DUTCH financial institution ING launched on Tuesday the expansion of the operations of its subsidiary in Manila, ING Global Services and Operations Inc. (ING GSO), to include among its functions the processing of the bank’s growing commercial banking business in Asia and Europe.
ING GSO President and CEO Nigel Smith said the expansion of their shared services in the Philippines to ING affiliates in Europe is the start of the process that will eventually centralize in the Philippines all of ING’s shared services to its affiliates worldwide.
“In terms of doing these operations, there’s really no other place to do it than here,” Smith said, adding that the biggest advantage the Philippines has over other countries hosting back-office operations is its skilled and motivated labor force.
Mark Newman, ING’s CEO for Commercial Banking in Asia, said the shared-services hub in the Philippines is crucial to the bank’s global business strategy.
“ING GSO is an integral part of our global strategy to deliver greater efficiency and a consistent higher quality of service to ING clients across businesses, locations and time zones,” Newman said.
ING GSO started operating in June 2013, offering lending, reconciliation and payment processing, and static-data management to support eight ING commercial banking branches in Asia in the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia.
In July 2014, the scale of processing at ING GSO expanded beyond Asia as it took on the processing services from Amsterdam for ING’s financial-markets business.
ING GSO also took on the trade finance-services processing from Singapore in August 2014. The expansion required ING GSO to move to its new office at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig that was inaugurated on Tuesday with Philippine Economic Zone Authority Director General Lilia de Lima as guest of honor.
Smith said the expansion will require ING GSO to double its current number of employees to 250 by the end of 2015.