Prior to a 2017 restructuring, it was called SNS Bank, which remains its major brand name.

The savings banks used these funds to provide mortgages to individuals who would otherwise not have the ability to buy their own house, much like the building society movement in the UK.

[5][6] SNS is an abbreviation for Samenwerkende Nederlandse Spaarbanken (English: "Co-operating Dutch savings banks").

On 4 December 2006 it was announced that SNS REAAL would purchase RegioBank from ING Bank in a €50M deal.

Investors were expropriated as a result of the nationalization and originally, the Ministry of Finance did not want to provide any compensation at all, but in February 2021, after years of legal proceedings, a Dutch court ruled that the government must pay 804 million euros plus interest to them.