Dutch bank merger to go ahead
THE Dutch finance ministry still intends to pursue a combination of nationalised banks ABN Amro and Fortis Bank Nederland, it said in a letter to parliament yesterday, quoshing speculation it might scrap the plan.
Before it can merge the two banks, the state has to comply with a European Commission order from late 2007 on competition in the Dutch market, the original remedy for which was the sale of some ABN Amro assets to Deutsche Bank.
That deal fell apart earlier this month and the state requested and received a two-week extension from the EU to come up with an alternative proposal.
When a consortium of banks including Fortis struck a deal to buy ABN Amro Group and carve it up in 2007, the EU ordered Fortis to sell a bundle of Dutch ABN Amro assets to address competition concerns in the small and medium-sized enterprise market.
The bundle included commercial bank HBU, 13 advisory branches and two corporate client units.
When the state nationalised Fortis’s local operations in October 2008, the remedy order remained. The state’s ultimate plan had been a combination of the two entities and then an IPO in 2011 or later.
The finance ministry also said it would come back in October with a proposal to parliament on recapitalising the banks.