ING Group has sold off its Latin American insurance group for $3.9-billion (U.S.), again shrinking the size of the once global behemoth.

And there are more sales to come. ING's remaining insurance and investment management operations will soon be spun off in two public offerings, one for the United States division and another for the Asian and European divisions.

ING doesn't want to divest these assets, but it signed an agreement with the Dutch government to do so when it received €10-billion in aid during the financial crisis. At the time, ING agreed to separate its insurance and banking businesses.

On top of the insurance asset sales, just last month ING also sold the online operations of ING Direct USA to Capital One Financial for $9-billion (U.S.) in cash and stock. The deal made Capital One the fifth-largest U.S. bank by assets.

Canada has also been affected by ING's sales. In 2009 ING Group sold off its 70 per cent stake in ING Canada in a deal that created Intact Financial Corp. (Intact has since bought AXA Canada).

ING is selling its Latin American insurance unit to Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana for $3.9-billion. The division has about 10 million clients and assets worth $70-billion.