Chinese triumph in battle to buy ING’s Asian arm

HSBC has been beaten by Singapore's third-largest bank in the race to buy Dutch insurer ING's private banking operation in Asia.

Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) is paying $1.46 billion (£908 million) for the business which runs around 11 billion (£10.2 billion) of assets in 11 markets across Asia.

Last week ING also sold its Swiss private banking business to Julius Baer for 520 million in its continuing "Back to Basics" plan.

Today's deal completes its private banking sell-off and the company said it would keep its operations in Benelux and Central Europe as part of its core banking business.

ING is selling off assets as it tries to pay back 10 billion of state aid it received at the height of the banking crisis. Under the restructuring announced in April ING has earmarked 6 billion to 8 billion of sell-offs.