ING Bank plans to open a brokerage and a commercial bank in Kyiv in late autumn 1997, an executive at the bank's representative office in the Ukrainian capital said Tuesday June 24. Both the bank and the brokerage are currently being registered with the National Bank of Ukraine and the State Securities Market Committee, according to ING's representative in Ukraine, Robert Grant. The brokerage will deal on the Ukrainian T-bill market in coordination with ING Barings London, which has previously placed over $250 million worth of Ukrainian T-bills in international markets, said Grant. 'Early on we will seek to access the Ukrainian equities markets … we're (now)in the process of purchasing a seat on the Ukrainian Stock Exchange,' he said. 'The ING group has thrived on entering markets where other institutions have pulled back or hesitated,' said Grant, asked why ING is moving into Ukraine at a time when foreign investors are complaining about corruption and the country's cumbersome bureaucracy. He cited a case in Brazil in the early 1980s, when many American banks pulled out as Latin America was gripped by a debt crisis. 'ING purchased a bankrupt Uruguayan bank for one peso to obtain a banking license in Brazil, and developed a substantial market share … which (the bank)capitalized on when the markets turned around,' he said. ING sees Ukraine as a similar case, Grant said. 'We're confident that the country's current problems will be appropriately dealt with in the not-too-distant future, at which point we would envision Ukraine's economy developing favorably,' he said.
ING Bank plans to open Kyiv brokerage
