ING, the Dutch insurance and financial services group, is going to separate its banking business from its insurance and wealth management businesses and then divest the latter two via two initial public offerings, Money Management reports.

The Dutch giant is looking for the IPOs for the global insurance and wealth management businesses to take place either late this year or early 2012, according to the report. The two IPOs will preferably consist of one for the firm’s US insurance and asset management arm, and another for that covering the European and Asia-Pacific regions.

Work is ongoing to create two separate organisations working at arm’s length, most of which is on track, and the next phase is preparing for the IPOs, a spokesperson for the firm was quoted as having said.

It is understood that the IPOs will be put in motion when ING deems market conditions to be favourable.

The divestments are being carried out under the terms of its government bailout during the financial crisis. Under European Commission rules, several institutions in receipt of public bailout funds have been required to scale back their non-domestic businesses. Another European example is Germany’s Commerzbank, which was made to sell several wealth management units, including the UK-based private bank Kleinwort Benson.

ING had not responded to enquiries from WealthBriefing on the matter by the time of publication.