Barclays to buy ING Direct UK

Barclays has agreed to buy ING Direct's UK retail arm, in a deal that includes a £10.9bn deposit book and a £5.6bn mortgage book. Approximately 750 ING Direct staff and 1.5 million customers will be transferred to Barclays. The deal is likely to be completed in the spring of 2013. The mortgage book, which has an average loan to value ratio of 50% is being bought at a 3% discount, potentially resulting in a £259 million loss for ING. In a bid to increase their pipeline of mortgage applications, the lender has lowered some of their rates by up to 0.75%. October 12, 2012