ING vs BX 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.

Blackstone is the world's largest alternative-asset manager with $1.346 trillion in total assets under management, including $961.6 billion in fee-earning assets under management, at the end of June 2026. The company operates with scale in each of its major product lines: private equity (28% of fee-earning AUM and 35% of base management fees), real estate/real assets (29% and 32%), credit and insurance (33% and 25%), and other alternatives (10% and 8%). While the firm primarily serves institutional investors (84% of AUM), it also caters to clients in the high-net-worth channel (16%). Blackstone operates through 25 offices in the Americas (8), Europe and the Middle East (9), and the Asia-Pacific region (8).