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Dutch government in appeal against decision of European Commission on support of ING
The Dutch government will institute appeal against part of the decision of the European Commission on the support measures for ING. In November 2009, the Commission accepted the early repayment of part of the capital injection of EUR 10 billion but regarded it as additional state support to the amount of EUR 2 billion. The appeal will be against the repurchase being regarded as additional state support.
The Dutch government states that the repurchase should not be considered as EUR 2 billion of additional state support. According to the government, it is not simply plausible that ING would also have paid back under the original conditions at that very moment. Without the amendment of the repayment conditions agreed upon in October 2009, ING would not have been able to acquire the capital necessary on the market by way of a rights issue.
The part of the decision in which the repurchase of the securities by ING is regarded as additional state support came as a surprise for the Dutch government, when it received the decision. The European Commission has not been able to make clear to the Dutch government why it considers the repurchase of the securities as additional state support.
The interest of the Dutch government in this appeal is that the Dutch government considers desirable a speedy exit as investor in the financial sector for a suitable return. In order to achieve this, the Netherlands is prepared to discuss with ING the repurchase of the EUR 5 billion in securities still held by the Dutch government. The assessment of the European Commission of the repurchase of the first 5 billion interferes with these negotiations with ING.
On 21 December 2009, ING paid back half of the capital injection it had received from the Dutch government at the end of 2008. The bank did this by repurchasing securities to the amount of EUR 5 billion. The total return of this sum amounted to 15% for the Netherlands.
At the end of 2008, ING was given a capital injection by the Dutch government in order to withstand unforeseen and external shocks on the international financial markets.
The appeal of the Dutch government is pending before the Court
of the European Union in Luxemburg.