ING Groep building in Frankfurt. Stock image.
ING Groep, one of the top financiers of commodity trading, is fielding “a lot” of calls from clients to support Venezuelan natural resource deals as the country revamps exports after years of US sanctions, its new Americas commodity finance head said.
“We’re getting a lot of requests from traders so we’re looking at it,” Remko van de Water said in an interview. But ING isn’t yet financing commodity deals in the country. “We’re considering it but it’s not part of our mandate at the moment.”
Van de Water said that ING was probably among the top three banks for trade finance in North America and has plans to grow, particularly by supporting clients focused on metals and agriculture.
Vitol Group and Trafigura Group have been joined by some smaller players in moving Venezuela’s oil out of the country. Meanwhile, Mercuria Energy Group has recently struck deals for metals and bulk commodities.
Traders rely on financing to buy, sell, store and ship goods around the world. But banks have been cautious to support flows from Venezuela, meaning firms need to use their own balance sheets to move cargoes.
In a subsequent statement, a spokesperson for ING clarified: “ING is not currently financing any commodities deals in Venezuela and does not have active plans to do so. If future opportunities to serve our clients arise, if and when the legal environment permits, then we will explore options at that time.”
Before starting in the new role, van de Water headed up ING’s metals and mining business in the region for over 15 years. His predecessor Cauê Todeschini became the bank’s global commodity finance head in March.
This year, factors ranging from the Iran war to the El Niño weather pattern have led to price volatility in oil, gas, metals and soft commodities. Those are usually the markets where traders thrive and indications are that profits at some of the biggest firms are approaching record levels.
Van de Water said 2026 was “definitely one of the better years,” for trading houses, but that it was too soon to say whether the sector would match the record profits seen in 2022-2023.
Trading houses rushed to secure additional credit facilities from banks when the US-Iran war broke out in February. Some of those short-term credit lines are due for renewal soon.
Van de Water acknowledged that with commodity prices now broadly lower, some firms would not want to pay for a lot of excess capacity that they don’t need. “But these conflicts tend to take a little bit longer,” he said.
(By Archie Hunter and Jack Farchy)