ING Direct

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ING Direct is a branchless direct bank with operations in Austria, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States. ING Direct is part of the ING Group. It offers services over the internet, phone or by mail. ING Direct has attracted customers through their high-interest savings accounts and no service charges or minimum account balance requirements. In order to deposit or withdraw cash, a customer must have an account with another financial institution. They are able to offer more generous rates by piggybacking on other financial institutes infrastructure. ING Direct has advanced log-in procedures to combat fraud. It is designed to make sure that "You know it's us" and "We know it's you."

1 Canadian Products, Services and Operations
- 1.1 Services offered
- 1.2 Membership
2 United States Products, Services and Operations
3 See Also
4 External links

[edit] Canadian Products, Services and Operations

ING Direct Canada is the marketing name of ING Bank of Canada, a branchless or virtual bank in Canada founded in 1997.

It offers services over the phone, email or via ABMs.

[edit] Services offered

Investment Products
Mortgages
RSP
Loan
Mutual Funds
Loans
Internet Banking

[edit] Membership

ING Direct Canada is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) and registered member with the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a federal agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks.

[edit] United States Products, Services and Operations

ING Direct is the marketing name of ING Bank, fsb, a branchless or virtual bank in the United States that was founded in 2000.

[edit] Orange Savings Accounts

ING Direct is often considered to be a leader in the online savings account market. While they do not always have the highest available interest rates, they often near the top, with the present interest rate being 4.50%. To deposit money in to an Orange Savings account, ING Direct allows users two possible methods; the first being electronic check from another checking or savings institution. To do this, ING Direct will ask for the your account number, routing number, and personal information so that they're able to perform the electronic check process. ING Direct however only allows one account to be setup in this fashion. To setup additional accounts a user has to send a check for a minimum of $1.00 to ING Direct's offices. Another popular method to deposit money into an ING Direct savings account is through direct deposit, which can be setup through the customer's employer or banking institution.

[edit] Orange Certificate of Deposit

A second popular savings method that ING Direct offers is a Certificate of Deposit, or CD. ING Direct offers a number of options for their CD's, with the time starting out at a minimum of 6 months, and the longest being 60 months. Interest Rates start at 5.00% at the current time.

[edit] Orange Investments

ING offers fifteen mutual funds, each of which has a particular investment strategy. ING also offers three funds called Strategic Allocation Funds: Strategic Allocation Conservative Fund, Strategic Allocation Moderate Fund, and Strategic Allocation Growth Fund. The goal of the Conservative Fund is maximum protection from market fluctuations (particularly the stock market) while investing primarily in more price stable instruments such as bonds. ING suggests an investment goal of 5+ years for this fund. The Moderate Fund allocates most of its fund to stock; with the majority in U.S. domestic stock and a small amount in international stock. It maintains a good portion of the fund - though much less than the Conservative Fund - in bonds. ING suggests an investment goal of 10+ years for this fund. The Growth Fund primarily invests in U.S. domestic stock and a slightly larger amount than the Moderate Fund in international stock. It invests in very few bonds or other more stable investment instruments as compared to the two other funds. The goals of the Growth Fund are in higher returns over the long term by assuming more risk and thus hoping to capitalize on market fluctuations over a long period of time. ING suggests an investment goal of 15+ years for this fund.

The three funds invest anywhere between 0% to 55% of the fund in the Russell 3000, the Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe, Australasia and Far East Index, the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index, and the 91-day U.S. Treasury Bill rate. Each Strategic Allocation Fund is distributing amongst at least three of those four (see prospectus)

[edit] ING Direct Cafes

In March of 2001, ING Direct opened cafes in 4 cities, New York City, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Los Angeles, CA, and Wilmington, DE, each serving Peet's Coffee. Inside the cafes, ING Direct has several internet terminals which allow their account-holders to check on the status on their ING Direct accounts and surf the internet free of charge. While some users have suggested ING Direct put ATMs inside of the cafes, however at the present time ING Direct has no immediate plans to allow ATM access for their accounts. The cafes often feature seminars on financial topics such as money management, handling one's retirement, mortgages, and credit management.