ABN Amro, Fortis to remain separate

Friday 21 November 2008

ABN Amro and Fortis Bank Nederland, both nationalised by the Dutch government in October, will not be integrated into a single financial services group, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

Finance minister Wouter Bos is to announce later today that the banks will eventually be sold off separately, the paper says, quoting unnamed sources. The news will mean an end to the long-running uncertainty over the fate of the banks and their employees.

One of the main reasons for halting the integration of the two banks is the estimated 8,000 jobs that would be lost if the organisations are merged, the paper says. This would cause too much political damage to Bos and his Labour party at a time when the country is facing a serious economic recession as a result of the worldwide credit crisis.

The credit crisis is partly to blame for the financial difficulties at Fortis, which prompted the nationalisation of ABN Amro and Fortis Nederland by the Dutch government on October 3.

Fortis was one of the three-strong consortium which bought the ABN Amro group last year for €71bn. Fortis had been trying to integrate ABN Amro’s Benelux arm into its own operations but the process was difficult because of the culture clash between the two groups.

© DutchNews.nl

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