Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende refused to meet (former) ABN Amro CEO Rijkman Groenink and central bank president Nout Wellink at the beginning of this year to discuss the possible merger of ABN Amro with ING, the state information service confirmed on Tuesday evening.

The RVD said Balkenende was acting on the advice of finance minister Wouter Bos. The NRC Handelsblad reported on Tuesday that Groenink and Wellink asked for an emergency meeting with Balkenende because the merger talks had run into trouble.
In the end, ABN Amro was taken over by a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland and is now in the process of being divided up.