| Jan Nijssen | ||||||
ING is in some ways similar and in others quite different to most of the other western banks targeting markets in central and eastern Europe. An early entrant, the Dutch bank focused like rivals on building a presence among the region's most active consumers of financial services - the emerging local corporates that needed cash, know-how and international connections to help transform their businesses.
But the bank's approach to the provision of financial services has placed it among the pioneers. By distributing a full range of integrated products and services through its regional branch network to a base of clients that stretches well beyond top-tier corporates and multinationals, ING is growing both its brand and its business.
"We are an integrated financial services company and that's the way we've chosen to approach the [regional] market," says Jan Nijssen, the Amsterdam-based group's chairman for the central European region.