Dutch financial services group ING Groep NV has no plans to sell its direct banking operation ING-DiBa in Germany, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The German edition of the Financial Times reported earlier on Tuesday that Amsterdam-based ING was mulling the sale of its direct banking operations in Germany to comply with European Commission rules as part of its deal to receive state support.

We have no plans to sell DiBa at the moment, an ING spokesman said, adding that keeping the operation was part of ING's ongoing strategy.

ING paid a total of 1 billion euros in Allgemeine Deutsche Direktbank, between 1998 and 2003, when it took full control and renamed the operation ING-DiBa.

ING Direct is ING's online and direct banking business, which has grown to be the largest online and direct bank in the world.

ING-DiBa, the biggest direct bank in Germany, has 6.7 million clients, FT Deutschland reported.

(Reporting by Reed Stevenson; Editing by Hans Peters)

Germany