Dutch financial giant ING is on the lookout for a large insurance company in Canada, company CEO Ewald Kist told the New York Times.

Kist said in today’s NYT that the firm might not make any big plays for 18 months, but when it does it is actively looking to buy one of the large life insurers in Canada. ING is also looking for a mutual fund company in the United States, life insurers and a minority stake in a big bank. In Mexico, the firm plans to buy the 59% of Seguros Comercial America it doesn’t already own.

“We want to stay in the top 10 in the United States and the world,” he said “Others are growing bigger and bigger. We need to keep building through acquisitions and internal growth, or we might be kicked out of the top 10.”

In the meantime, ING’s top priority is digesting the acquisition of two American insurers it bought last year for about US$14 billion.