ING Americas Reports 2002 Results, Contributes 19.1% to ING Group's Pre-Tax Income

ING Americas, part of Amsterdam-based ING Group (NYSE: ING) contributed 19.1% of ING Group's 2002 pre-tax operating results announced earlier today. Pretax results for the Americas of $1,020.2 million were above the $804.1 million reported for the same period in 2001. Excluding the release of contingent provisions of $100 million associated with prior acquisitions, the Americas' results were 14.4% higher than the same period in 2001.

Rigorous expense management, higher investment income and strong business growth, as well as improved profitability in Mexico drove results for 2002. Results were also positively impacted by lower financing costs due to decreased debt levels and lower interest rates. Lower levels of equity-linked assets under management resulted in acceleration in the amortization of deferred acquisition costs and higher reserves for guaranteed benefits. These items led to a combined charge of $266 million in 2002. Bond impairments and losses were $534 million in 2002. The World Trade Center losses and a restructuring charge relating to the U.S. reorganization that was announced at the end of 2001 adversely impacted prior year results.

"Our 2002 results are beginning to demonstrate that our integrated financial service strategy is paying off as we build robust and diversified business portfolios in the various Americas markets in which we operate," said Glenn Hilliard, chairman and CEO of ING Americas. "We weathered a tough year and remained strongly competitive despite ongoing weakness in the U.S. economy. Fortunately, the negative impacts of the U.S. economy were somewhat offset by lower operating costs in our U.S. businesses, a robust performance from our Institutional Markets business, and another strong year from our Canada and Mexico operations which continue to lead their respective markets in sales and underwriting results."

Hilliard continued, "I am pleased to say that we have also substantially delivered on the integration of our U.S. insurance operations. Out of these efforts, we have created a unified U.S. Financial Services operation which continues to hold a top five ranking in most key product lines -- while exceeding our expense reduction targets. Not only did we do this better and faster than anticipated, we did so during one of the most challenging economic climates that the U.S. market and the financial services sector has ever faced."

In December 2001, the U.S. operations announced aggregate restructuring plans that were expected to result in a reduction of approximately $250 million in annual operating expenses and the elimination of 1,600 positions or 15% of the U.S. workforce. By the end of 2002, ING had largely completed its integration efforts of the ReliaStar and Aetna Financial Services acquisitions to build more streamlined market-focused U.S. operations. The U.S. reorganization effort exceeded integration targets by reducing expenses 17.5% or $316 million in 2002. In total, ING Americas expense reductions were more than $400 million in 2002.

  Country results in the Americas are as follows:

  United States

ING's two core operating units for its U.S. businesses are U.S. Financial Services (USFS) and U.S. Institutional Businesses (USIB). USFS is composed of individual life, fixed and variable annuities, mutual funds, broker-dealer, and worksite businesses -- the latter includes defined contribution and pension, group insurance and payout management businesses. USIB consists of individual and group reinsurance businesses, and the Institutional Markets business, which develops and markets guaranteed investment contracts and other funding agreements.

U.S. Financial Services - Full year 2002 pretax results for USFS were $670.3 million, down from the prior year period of $953.1 million, reflecting the impact of the ongoing depressed equity markets.

"We are glad to have integration largely behind us," noted Tom McInerney, CEO of USFS. "In addition to the significant integration efforts in 2002, USFS also had strong sales and good policy retention. Our total sales in 2002 exceeded the prior year by 10%. While pre-tax earnings were below last year, results were in line with our revised expectations given the weak U.S. equity markets and economy. With the integration issues and our expense actions addressed, ING is very well positioned in the U.S. for growth when the markets and economy rebound."

Sales for USFS were up due to an increased demand for fixed annuities. Sales of variable annuities decreased due to the shift in the market away from equity-based variable products resulting from volatility in the financial markets. Increased premiums for the defined contribution block of business were due to favorable sales in the healthcare, government, and education lines of business.

U.S. Institutional Businesses - USIB reported pretax results of $250 million, an increase of $144.5 million over the previous year of $105.5 million that reflected losses incurred from the World Trade Center tragedy. USIB's performance was largely driven by the Institutional Markets business as a result of higher investment income and spreads, and business growth producing an average inforce approximately 11% higher than the prior year.

Canada - Higher underwriting results, realized capital gains, and rapid integration of the Zurich Canada business boosted the Canadian operations' full year pre-tax results to $120.4 million, up from the 2001 period of $105.6 million.

Mexico - ING's businesses in Mexico continued to grow strongly due to favorable loss ratios in the auto business and effective expense management achieved through the successful integration of the remaining 58.5% of Seguros Comercial America acquired during the second half of 2001. ING reported full- year pretax results of $234.3 million compared to $85.4 million for the same period in 2001. ING Comercial America is the largest insurer in Mexico.

South America - Pre-tax results for ING's businesses in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Netherlands Antilles of $57.5 million were $12.3 million below 2001 results primarily due to the 2001 divestiture and gain on sale of businesses in Colombia and currency devaluation in Brazil in 2002. ING has leading market positions in several product lines in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru and is the largest international insurer in South America.

ING Americas has $152.7 billion in assets under management. ING Americas' parent company, Amsterdam-based ING Group, is one of the largest integrated financial service organizations in the world with $449 billion of assets under management.

Financial amounts disclosed herein are determined in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the Netherlands. A description of these accounting principles and variances from accounting principles generally accepted in the United States are included in the ING Groep N.V. Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Certain of the statements contained in this release are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements. These expectations are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements due to, among other things, (1) general economic conditions, in particular economic conditions in ING's core markets, (2) performance of financial markets, including emerging markets, (3) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, (4) mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (5) persistency levels, (6) interest rate levels, (7) currency exchange rates, (8) general competitive factors, (9) changes in laws and regulations, and (10) changes in the policies of governments and/or regulatory authorities. ING assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this release.

SOURCE: ING Americas

CONTACT: Dianne Bernez of ING Americas, +1-770-618-3910

Web site: http://www.ing-usa.com/