ING Investment Management Americas Hires Rick Nelson as CIO

ING Investment Management Americas, part of ING Group (NYSE: ING) is pleased to announce the appointment of Fredric A. (Rick) Nelson as Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Officer starting April 7.

With this new appointment ING Investment Management (IIM) Americas will have an outstanding leader to manage all equity and fixed income investment professionals for its institutional, managed accounts, mutual fund and proprietary account businesses. IIM Americas encompasses the U.S., Canada, Mexico and South America and has $150 billion in total assets under management. In his new role Mr. Nelson will be based in New York, will be a member of the IIM Americas Management Committee and will report to Bob Crispin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IIM Americas.

Mr. Nelson has over 21 years experience, and joins IIM Americas from JP Morgan Fleming Investment Management, Inc., where he was most recently Managing Director and Head of the U.S. Equity Group, as well as a member of the Global and U.S. Executive Committees.

Mr. Nelson's investment experience includes nine years at JP Morgan Fleming Investment Management where he supervised $50 billion of institutional and mutual fund assets, and supported an additional $30 billion in private banking assets through his oversight of U.S. equity research. Prior to that he spent 13 years at Bankers Trust Company building the index and enhanced index strategies, with oversight responsibility for approximately $80 billion of U.S. and international equity and U.S. fixed income assets. He is a graduate of Wharton and received his MBA from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Crispin comments, "I am delighted by this appointment. With over 21 years investment experience at JP Morgan Fleming and Bankers Trust, Rick has demonstrated investment leadership in world-class firms with substantial institutional and funds businesses. He has a strong understanding of disciplined investment processes for both equity and fixed income strategies. We are extremely fortunate to have someone of his caliber to drive the firm's investment engines forward in order to strengthen our ability to meet our clients' investment objectives and support ING's continued asset growth."

About ING Investment Management

ING Investment Management is a global organization with over $300 billion of assets under management in 26 countries. IIM Americas has investment operations in Atlanta, Hartford, Minneapolis, New York and Scottsdale as well as Canada, Mexico and South America, and assets under management total approximately $150 billion. It provides asset and relationship management services for institutional, managed account and alternative businesses and manages assets for ING's mutual funds and insurance companies.

ING Investment Management's broad array of investment strategies combined with ING Group's distribution capabilities across retail and institutional channels enables the organization to offer an integrated financial services solution for all of its clients, both in the U.S. and globally.

  For further information, please contact:
  Cindy Schaus
  ING Americas
  Corporate Communications
  515-698-7607
  Cindy.Schaus@ing-dm.com

  Arlene Driscoll
  ING Investment Management Americas
  Communications Services
  212-309-6407
  Email: adriscoll@ing-mag.com

SOURCE: ING Americas

CONTACT: Cindy Schaus of ING Americas Corporate Communications,
+1-515-698-7607, or Cindy.Schaus@ing-dm.com , or Arlene Driscoll of ING
Investment Management Americas Communications Services, +1-212-309-6407, or
adriscoll@ing-mag.com

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