ING Group Winding Down Insurance Business In Russia

21.09.2009 — News

ING Group that has worked in Russia since 1994 is suspending the ING Life Insurance Project. Currently the company is closing its offices in 11 Russian cities.

Regional offices of the insurer have been opened in Tyumen, Ekaterinburg, Ufa, Perm. Kazan, Volgograd, Rostov-on Don, Krasnodar, Nizhniy Novgorod, and Samara in 2008-2009. In Ekaterinburg the ING Life Insurance office has been established in the end of august of 2009. The insurer planned to take 9% of the regional market.

ING Life Insurance has stopped selling policies on 17 September 2009. Jetse de Vries, the Managing Director of ING Life Insurance told RusBusinessNews that the establishment of a strong distribution channel using own agent network in Russia turned out a more difficult task than it was considered initially. ING Life Insurance Russia will continue to honour its obligations to the existing clients and provide information on the future moves.

The company has managed to employ 300 agents and 85 salaried staff by September. Around 50 million Euro has been spent on the development of the network. Earlier ING in Russia sold its nongovernmental pension fund to the British Aviva, a company currently growing its presence in the Russian insurance market.