ING is South Korea’s International Trade Finance Bank of the Year

Singapore/Seoul, 1 August 2023 – ING has been recognised as South Korea’s International Trade Finance Bank of the Year Award. This prestigious honour was given at the Asian Banking and Finance Wholesale Banking Awards 2023.

The awards recognise the leading and most innovative banks in Asia. Since 2006, the awards programme has lauded outstanding banks who have been proven to be industry game changers in this competitive landscape.

Anju Abrol, CEO and head of Wholesale Banking for ING APAC, received the trophy at the awards dinner held in Singapore. She said: “With over three decades of presence in South Korea, we are proud to receive this honour as a testament of the value and impact that we bring to our clients. As a leading bank with an extensive network rooted in our local expertise, I am sure that we remain at the forefront to help our clients grow their business in the region and beyond.”

ING in South Korea: 30 years of experience and counting

ING first started operating in South Korea in 1991, and later opened a securities branch in 2016 to expand our capabilities. We are the largest international bank in South Korea offering trade finance services, particularly in the receivables finance space. The services we offer include trade loans, receivable financing and guarantees for corporates, Letters of Credit refinancing and Banker’s Acceptance finance for banks, as well as unfunded guarantees for non-bank financial institutions.

Additionally, ING specialises in providing customised solutions for complex deals in an area where products have been commoditised. We do so by our in-depth product knowledge and local expertise, for instance in the green energy space and longstanding client relationships with major Korean corporations. Client needs are increasingly sophisticated; and thus, deep sector knowledge is required to meet those needs.

One transaction highlight includes a sustainable Supply Chain Finance program for the subsidiary of a Korean client in the green energy space. Expanding into Europe, this deal helped to finance the client’s working capital by extending trade payable days.

Another transaction involves a large receivables financing program for a Korean client who supplies key iPhone components to Apple. The program not only improves working capital, but also helps the client hedge FX risk.

These deals leveraged our extensive network to support Korean firms going international, where our sector expertise and leadership in sustainability provided solutions for the client’s global expansion ambitions and working capital optimisations.

ING remains a global leader in sustainable finance, where we are a pioneer in structuring the first ever sustainability-linked loan for Philips in 2017. We have closed several landmark sustainability deals in South Korea, including Asia’s first social covered bond for Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) in 2018. More recently in 2022, ING achieved a volume of over €100 billion in sustainable finance mobilised globally, which puts the bank well on its way towards the goal of €125 billion annually by 2025.