The deal was agreed between ING, the finance ministry and the central bank.

The move follows a weekend of meetings with Dutch finance officials, after ING revealed it expects to make a 500m euro ($670m; £387m) third quarter loss.

The government is to make 20bn euros available to protect the financial sector from the credit crisis.

ING is one of the world's largest banks, with more than 75 million customers worldwide, Reuters news agency says.

The bank has some 338 million euros in deposits, Reuters says, and offers banking, insurance, asset management, leasing and real estate services.

ING has a prominent presence in the UK, with thousands of savers depositing their cash in the group's ING Direct banking service.

ING Direct also took over responsibility for £2.5bn of deposits of 160,000 UK customers with the Icelandic bank Kaupthing Edge - part of Iceland's largest bank, which failed almost two weeks ago.

BBC