NEW YORK CITY-From Midtown Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn, Michael E. Shields, Managing Director at ING Real Estate Finance (USA), is not only busy locally, but globally. In his role at ING’s New York office, Shields provides oversight for the company’s $6.7 billion real estate loan portfolio in the US and communicates with ING’s offices worldwide. With more than 20 years of experience in asset management, restructuring and workouts, Shields talks with GlobeSt.com about new loans, developments and market activity.

GlobeSt.com: With 11 offices worldwide and a EUR35.4 billion portfolio, how does ING Real Estate Finance position itself as a global lender? How do local specialists interact with each other around the world?

Shields: Being a client‐led organization, we set up international service teams that are custom fit to our client’s needs and global management structure, centralized or de‐centralized. Communication is key, each member of a global client service team shares client activity information on a real‐time basis and gets involved in managing the client relationship. Financing a client’s properties in multiple continents deepens our relationship and increases our global hit rate in winning financing mandates from the client.