During the announcement of the Extel Awards, ING was said to be the best in terms of equity sales and corporate access,  enabling contacts between international investors and listed companies in Benelux. This award is based on the feedback received from international and professional investors about the services offered by their brokers.

This recognition underlines the success of ING’s strategy of offering Benelux companies an optimal access to international financial markets, where international investors benefit from a good access to these companies’ management. In the present troubled economic situation, the quality of ING’s service has proven to be decisive.

"In times of difficult market conditions, it is crucial for Benelux companies to continue to have access to international investors", confirms Mark Pieter de Boer, responsible for Equity Markets within ING Commercial Banking. "The fact that we have been elected best broker for the fourth year in a row proves that we are capable of reacting to market developments, and our clients benefit from this. ING has also obtained the best valuation for initiating contacts between international investors and companies listed in Benelux, which is a great testimony of the recognition we enjoy from institutional clients."

ING supports its Benelux corporate clients by putting them in contact with institutional investors through research, road shows, investor days and conferences like the "Paneuropean Days" recently organised by NYSE Euronext in New York.

The Extel Awards are based on the annual Extel Survey by Thomson Reuters in which professional investors give their advice on their brokers’ services. This Paneuropean survey is the most important of its type, with more than 7,500 respondents from 62 countries and collecting more than 250,000 individual votes.

For Benelux, ING has obtained very good results in the categories below :

• Global score: n° 1.
• Sales: n° 1.
• Corporate access: n° 1.
• Trading: n° 2.
• Research: n° 2.