Former ABN Amro director Michiel de Jong had no right to a €6.2mln pay-off and a €1.25m bonus over 2008 when he was forced to leave the bank this summer, a court in Amsterdam ruled on Thursday.

ABN Amro had offered De Jong a €2.5mln package but he refused to accept it and went to court to demand more, the Financieele Dagblad says it its report. De Jong based his claim on the pay and conditions package which operated before the bank was taken over at the end of 2007.
The court ruled De Jong’s demands were ‘unacceptable’ at a time of ‘changed circumstances’ facing the bank. ABN Amro is in ‘heavy weather’, the court said, pointing out that the nationalised bank is tempering salary levels and that society has become more criticial of the size of golden handshakes.
In addition, De Jong, 48, had agreed to leave the bank and that it should not be hard for someone with his qualifications to find a new job, the paper quoted the court as saying. De Jong joined the ABN Amro board in 2008, shortly after the €71bn takeover by a consortium.
Today, the courts will rule on the case of 10 other ABN Amro workers who are demanding loyalty bonuses they say were promised them for staying on after the takeover.