Royal Bank of Scotland has won the contract to become the Dutch government’s new house bank. The contract, which was put out to European tender, will run between four and seven years.

The decision to go to RBS is noteworthy because of the Scottish bank’s role in the takeover and break-up of ABN Amro, which has since been nationalised. RBS has also been hard hit by the credit crisis and is largely in British government hands.
‘This makes us a very stable partner,’ Kees Hoving, in charge of cash management and payment traffic at RBS, told news agency ANP.
RBS will carry out all the domestic payment transactions for government ministries – a total of some 66 million a year. Tax office transactions are not included.
ANP says a unit of RBS which used to be part of the ABN Amro group will carry out the government’s work.
The government currently banks with Rabobank.