Nice, if you can

THE Dutch love a bargain. So when ING, a Dutch financial-services group with deep pockets but short arms, bought the British merchant bank Barings—together with £860m ($1.4 billion) of gambling debts—for £1 in March 1995, its shareholders crowed with delight. They have had less to chuckle about since. Last year, more than 100 of the rebranded ING Barings' bankers left for rival firms. Its New York offices, which specialised in the emerging economies of Latin America, were almost emptied overnight. Now, ING is shopping for another investment-banking bargain. It may not have much more luck.