The banking and insurance group ING could consider moving its headquarters abroad if the Netherlands does not improve its business environment, warns company chairman Michel Tilmant in an interview with Thursday’s Financieele Dagblad.

The Belgian top man says Holland must take action in areas such as education, taxes and government services.
And he is particularly scathing about the on-going debate over top executive pay in the Netherlands ‘We have to compete with salaries offered in London, New York and Singapore. If we want to attract talented people we have to be able to give them competitive salaries’. The [political] discussion over this doesn’t help, to put it mildly,’ Tilmant said.
He said too that the Netherlands under-estimates how much value head-offices, such as those of ING, contribute to the economy of a country both in terms of direct and indirect jobs. They also have a positive knock-on effect on the small and medium sized business sector.