ING Groep NV (ING) will sell its Swiss private banking assets to Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer Holding AG (JBHGY) for US$500 million, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday.

The Dutch banking and insurance company is also set to raise US$1.5 billion from its sale of Asian private banking assets, in a deal that should be finalized "within the next few weeks", he said. ING has been trying to slim down and sell its private-banking businesses in Europe and Asia, after it was forced to turn to the Dutch government for aid last year.

Julius Baer, which won the Swiss assets, submitted the highest bid and was willing to "move quickly" to seal the deal, the person said Wednesday. There were two other bids for the assets, he said, but declined to elaborate.

ING's Swiss private banking operations have about US$5 billion in assets under management and recorded a net profit of about US$20 million in the January-August period, the person added.

ING has picked a buyer for the Asian assets - which are three times bigger in terms of assets managed than the Swiss ones - but final agreement has been held back pending approval by Singapore's monetary authority, he said.

Anyone running private banking in Singapore, according to domestic regulations, has to be vetted by regulators in the city-state, a major regional hub for private banking.

HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) was a frontrunner in the bidding for the Asian assets, people familiar with the situation had said earlier. Being in high-growth Asia, the Asian private banking assets of ING are also more profitable than the Swiss ones, they said.

Bidding for ING's private banking assets was more hotly-contested than expected, people said earlier, especially amid uncertainties over tax evasion charges against Swiss banks' U.S. private banking clients. Until recently, UBS AG (UBS) was embroiled in a tax lawsuit and had to handover data on 4,450 clients. The case was settled between the Swiss and the U.S. governments in September.

Among those that bid for the Asian private banking assets were Julius Baer, which bid for that as well as the Swiss assets, HSBC and Singapore's DBS Group Holdings Ltd. (D06.SG)

An announcement on ING's Swiss private banking sale will be made later Wednesday before European markets open, two people said.

ING declined to comment on market speculation, and Julius Baer and HSBC couldn't be immediately reached.

ING is targeting EUR6 billion-EUR8 billion in asset sales to help pay down a EUR10 billion lifeline it received from the Dutch government last October to underpin its core capital. Last month, it sold to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZBY) a 51% stake in their Australia and New Zealand wealth management and life insurance joint venture for EUR1.1 billion.

-By Amy Or, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2832 2335; amy.or@dowjones.com