NEW YORK CITY—Confirming earlier published reports, ING Groep said Tuesday it's ramping up for a re-entry into the US commercial real estate sector it exited following the global financial crisis. It's relaunching ING Real Estate Finance (USA) LLC and re-hiring Craig Bender to serve as managing director and oversee the relaunch. The Netherlands-based financial conglomerate, recently ranked top CRE bookrunner in Europe, sees a strong market here and abroad as conducive to restarting the US platform.

Bender, who worked at ING Real Estate Finance for 10 years until 2013, will be joined by another onetime colleague at the group. That would be Jeffrey Schwartz, then an associate of CRE originations, underwriting and portfolio management and now VP.

“Due to strong US and international real estate market conditions and our commitment to better serve ING's US-based clients active in Europe, we are very excited to hire both Craig and Jeffrey to re-boot the ING Real Estate Finance USA group," says Michael Shields, managing director and head of ING Real Estate Finance Western Europe, UK, USA and structured products. Shields notes that Bender and Schwartz were previously “integral figures within ING's US lending efforts and have a tremendous track record of success and the industry expertise and contacts to quickly ramp up our presence in this market."

Bender is rejoining ING from BBVA Compass, where was SVP and market manager. He will report functionally to Shields and regionally to Rudolf Molkenboer, CEO ING Americas. He'll be responsible for developing and managing ING's portfolio of US commercial real estate loans. Schwartz is rejoining from JP Morgan Real Estate Banking.

During his previous tenure with ING REF, Bender oversaw a $5-billion loan portfolio as director and group head and then supervised the wind-down of that portfolio in 2012 and '13. Two years ago, the company sold a $1.6-billion portfolio of US commercial mortgages to Wells Fargo. The post-GFC environment also saw ING spin off its ING Clarion platform in the US and, in 2011, sells its Europe- and Asia-based ING Real Estate Investment Management operations to CBRE Group.