ING Groep, the Dutch bank and insurer, said it will repay 5.56 billion euros – about $7.4 billion Canadian - in government bailout money on December 21 with cash raised from investors.

That's half of the 10 billion euros, plus interest, that ING received from the Netherlands in one bailout package last year.

The company is paying the state back with proceeds from a 7.5 billion euro share issue.

Until it repays the aid in full, ING is barred from buying other firms and from undercutting rivals with lower prices or more favourable interest rates, and it must get EU approval to repay hybrid and subordinated debt capital.

ING is using another 1.3 billion euros of the money raised in the share issue to pay for its other bailout package, a complicated transaction by which the Dutch assumed most of the risks and benefits of ING's portfolio of mortgage-backed securities.

European Union competition authorities said the state had overpaid in that deal, amounting to unfair support for ING.

ING has also agreed to sell its insurance operations, which are roughly half its business, under pressure from the EU.