Craig Bender Rejoins ING Real Estate Finance as Managing Director to Lead Re-entry into U.S. Market

NEW YORK, May 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- ING Real Estate Finance (USA), LLC ("ING") announced today the appointment of Craig Bender as Managing Director. He will be reunited with Jeffrey Schwartz as Vice President. Based in New York City, Bender will lead ING's re-launch of its U.S. real estate lending operations.

Bender will report functionally to Michael Shields, Managing Director and Head of ING Real Estate Finance Western Europe, UK, USA and Structured Products and regionally to Rudolf Molkenboer, CEO ING Americas. He will be responsible for developing and managing ING's portfolio of U.S. commercial real estate loans. Working closely with Bender, Schwartz will be responsible for loan originating, underwriting and portfolio management of new client loan commitments.

"Due to strong U.S. and international real estate market conditions and our commitment to better serve ING's U.S.-based clients active in Europe, we are very excited to hire both Craig and Jeffrey to re-boot the ING Real Estate Finance USA group," said Shields. "Craig and Jeffrey were previously integral figures within ING's U.S. lending efforts and have a tremendous track record of success and the industry expertise and contacts to quickly ramp up our presence in this market."

"ING has a strong international foundation both financially and in specific sectors of expertise that we are planning to leverage as part of our growing business in the U.S. and Latin America," said Molkenboer. "Our real estate finance team in the U.S. has traditionally been a strength of the ING Group and we are fortunate to be able to welcome back Craig and Jeffrey to lead these efforts."

Bender joins ING from BBVA Compass, where he was Senior Vice President and Market Manager and responsible for all commercial real estate client coverage and banking activities in the Northeast. Joining BBVA in 2013, he was the bank's first employee in the New York office and became the firm's highest producing commercial real estate banker in the U.S. in 2014. Previously, Bender spent 10 years with ING Real Estate Finance where he was Director and Group Head and oversaw the management of a $5 billion portfolio and the wind-down of ING's real estate lending platform from 2012 - 2013.

Schwartz joins ING from JPMorgan Real Estate Banking, where beginning in 2013 he served as Senior Underwriter and then Vice President/Underwriting Manager. He was responsible for evaluating, underwriting, sizing, and structuring commercial real estate credit facilities across an aggregate in upwards of $5 billion. Prior to JPMorgan, Schwartz worked with ING Real Estate for nearly 6 years serving as an Associate of Commercial Real Estate Originations, Underwriting & Portfolio Management.

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ING Profile
ING Real Estate Finance (USA) LLC is an indirect U.S. subsidiary of ING Group N.V. ("ING"), a global financial services company with a network spanning 40 countries. ING has 53,000 employees helping its 33 million customers manage their money and meet financial goals. ING, in the US, offers a full array of wholesale financial products, such as commercial lending, and a full range of financial markets, products and services through ING Financial Holdings Corporation, and its affiliates.

SOURCE ING Real Estate Finance (USA), LLC