Who will buy INGDirect?

Capital One to Bid for ING Direct?

Excerpt:

On Sunday, Bloomberg reported that Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF - News) is one of the few firms that are interested in buying ING Direct USA. ING Direct USA is the online banking unit of Amsterdam-based ING Groep NV (NYSE: ING - News).

Apart from Capital One, ING has been in talks with several other companies and is looking to either sell ING Direct or merge it with a lending firm. Other companies that are in fray include SJB National Bank, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT).

Earlier, ING had been in talks with Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) to combine ING Direct with Citigroup’s credit-card business, but the talks somehow failed to materialize.

As a part of the European Union’s (EU) approval of restructuring plan, ING needs to sell off ING Direct by 2013 in order to receive €10 billion ($14 billion) as bail out money.

Comment: INGDirect is my favorite on-line only bank. The "have to sell" motive = "As a part of the European Union’s (EU) approval of restructuring plan, ING needs to sell off ING Direct by 2013 in order to receive €10 billion ($14 billion) as bail out money."