SNS Bank won’t be sold until after the election: FD

Photo: Depositphotos.com
Photo: Depositphotos.com

The government will not sell off nationalised bank SNS until after next March’s general election, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday quoting sources in The Hague.

The sources say the bank’s management does not feel it is ready to stand on its own two feet. In addition, parliament is known to be keen to keep it in state hands, the paper said.

SNS Reaal was nationalised three years ago for €3.7bn when it threatened to collapse under the weight of a massive property portfolio.

Since then the bank, its insurance arm and the property division have been separated. The insurance activities were sold to Chinese company Ambang and the property unit, named Propertize, is up for sale.

Ministers think the banking activities should eventually be returned to the private sector, as is happening with ABN Amro. ‘My basic position is that SNS bank should become a private institution again and not remain in state hands,’ finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in March.

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