ING Group sets up back office in Phl

MANILA, Philippines - Netherlands-based ING Group N.V., one of the world’s largest financial service companies, has established a new back office in the Philippines.

“We welcome ING’s launch of an in-house business support hub in Manila, following the footsteps of other European multinational firms,” House Deputy Majority Leader Roman Romulo, a key backer of the country’s booming business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, said in a statement.

“We have high hopes that ING’s new center will help provide gainful jobs to our college graduates, many of whom remain either underemployed or totally idle,” he said.

ING Global Services and Operations Inc. has been established in the Philippines to perform back office activities to initially support the Dutch giant’s Asia-Pacific operations.

He said ING is the second Dutch multinational firm, and the fourth European-based global entity to outsource non-core, business support functions to Manila using the in-house center model, rather than independent BPO contractors.

Founded in 1991, ING provides banking, insurance and asset management services to more than 60 million clients in 50 countries. It has more than 84,000 employees worldwide.

In 2007, ING was tapped to help manage the $565-million Global Investment Program of the Government Service Insurance System, Romulo said.

The Dutch firm also used to have a life insurance business in the Philippines, but later sold the business to Pru Life Insurance Corp. of UK.

The Philippines’ highly labor-intensive BPO industry is projected to directly employ 1.3 million Filipinos by 2016, he said.

With a labor force of 780,000, the sector posted $13 billion in revenues in 2012, up by $2 billion, or 18 percent, from $11 billion in 2011.