The dramatic change in strategy caps a year of cutting costs and selling operations since the financial crisis struck, when ING was kept afloat only with two major rounds of assistance from the Dutch state.

The insurance operations have a book value of 22 billion euros, and the company said it will likely seek an initial public offering for them within four years.

ING received a 10 billion euro direct investment lifeline last October and the company said it will use 5.9 billion euros of the money raised in the share issue to pay back half of that C10 billion, plus interest and premiums.

The company will also pay the Dutch state 1.3 billion euros as a compromise with EU competition authorities, who were concerned ING's second bailout package amounted to improper state aid. In January the state took on the risks and benefits of an 80 per cent stake in ING's 28 billion euro portfolio of mortgage-backed securities. The deal assumed the securities were worth 90 per cent of their face value when the real value was much lower.