OREANDA-NEWS. ING announced today that it has reached an agreement in principle with the trade unions (CNV Dienstenbond, FNV Finance and De Unie), the ING Pension Fund, the Central Works Council and the Association of Retired ING Employees (VSI) to transfer all future funding and indexation obligations under ING's current closed Defined Benefit (DB) Pension Plan in the Netherlands to the ING Pension Fund. The ING Pension Fund manages approximately EUR 18 billion of assets for approximately 70,000 current and former employees of ING Bank and ING Insurance.

On 3 July 2012, ING announced the adoption of two new Defined Contribution (DC) pension plans for employees in the Netherlands as of 1 January 2014: one for employees of ING Bank and one for employees of ING Insurance. ING also announced that the current DB Plan of ING employees in the Netherlands would stop accruing new pension benefits as of 1 January 2014, when the two new schemes would come into effect. Today's agreement is the final step in the move towards a modern, market-conforming pension plan and follows changes in international accounting standards. The agreement makes the ING Pension Fund financially independent and will reduce the equity volatility for both ING Bank and ING Insurance stemming from the requirements under the revised accounting regulation IAS 19.

"This agreement represents a significant milestone in the separation of Bank and Insurance as we prepare for the base case IPO of ING Insurance planned for this year. The agreement will greatly reduce the current volatility in our equity and will further simplify the Group. It also provides for a solid financial future for our employees and pensioners as the ING Pension Fund will be well-funded. I would like to thank the many stakeholders who were involved in this complicated exercise," said Ralph Hamers, CEO ING Group.

The key elements of the agreement in principle are:

Responsibility for future indexation and funding thereof will be transferred to the ING Pension Fund;
ING's obligation to restore the coverage ratio of the ING Pension Fund will cease;
The cross guarantees between ING Bank and ING Insurance to jointly and severally fund the obligations of the ING Pension Fund will be terminated;
ING will pay EUR 549 million on a pre-tax basis to the ING Pension Fund for the removal of these obligations;
ING will reduce the employees' own contribution to the pension premium under the new DC Plan by approximately EUR 80 million over a 6 year period.
As part of the agreement, ING Bank and ING Insurance will be released from all financial obligations arising out of the Dutch DB Plan. Accordingly, under IFRS (IAS 19R), this plan will no longer be accounted for as a Defined Benefit Plan. Consequently, the Dutch DB Plan will be removed from ING Group's balance sheet. For ING Group, the removal of these financial obligations and the aforementioned cross guarantee between ING Bank and ING Insurance is an important step towards the base case IPO of ING Insurance.

Under the revised IAS 19 accounting rules, "unrecognized actuarial gains and losses" on defined benefit pension plans are recognised immediately in equity, which increases volatility driven by movements in financial markets. The transfer of the obligations connected to the current Dutch DB Plan removes this source of volatility for both Bank and Insurance. It also removes the potential direct negative impact on capital in the event of a net pension liability. Furthermore, the switch to the DC Plan will take away the volatility in the pension expenses,  that - while at a higher level - are now fixed.