ING already has its Asian private banking operations up for sale, and this week it agreed to sell its 51 per cent majority stake in the Australian wealth management and life insurance venture it formed a decade ago.

The A$1.7 billion proceeds will go some way to paying back the Dutch government for the €11 billion lifeline it extended to the bank at the height of the crisis.

It might get another $2 billion for the private bank and stabilise its debt position, but as far as ING being a presence in the region’s wealth management markets, it’s all over.

The ABN name disappeared when it was acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland in 2007 - now another famous Dutch name has gone.

It all goes to show that in any crisis, there are threats and opportunities. Some have succumbed, some are prospering on the problems of others.

For ANZ, the deal is helping it to catch up on rivals in domestic wealth management, where it has been off the pace compared to rivals CBA, NAB and Westpac.

“ANZ has been able to take advantage of the global financial crisis and ANZ’s strong balance sheet to advance our strategy,” Mike Smith, the firm’s chief executive, said as he welcomed the ING deal.

It is a balance sheet strengthened earlier this year with a A$4 billion capital raising, which also funded the $550 million purchase of some of the RBS, and formerly ABN, retail and commercial operations in Asia.

Domestically, the deal fills what has been a strategic hole in the ANZ business, which derived only 6 per cent of its earnings from wealth management. Buying out the ING majority gives ANZ a ranking as Australia’s fifth largest fund manager with an 8.4 per cent market share, and the third largest life insurer with 12.7 per cent.

Prior to the ING hook-up, the bank tried and failed with several other wealth management deals with National Mutual and then Frank Russell.

At the same time its major rivals, who have strengthened their positions in the last 18 months in crucial retail and wealth management markets, have been moving much faster in wealth management.

Only this year, NAB snapped up Aviva’s funds management and life business, Westpac has snaffled BT, Rothschilds and then St George, while the CBA has been building up Colonial First State as the country’s biggest funds management operation.

The rumour now is that ANZ could target AMP as consolidation in the wealth management sector increases. It might take this route, but AMP is now a much stronger and pricier acquisition than it was a few years ago, when its failed UK adventure nearly saw it obliterated.

The big gap for ANZ remains in Asia, and despite lots of talk from the bank about being a “super regional” banking presence, a lot more needs to be done to make that happen, particularly in wealth management and private banking.

Early reports suggested the bank was also interested in ING’s Asian private bank, but that would appear now to be a race between HSBC and Julius Baer.

As a former HSBC executive, Mike Smith would know that ANZ once had a significant footprint in Asia when it owned the old Grindlays bank, a brand revered by expatriates particularly in India. Mr Smith has said that he wants ANZ to source 20 per cent of its revenue from Asia by 2012, making it as important as its native New Zealand.

The RBS assets are a start, but one wonders at the position ANZ would be in now if previous management had not offloaded Grindlays, bought by an eager Standard Chartered in 2000 for $1.3 billion.

Grindlays, a nice little business, has been a major factor in helping Standard Chartered enhance its pan-Asian offering and, in particular, move into the private banking and wealth management areas. In many ways, Standard Chartered has built the business that ANZ now says it wants.

Looking at ANZ in Asia now, it is a tragedy for the current strategy that it let go of Grindlays when it did. In recent years the bank has bought into banks and wealth management providers in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore Vietnam and China. It has hired Asian managers at all levels of the business.

During 2006, ANZ invested $111.5 million to become the first foreign bank to own a 20 per cent shareholding in a Chinese bank.

It’s a good strategy, and always was. If only ANZ hadn’t panicked and sold Grindlays back in 2000 it would already have the “super regional” status it aspires to once again.