ING Barings, the corporate and investment banking arm of ING Group, has hired 18 energy team members away from Prudential Securities Inc. and is setting up a new office in Houston. "I've been told that we will be one of the five largest industry groups in terms of people at the firm. So we've got immediate critical mass in that sense," said Howard House, who heads the new energy group of bankers and analysts. That the group is up and running already gives ING Barings instant credibility in oil and gas, he adds. "Clearly, we're going to have to educate our clients and prospective clients on what ING is all about regarding both investment banking and lending." ING Barings has 89 offices in 49 countries, but its only energy service most recently available has been a structured lending natural resources group in Amsterdam. ING's major business lines are equity markets, financial markets and corporate and institutional finance. Its services include investment banking, treasury services, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and sovereign lending, fixed-income and equity origination, trading, sales, research and prime brokerage services. "It's a tremendous opportunity to move an entire group that we spent the last four years building into a platform that has a substantial product capability to deliver to our clients," said House, who was managing director of the team when it was with Prudential Securities. -Jodi Wetuski