ING Philippines marks 35 years of supporting Philippine business growth

In 1990, ING opened as a for­eign com­mer­cial bank in Manila with a team of four people, based in the Pacific Star Build­ing. 35 years later, ING Phil­ip­pines has built endur­ing part­ner­ships with many of the coun­try’s lead­ing com­pan­ies – sup­port­ing their growth through eco­nomic cycles, industry trans­form­a­tions, and shift­ing mar­ket dynam­ics. This mile­stone anniversary offers an oppor­tun­ity to reflect on that shared jour­ney and to look ahead at how Phil­ip­pine busi­nesses can nav­ig­ate their next phase of growth in an increas­ingly com­plex global envir­on­ment.

Building market leadership

ING’s evol­u­tion in the Phil­ip­pines has been shaped by mile­stones that reflect both the bank’s cap­ab­il­it­ies and the grow­ing soph­ist­ic­a­tion of the local mar­ket.

In 1996, ING became the first for­eign bank to receive a uni­ver­sal bank­ing license from the Bangko Sen­t­ral ng Pilip­i­nas. This was fol­lowed by par­ti­cip­a­tion in major privat­isa­tion trans­ac­tions, includ­ing the Pet­ron Cor­por­a­tion divest­ment in 2001, which helped estab­lish ING as a trus­ted adviser on com­plex, high-stakes deals.

By 2002, ING was among the first for­eign banks to intro­duce for­eign exchange deriv­at­ives and struc­tured solu­tions for Phil­ip­pine cor­por­ates, enabling com­pan­ies to bet­ter man­age cur­rency risk and adopt more advanced hedging strategies.

Over the fol­low­ing dec­ades, ING built a sub­stan­tial track record across cap­ital mar­kets and mer­gers and acquis­i­tions. The bank has par­ti­cip­ated in more than 194 cap­ital mar­ket trans­ac­tions totalling US$28 bil­lion and advised on over 80 M&A deals val­ued at US$35 bil­lion. Among the most not­able man­dates was ING’s 2015 advis­ory role to Globe Tele­com on a US$1 bil­lion infra­struc­ture trans­ac­tion, along­side pion­eer­ing debt cap­ital mar­ket struc­tures and solu­tions for lead­ing con­glom­er­ates and fin­an­cial insti­tu­tions.

ING’s per­form­ance in fin­an­cial mar­kets has long been recog­nized by the industry. From 2004 to 2017, the bank was named Best Fixed Income House for 14 con­sec­ut­ive years by the Fund Man­agers Asso­ci­ation of the Phil­ip­pines, and from 2010 to 2013, it was awar­ded Best M&A House by The Asset for its work dur­ing an act­ive period of tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions acquis­i­tions and sig­ni­fic­ant bank­ing-sec­tor con­sol­id­a­tion. In 2025, ING’s strength in cross-bor­der flows and cur­rency solu­tions was reaf­firmed when the bank was named the Phil­ip­pines Inter­na­tional For­eign Exchange Bank of the Year at the Asian Bank­ing and Fin­ance Whole­sale Bank­ing Awards.

Setting the standard for green and social finance

Sus­tain­able fin­ance has become one of ING’s most import­ant areas of mar­ket lead­er­ship, with the bank pur­su­ing an approach that integ­rates struc­tur­ing expert­ise, advis­ory depth, and long-term part­ner­ship.

The jour­ney began early. In 2015, ING sup­por­ted pion­eer­ing renew­able energy ini­ti­at­ives in the Phil­ip­pines, includ­ing its advis­ory and fin­an­cing role for the Bur­gos Wind Project.

By 2019, ING was shap­ing the coun­try’s sus­tain­able fin­ance land­scape through a series of mar­ket-first trans­ac­tions. In Feb­ru­ary 2019, ING advised on the Sus­tain­able Fin­ance Frame­work and arranged the Phil­ip­pines’ first PhP ASEAN Green Bond – the P15-bil­lion RCBC issu­ance. This was fol­lowed by the first PhP ASEAN Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Bond in June 2019, also arranged by ING. In Septem­ber, ING was one of the arrangers of RCBC’s first USD Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Bond, help­ing set new bench­marks for the local sus­tain­able fin­ance mar­ket.

Since then, ING has con­tin­ued to close sev­eral land­mark sus­tain­ab­il­ity trans­ac­tions in the Phil­ip­pines, includ­ing the coun­try’s first cor­por­ate Green Bond issu­ance with Arthaland in 2020. In 2023, the bank acted as Green Struc­tur­ing Advisor for Arthaland Corp.’s P3-bil­lion ASEAN Green Bond, dir­ect­ing all pro­ceeds toward cer­ti­fied sus­tain­able res­id­en­tial devel­op­ments to be built over the next dec­ade. That year, ING was also hon­oured at the Europa Awards for Sus­tain­ab­il­ity in the Phil­ip­pines by the European Cham­ber of Com­merce of the Phil­ip­pines— recog­ni­tion of the bank’s long­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to advan­cing sus­tain­ab­il­ity aligned with global stand­ards and the Phil­ip­pine Devel­op­ment Plan.

