The Financieele Dagblad  reported Friday on the decision by both ING and Finance Minister Bos to appeal the European Commission's decision that the ING must sell Westland Utrecht and ING Direct USA.  The bank and the Ministry have been trying for some time to negotiate changes to the conditions for early redemption of half of a €10bn capital injection made in October 2008.  Bos wants "to ensure that Brussels does not regard early repayment of the remaining €5bn as state support", said a spokesman.  The Commission says, of a decision by the government to relax the conditions attaching to the loan, that ING consequently received a benefit of €2bn in additional state support, which justifies its "legally watertight" demand for a major restructuring.

The ongoing Dutch enquiry into the causes of the credit crisis remains promonent in the media.  The Financieele Dagblad reported Friday on a statement to the De Wit Commission by former PM Wim Kok, who recently stepped down as a member of ING's supervisory board, that the bank's risk management policy and internal controls were sound, and that "external factors dragged ING into the crisis". Kok claims the crisis was caused by "a combination of excessively loose monetary policy in the US, an unprecedented faith in progress and an accumulation of risks" and says that the credit rating agencies also "made very serious mistakes." On Thursday the Commission had focussed on how former supervisory board members saw their task and the contribution they made to preventing the crisis. Wouter Bos will conclude the three weeks of hearings on Thursday, when among the subjects he will be questioned on is Icesave.

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