Sjeltur

In the past week ING lost about 31% of its value at the Dutch stock market. The Dutch bank lost 88% of its value in the past year, needless to say ING belongs to the group of “troubled banks”… The top boss of the bank himself, Jan Hommen, bought 25,000 shares of ING last week, priced at 3.85 euros each. Maybe he wanted to show his faith in the bank, but it didn’t work. The 25,000 shares he bought for 96,250 euros are now worth only 64,000 euros…



Despite the fact that ING is in deep trouble, the bank is going to pay out bonuses to its employees, according to some sources close to one billion euros. Only months ago the Dutch government handed out billions of euros to ING. The reason the bank is doing it now: there is a fairly high chance that ING will be nationalized this weekend, it’s their last chance to pay out before the government takes over.

The financial crisis is a golden opportunity to put oversized and insolvent banks out of their misery. The financial sector has grown way too big compared to the real economy and it’s time for a cleanup. There will be pain for sure, but keeping banks alive that should die will cause even bigger pain in the future.

But don’t be surprised if the Dutch government is going to do the opposite and nationalize ING. The state as the owner, and the people on the hook for its financial obligations without a say in the matter, where did we see this before? Right, in the Soviet Union…