A senior executive at the financial markets watchdog AFM sold shares in bank insurance group Fortis last year even though he had access to details of the takeover battle for ABN Amro, AFM chairman Hans Hoogervorst said on Tuesday.

Fortis was part of a consortium fighting to take over the biggest Dutch bank.
Hoogervoorst’s statement follows a report in Tuesday’s Financieele Dagblad which quoted an internal AFM investigation into the affair. The paper says a decision was made this spring not to take any sanctions against the man, Anne Willem Kist.
The paper said it appeared that Kist had traded in ABN Amro shares.
Although he denied any wrong-doing, Kist resigned as soon as the affair was made public in summer 2007.
Hoogervoorst said the investigation cleared Kist of using insider knowledge when trading in Fortis shares. The results of the internal investigation were handed over to the public prosecution department which decided there were no grounds for legal action, he added.
The AFM’s initial decision to keep the results of its investigation secret were condemned by several FD sources because the organisation always demands full transparency from the financial services sector.