http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtm...02/cning102.xml
QUOTE
ING chief goes as savers take out £3.6bn
Last Updated: 11:14pm GMT 01/12/2007
The head of ING's operations in Britain has been ousted by the Dutch bank, following an exodus of British savers from the group's online accounts.
News and analysis on the credit crisis
Lindsay Sinclair, who has led ING's British business since its headline-grabbing launch in 2003, is paying the price for failing to pass rises in the Bank of England base rate on to savers.
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ING, which made its name in this country by offering savings accounts with the best rates in the market, saw £3.6bn of deposits withdrawn in the third quarter after its rates became uncompetitive. The group was offering savers an interest rate of 5 per cent even after the Bank of England raised the base rate to 5.75 per cent.
Sinclair's departure was announced to staff last Monday. He will leave the group in January.
He is to be replaced by Johan de Wit, an ING veteran currently based in Asia, who will spearhead a new push by the group into the British mortgage market. ING is to start selling mortgages through independent financial advisers for the first time as part of a major launch into the market.
The Dutch bank's home loan move follows a scramble by many of Britain's mortgage lenders to raise new sources of funding - which have been expensive to arrange, and could erode profit margins. Alliance & Leicester last week secured a £4bn funding line from Credit Suisse, while Bradford & Bingley has sold a £4.2bn loan portfolio.
Dick Harryvan, the head of ING Direct, insisted that Sinclair's departure had been a "mutual decision". He told The Sunday Telegraph: "In the UK right now we are in the process of repositioning the operation. With [Sinclair] having been there for five years, it was a logical moment for him to do something else. We talked to him about other possible positions in the group, but his flexibility to move was not there, so in the end he decided to leave."
Harryvan added: " The Bank of England [raised rates] four times in the last 12 months, we followed twice. We saw in August, when we ended up 75 basis points behind, that this led to the outflow we saw in the third quarter."
Last Updated: 11:14pm GMT 01/12/2007
The head of ING's operations in Britain has been ousted by the Dutch bank, following an exodus of British savers from the group's online accounts.
News and analysis on the credit crisis
Lindsay Sinclair, who has led ING's British business since its headline-grabbing launch in 2003, is paying the price for failing to pass rises in the Bank of England base rate on to savers.
advertisement
ING, which made its name in this country by offering savings accounts with the best rates in the market, saw £3.6bn of deposits withdrawn in the third quarter after its rates became uncompetitive. The group was offering savers an interest rate of 5 per cent even after the Bank of England raised the base rate to 5.75 per cent.
Sinclair's departure was announced to staff last Monday. He will leave the group in January.
He is to be replaced by Johan de Wit, an ING veteran currently based in Asia, who will spearhead a new push by the group into the British mortgage market. ING is to start selling mortgages through independent financial advisers for the first time as part of a major launch into the market.
The Dutch bank's home loan move follows a scramble by many of Britain's mortgage lenders to raise new sources of funding - which have been expensive to arrange, and could erode profit margins. Alliance & Leicester last week secured a £4bn funding line from Credit Suisse, while Bradford & Bingley has sold a £4.2bn loan portfolio.
Dick Harryvan, the head of ING Direct, insisted that Sinclair's departure had been a "mutual decision". He told The Sunday Telegraph: "In the UK right now we are in the process of repositioning the operation. With [Sinclair] having been there for five years, it was a logical moment for him to do something else. We talked to him about other possible positions in the group, but his flexibility to move was not there, so in the end he decided to leave."
Harryvan added: " The Bank of England [raised rates] four times in the last 12 months, we followed twice. We saw in August, when we ended up 75 basis points behind, that this led to the outflow we saw in the third quarter."
They built it up and threw it all away in the space of a year by taking their customers for fools.