The Dutch finance ministry and Deutsche Bank have signed a preliminary agreement on the sale of parts of ABN Amro’s commercial banking operations to the German bank.

The deal clears the way for the merger of ABN Amro and Fortis Nederland, both of which have been nationalised.
The European Commission had ordered ABN Amro to sell its HBU banking unit and some other operations before it would approve the merger.
The deal had been originally agreed in July 2008, but was renegotiated after the nationalisation of the Dutch banks. Those talks collapsed at the end of September.
Financial details on the takeover have not been disclosed pending approval by the banks’ executive boards.
The finance ministry has now asked competition commissioner Neelie Kroes to extend her deadline to allow the deal to be finalised.