The management board at financial services group Fortis is firmly behind plans to merge with ABN Amro, a spokesman said on Tuesday, following reports the board wanted to call a temporary halt.

‘Fortis is fully behind the integration plan and is busy with the preparations,’ the spokesman told news agency ANP.
Earlier the head of the group’s workers’ council told a trade paper the board wanted a one-year halt to the merger process. The works council said last month it wanted a temporary stop.
Tim op ten Noort said all layers of the group were in favour of a delay because of fears that ABN Amro will dominate the merged organisation.
Both banks have been nationalised and are to combine into a single operation prior to an eventual sale.