UPDATE 1-ING completes acquisition of U.S. online broker

(Adds CEO comments, background, WASHINGTON dateline)

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Dutch financial services group ING Groep NV (ING.AS) (ING.N) on Monday said it has completed its $220 million acquisition of privately-held online brokerage ShareBuilder Corp.

Seattle-based ShareBuilder will be added to ING's online banking arm ING Direct, the bank said.

Arkadi Kuhlmann, ING Direct Chief Executive Officer, said the bank's Seattle office will hire 300 people over the next year to work at a call center for customer service and technical assistance as the bank expands its business lines.

The deal, which was approved by the Office of Thrift Supervision and other regulators, will result in expanded banking and mortgage services for ShareBuilder's 661,000 customers, Kuhlmann told Reuters.

ING Direct is a key driver of the bank's earnings. Its U.S. arm, set up in 2000, has 6 million customers. ING Direct also operates in Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Britain, Austria and Germany where it has another 15 million customers.

ING recently acquired $1.5 billion in deposits from online bank, NetBank Inc, which failed. NetBank suffered large losses last year due to defaults on loans, many of them mortgages, a government official familiar with the matter said in September.

ING also bought $724 million of NetBank's liquid assets.