ING Comercial to focus on pension savings in 2004

Mexico's largest casualty insurer ING Comercial America plans to strengthen its product and service offering next year, especially in the area of pension savings, local daily El Financiero reported. "We are working on a very ambitious product that will be a complementary [savings] product to the Afore [obligatory pension fund manager]," company CEO Jean Louis Lopez Alberdi was quoted as saying by the paper. Lopez Alberdi also hopes to see the embarrassing and costly legal dispute with local fertilizer company Fertinal put to rest in 2004. The end of year holiday season recess means the courts will not resume work until January at the earliest, an ING Comercial America official told BNamericas. "This is an issue that goes beyond the differences between two companies, this is about judicial certainty and the protection of foreign investments. I think the government is aware [of the seriousness of the case] and we hope that in the next few months we will see positive results," he said. ING Comercial America and Fertinal are currently locked in a legal battle over claims stemming from damages to the fertilizer company's phosphate mine in Baja California by Hurricane Juliette in 2001. Earlier this year Fertinal filed its third lawsuit in the case, charging 21 employees of ING, the adjuster and the reinsurer with fraud as well as seeking US$300mn in damages from ING. A small town judge in Morelos state ruled in Fertinal's favor on August 27 and froze all of ING Comercial America's bank accounts. ING has since managed to free up all of its assets except for US$300mn, while Fertinal has raised the stakes by demanding US$900mn from the insurer. ING Comercial America is controlled by Dutch financial group ING (NYSE: ING), which also operates a bank and pension fund in Mexico.