Together spoke to Dave Deruytter, the man in charge of ING Belgium dedicated expat services.
Who is Dave Deruytter?
I am married with Kathleen and father of two interesting adolescents, Liesbeth and Arthur. I love traveling, hiking, skiing and writing, and I love my job. I have been living and working in Japan twice and once in China. I have the privilege of being in charge, with a large functional team, of Expat and Non-resident services at ING Belgium for 16 years now.
Why choose ING Belgium for banking and insurance as an expat here?
Before you arrive in Belgium your ING bank account and card, your rental guarantee and home insurance can already be in place. When you arrive, one short meeting at an ING local bank branch of your choice, to hand over your bankcard, and you are fully operational from day one. Furthermore, ING Belgium offers mortgage loans, investments, pension and estate planning depending on your needs during your stay in Belgium. Even after you would leave Belgium ING Belgium has online non-resident banking services for you wherever your next move takes you.
How can an expat in Belgium contact ING Belgium
The ING Expat Contact Centre, 02-464.66.64 or expat@ing.be, is open from 8am to 10pm continuously on weekdays and from 9am to 5pm on Saturdays. There is the www.ing.be/expat ING Expat website, and there are the many ING local bank branches all over Belgium. On the branches.ing.be/branches website you will find the ING local bank branch finder. Enter the town or city name, or the zip code, and you will see the location of the nearest ING Belgium local bank branches.
What more can an Expat expect from ING?
During the year, ING Belgium organizes free expat information seminars. Twice on Buying Private Real Estate in Belgium, once on Expat Pension, Expat estate planning, and, finally, one on Starting Your Own Business here. Of course, the ING Expat officers in the ING local bank branches are also available for calls or meetings on those subjects.
Why is ING Belgium so active with foreign nationals here?
First of all, we want to welcome foreign nationals to Belgium and make their installation here as smooth and easy as possible. Alongside our banking and insurance and our free information seminars, we will gladly introduce expats, without any obligation, to other service providers they may need. To that extent we have developed an Expat checklist, available on ing.be/expat. ING Belgium also offers the quarterly Expat Time magazine on essential lifestyle and business features for expats in Belgium.
Why is life as an expat in Belgium so pleasant?
Belgium, and particularly Brussels, has a very large part of its population who are foreign nationals, some 30% in the Brussels region. That makes life very multicultural. Thus many languages are spoken here, not only English, Dutch, French or German. You can find all types of restaurants and a great variety of cultural events here. There are many schools of different countries in Belgium on top of the many European schools and International schools.
What would be your key advice to newcomers to Belgium?
Inform yourself as much as possible even before you arrive in Belgium. Engage with the expat and local community in Belgium. If you only spend six months here or decide to join the many people who have stayed on, you will enjoy a great lifetime experience, with superb memories you will never forget.
ing.be/expat