Oct 26 (Reuters) - Dutch financial services group ING will split its insurance and investment management and banking operations as part of a restructuring deal with the European Union, it said on Monday.
Following are five facts about ING, the largest European insurance group by balance sheet total and the biggest Dutch financial services group.
* The entity known as ING was created as the Internationale Nederlanden Groep in 1991 through the merger of Dutch insurance business Nationale-Nederlanden and national postal bank NMB Postbank Group.
* ING's roots stretch back to 1743 as a regional insurance fund, but it was built up by numerous mergers and acquisitions.
* ING took over Barings Bank in 1995 after derivatives trader Nick Leeson in Singapore brought the British investment bank to its knees with losses on unauthorised futures trading.
* The group, which had total assets of 1.188 trillion euros on its balance sheet at the end of June, got a 10 billion euro Dutch state capital injection in October last year at the height of the credit crisis.
* ING announced a restructuring programme in April to divest itself of up to 8 billion euros of assets to cut risks.
(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger, editing by Will Waterman)