In 2024, the bank acted as joint lead arranger for Bank of the Phil­ip­pine Islands’ P20.4-bil­lion ASEAN Social Bond, which was recog­nized as “Best Social Bond” at The Asset Triple A Sus­tain­able Fin­ance Awards.

Momentum con­tin­ued to build. In 2025, ING acted as Sole Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Coordin­ator for Phil­ip­pine National Bank’s US$300 mil­lion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Bond, which was recog­nized as “Best Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Bond – Fin­an­cial Insti­tu­tion” at The Asset Triple A Sus­tain­able Fin­ance Awards. The fol­low­ing year, ING expan­ded its sup­port for large-scale sus­tain­ab­il­ity-linked trans­ac­tions, includ­ing its role as Sole Arranger and Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Coordin­ator for BDO Uni­bank’s P115-bil­lion ASEAN sus­tain­ab­il­ity bond, which earned “Best ASEAN Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Bond” in The Asset Triple A Sus­tain­able Fin­ance Awards 2026.

Most recently, ING sup­por­ted another industry-defin­ing achieve­ment: SteelAsia became the first steel­maker in ASEAN to secure Moody’s SQS2 “Very Good” rat­ing for its Sus­tain­able Fin­ance Frame­work, with ING act­ing as Sus­tain­able Fin­ance Struc­tur­ing Bank. This trans­ac­tion stands out for its multi-tax­onomy align­ment, map­ping across both EU and ASEAN sus­tain­ab­il­ity tax­onom­ies and embed­ding strong gov­ernance and eli­gib­il­ity cri­teria. It high­lights how ING’s global net­work and deep sec­tor expert­ise help cli­ents nav­ig­ate increas­ingly com­plex sus­tain­ab­il­ity require­ments while sup­port­ing indus­trial decar­bon­isa­tion and meet­ing the expect­a­tions of inter­na­tional investors.

These accol­ades rein­force how ING’s struc­tur­ing cap­ab­il­it­ies and long-term com­mit­ment to sus­tain­ab­il­ity con­tinue to dif­fer­en­ti­ate the bank in the Phil­ip­pine mar­ket.

What sets ING apart is not simply the volume of its sus­tain­able fin­ance work, but the depth of engage­ment with cli­ents. Rather than lim­it­ing efforts to green-labelled trans­ac­tions, ING sup­ports cli­ents through trans­ition plan­ning, risk man­age­ment, and advis­ory on cred­ible sus­tain­ab­il­ity path­ways. As more Phil­ip­pine cor­por­ates pur­sue growth strategies aligned with cli­mate ambi­tions, the demand for sus­tain­ab­il­ity-linked fin­an­cing con­tin­ues to expand, and ING remains well posi­tioned to guide this shift.

Partnering through the next transformation

As we look toward 2026, Phil­ip­pine busi­nesses face an envir­on­ment defined by heightened com­plex­ity and rapid change. Cli­mate-related dis­rup­tions are occur­ring with greater fre­quency and sever­ity, cre­at­ing urgent pres­sure for cor­por­ates to reduce emis­sions and accel­er­ate the trans­ition to renew­able energy. Reg­u­lat­ory expect­a­tions around gov­ernance, data pri­vacy, and sus­tain­ab­il­ity dis­clos­ures con­tinue to evolve, while geo­pol­it­ical uncer­tain­ties and shift­ing mon­et­ary cycles add new lay­ers of mar­ket volat­il­ity.

Against this back­drop, ING Phil­ip­pines has posi­tioned itself to sup­port cli­ents in a more hol­istic way – com­bin­ing stra­tegic advis­ory, innov­at­ive cap­ital solu­tions, and global con­nectiv­ity across more than 40 mar­kets. The bank’s lead­er­ship in sus­tain­able bonds, social fin­an­cing and sup­port­ing energy trans­ition gives it a unique abil­ity to back the coun­try’s low-car­bon trans­ition and broader devel­op­ment pri­or­it­ies.

Digital trans­form­a­tion is an equally sig­ni­fic­ant fron­tier. ING Hubs Phil­ip­pines, estab­lished in 2013 as a global cap­ab­il­ity centre, has grown into one of the bank’s most tech­no­lo­gic­ally advanced sites. Its pro­gress in auto­ma­tion, engin­eer­ing, and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence not only enhances ING’s global oper­a­tions but also under­scores the bank’s expert­ise in sup­port­ing Phil­ip­pine cor­por­ates as they embark on their own digital trans­form­a­tion jour­neys.

Looking ahead: The next 35 years

As Phil­ip­pine busi­nesses pur­sue sus­tain­able growth, renew­able energy trans­ition, and digital innov­a­tion, ING remains com­mit­ted to being the part­ner they need for the long term. The bank will con­tinue to bring inter­na­tional expert­ise, innov­at­ive fin­an­cing struc­tures, and advis­ory cap­ab­il­it­ies that help com­pan­ies turn today’s chal­lenges into tomor­row’s com­pet­it­ive advant­ages.

Together, we can help build a more resi­li­ent and sus­tain­able Phil­ip­pine eco­nomy – one that cre­ates last­ing value for busi­nesses, com­munit­ies, and future gen­er­a­tions.

Originally published in BusinessWorld