ING to End Retail Operations in the Philippines after 4 Years

After being one of the first digital banks in the Philippines, ING has decided to end its retail operations after 4 years.

In its announcement, ING explains that it will exit the Philippines because of “the uncertain global macro situation in the last few years.” This resulted in ING choosing to not expand its activities to other countries, which lead to its ending its retail operations in the Philippines. That being said, ING will end its retail banking business and support for its mobile banking app by the end of 2022.

Despite the exit, ING assures that all the money of its account holders will remain safe and accessible in the meantime. Aside from that, those who were part of ING’s introductory 4% interest rate promo will still be eligible until further announcements. 

As of press writing, ING states that there will be no changes to any ING accounts, so account holders can still access their funds, “as well as products and services currently offered by ING through the ING mobile banking app.”

Because of this turn of events, ING has discontinued its Invite Friends feature since June 11, and will no longer accommodate any new account requests.

While the exact reason for ING’s decision to close shop in the Philippines remains unknown, it wasn’t able to secure a digital bank license with the BSP despite being in operations since 2018. The BSP only granted licenses to 6 digital banks: Tonik Digital Bank, Inc.; GOtyme of the Gokongwei Group and Singapore-based Tyme; Maya Bank of Voyager Innovations, Inc.; Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank), a subsidiary of Land Bank of the Philippines; UNObank of DigibankASIA Pte. Ltd.; and UnionDigital of UnionBank of the Philippines.

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