ING vs APO Comparison

The merger of the Dutch postal bank and NN Insurance in 1991 created ING. Through a series of further acquisitions, ING has built up a global footprint. The 2008 financial crisis forced ING to seek government support—a precondition of which was that ING should separate its banking and insurance activities, which saw ING revert to being solely a bank. ING has market-leading banking operations in the Netherlands and Belgium, and a range of digital banks across Europe and Australia. Its global wholesale banking operation is primarily focused on lending.

Apollo is one of the world's largest alternative asset managers, with $938.4 billion in total assets under management, or AUM, including $709.1 billion in fee-earning assets, at the end of 2025. The company has two core operating segments: asset management and retirement services. Apollo operates with scale in each of its major product lines—private equity (with $128.4 billion in total AUM and $75.0 billion in fee-earning AUM), real estate/real assets ($60.8 billion/$27.6 billion), and credit ($749.2 billion/$606.5 billion). Apollo has a distribution profile that is likely not too far off from the industry averages—with 84% of its assets held by institutional investors and 16% by high-net-worth clients.