ING ends Russia sale

ING thought it had found a way out of Russia. On April 7, 2026, the Dutch bank said it had terminated the deal to sell ING Bank (Eurasia) JSC to Moscow-based Global Development JSC because there was “no realistic expectation” the buyer would get the required approvals. (ing.com) That sale had been announced on January 28, 2025, and ING had expected it to close in the third quarter of 2025. The plan was simple on paper: hand the Russian unit to a local buyer and end ING’s direct activities in the country. (ing.com) Instead, the deal ran into the part of a Russia exit that has trapped many Western companies since 2022: permission. In Russia, selling a foreign-owned business is no longer just a private negotiation between buyer and seller, because state approval can decide whether the sale exists at all. (ing.com) (lexology.com) Those approvals have become harder, slower, and more expensive. By late 2024, Russia had tightened the terms again, raising the mandatory discount on many foreign asset sales to 60 percent and the exit payment to the state to 35 percent, while larger deals also needed presidential approval. (loc.gov) (unctad.org) That changes the math of leaving. A company trying to sell a factory, a retailer, or a bank is not just haggling over price anymore; it is often being asked to sell at a forced discount, pay a large fee, and then wait for officials who may still say no. (loc.gov) (unctad.org) ING had already been shrinking its Russian exposure while waiting. The bank said it had taken on no new business with Russian companies since February 2022, had separated the Russian business from ING’s wider networks and systems, and had cut its offshore exposure to Russian clients by more than 85 percent to 0.7 billion euros as of June 30, 2025. (ing.com) Even with that retreat, the bank had prepared investors for a hit. In September 2025, ING said the expected sale would produce a post-tax negative profit-and-loss impact of around 0.8 billion euros, including a 0.5 billion euro book loss, and would reduce its core equity tier one capital ratio by about 7 basis points. (ing.com) Now the sale agreement is gone, but the problem is not. ING said its position “remains unchanged,” that it sees no future for the bank in Russia, and that it is still focused on ending its activities in the Russian market. (ing.com) That makes this less a story about one failed transaction than about the long afterlife of the 2022 corporate exodus. Four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many foreign groups have reduced operations, written down assets, or announced exits, but a full legal and financial break has often taken much longer than the first headlines suggested. (kse.ua) (leave-russia.org) The numbers show how incomplete that unwind remains. The Kyiv School of Economics said 80 international companies fully left Russia in 2025, bringing the total to 547 since 2022, while more than 55 percent of the foreign companies it tracks still operate in the Russian market. (support4partnership.org) (tvpworld.com) Banks face an especially awkward version of that problem because a bank is not just a brand name or a storefront. It holds deposits, processes payments, employs regulated staff, and depends on licenses and compliance systems, so untangling it from a country under sanctions is closer to dismantling plumbing inside a live building than putting a “for sale” sign on a spare office. (ing.com) (lexology.com) ING’s failed sale is a reminder that in Russia, leaving can be harder than staying. A Western company can decide to exit in Amsterdam or London, but the final answer may still sit on a desk in Moscow. (ing.com) (loc.gov)