ING Lays Off 60 – Global Chief Resigns

ING Group has laid off 60 people at its Windsor office as part of a global reorganization in which Thomas J. McInerney, the former Aetna executive who rose to head ING’s global insurance operations, is leaving the company.

The employees being laid off were notified last week but most will be with the company until the end of the year, said Dana Ripley, a spokesman for the U.S. ING insurance unit. The cut is part of a reduction of 600 positions in the United States, including 400 layoffs and the elimination of 200 unfilled positions.

Windsor, the largest location for ING in the United States and headquarters of the U.S. retirement services business, has 1,620 employees and about 200 outside contractors, Ripley said.

ING had 2,500 local employees when the company bought Aetna’s financial services business in 2000. McInerney at the time was head of that unit, and later rose within the ING ranks to his current post as chief operating officer of ING Insurance, based in Amsterdam. He is also a member of the corporate executive board.

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McInerney is being replaced by two European executives who will join the management board of the insurance business, ING said.

The changes are part of a breakup of ING, in which the corporation is spinning off its insurance operations with separate public stock offerings in the United States and Europe. ING Banking will continue to trade as the surviving corporation under the current stock, which is issued in Europe.

Catherine Smith will remain as chief executive of U.S. retirement services and the Windsor office will still be the headquarters of that operation, which is part of the insurance business.

Editor’s Note: ING is a major writer of medical stop loss insurance. Aviva may purchase the ING block.