RBS to compete directly with Fortis

Wednesday 06 February 2008

Royal Bank of Scotland is to compete directly with consortium partner Fortis to win over ABN Amro's corporate clients, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Wednesday.

'We are open to all Dutch companies, including those which are going to Fortis,' Jan de Ruiter, who heads the Dutch activities of RBS following the takeover of ABN Amro bank, said at a presentation on Tuesday evening.

De Ruiter said he expects RBS to drop the ABN Amro name as quickly as possible. Fortis however will continue to use the ABN Amro flag. 'That means we are going to compete with our own brand,' he said.

Under the ABN Amro takeover deal (RBS, Fortis and the Spanish Santander bank acquired the Dutch bank last year), RBS is to get some 1,000 major corporate clients. The remaining 240,000 smaller business customers are being transferred to Fortis.

RBS board member Johnny Cameron said the Scottish bank has organised a number of lunches for senior corporate clients to show nothing has changed since the takeover.

'We can offer them more,' Cameron was reported as saying.

© DutchNews.nl

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