ING Capital Life Signs Distribution Agreement with Bank of East Asia's Dalian Branch

ING Capital Life Signs Distribution Agreement with Bank of East Asia's Dalian Branch

March 01, 2006

    HONG KONG, March 1 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- ING Capital
Life Insurance Company Ltd. (ING Capital Life), ING Groep
N.V.'s joint venture with Beijing Capital Group, today
announced that it has signed an agreement with the Hong
Kong-headquartered Bank of East Asia (BEA), Dalian branch
to distribute ING Capital Life products to Dalian
citizens.

    The cooperation marks the start of the first
bancassurance agreement between a Sino-foreign insurer and
a foreign bank in Dalian and comes on the back of BEA's
approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission's
(CIRC) Dalian office in July 2005 to be granted a
"combination agency qualification" which entitles
such sales.  The cooperation, which comes into effect
immediately, will include the sales of ING Capital Life's
group life insurance products in China via the bank's
Wealth Management Consulting Centre.  More ING Capital Life
products will be developed and distributed through BEA going
forward.  However, individual life products will not be sold
via BEA initially pending regulatory approval of the bank's
special individual RMB business qualification by the end of
2006.

    Mr. Bartholomew Ng, Country Manager for China, ING
Insurance Asia/Pacific stated: "ING Capital Life
agreement further supports our diversification of the
distribution channels of our insurance products. 
Bancassurance is an increasingly important means of
reaching our customers and in 2005 the share of ING's total
annualised premium equivalent sold via banks across the
region rose to 22% from 14% in 2004."

    ING Capital Life is one of two ING life insurance joint
ventures in China.  With its headquarters in Dalian, ING
Capital Life has a branch in Beijing, a provincial branch
office in Shenyang, Liaoning Province and was recently
granted approval by the CIRC to set up a provincial branch
office in Jinan, Shandong Province.  ING Capital Life is
among the top three life insurance companies in terms of
new individual business in its home market with
accumulative premium income of RMB336 million at the end of
2005.  ING Capital Life already has bancassurance agreements
with the China Construction Bank and Bank of China in
Dalian, as well as with the Bank of Beijing in which ING
has 19.9% stake.

    ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin
offering banking, insurance and asset management to over 60
million private, corporate and institutional clients in 50
countries.  With a diverse workforce of over 115,000
people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent
companies that increasingly serve their clients under the
ING brand.

    For more information, please contact:

     Karen Williams
     ING Insurance Asia/Pacific
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Polly Leung
     Tel:   [phone] 
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  ING Capital Life Insurance Company Ltd.