Fortis has been given official permission by the Dutch central bank to split off ABN Amro’s asset management activities and integrate the unit into its own. According to Friday’s Volkskrant, this will result in the loss of 900 jobs, almost double the 500 redundancies in earlier estimates.

The new asset management division will employ ‘over 2,000 people’. At present some 2,900 work for the asset management units of Amro Amro and Fortis, the paper says.
Personnel at ABN Amro are also disgruntled that seven of the 10 management jobs in the department will be appointed by Fortis, reports the Volkskrant.
In a statement on Thursday, Fortis CEO Jean-Paul Votron said: ‘We’re on track. This is a major step forward and a key milestone in the integration process of the ABN AMRO activities that will join us.’
Fortis said it hoped to complete the process by the end of the first quarter.
ABN Amro was taken over by a consortium of three banks at the end of last year. Fortis gets ABN Amro’s Dutch retail, asset management and private banking activities.