Barclays' existing UK retail banking business."
Jan Hommen, chief executive of ING, commented:
"ING Direct UK operated in a very competitive market over the past years and I am proud of the excellent customer experience our UK team has built, as proven by the customer satisfaction scores. In Barclays we have found a company who will continue to provide the excellent service our approximately 1.5 million ING Direct customers in the UK have grown accustomed to."
Hommen confirmed the transaction would be "capital neutral" to ING Bank's core Tier 1 ratio.
With ING Direct UK about to leave British banking, could that mean the prospects of Barclays, alongside those of Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Santander, and Lloyds Banking, have become just that fraction brighter with one less competitor?
Perhaps.
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Maynard does not own any share mentioned in this article.
