ING Direct is the only Australian piece of the ING Group still in the Netherlandsgroup's hands after UBS announced yesterday that UBS Global Asset Management would acquire ING Investment Management (Australia) Ltd.The break-up of ING's local operations has been going on since late 2009, when ANZ bought ING out of the pair's life insurance and wealth management joint venture, ING Australia.That business, now called OnePath, is part of ANZ Wealth, which has an investment management contract with ING Investment Management.ING Investment Management invests $27 billion for ANZ Wealth. This constitutes the majority of ING IM's $34 billion of funds under management. ANZ issued a statement yesterday saying all existing arrangements will remainin place and the bank would be working with UBS Global Asset Management on a "broader business relationship". Yesterday's news will prompt speculation about the future of ING Direct.An ING Direct representative yesterday directed media to comments made by ING's chief executive, Jan Hommen, in May. He said: "We are very happy with that business, so we intend to keep that one."ING has been selling assets around the world since 2008, when it received funding from the Netherlands Government.