The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) allegedly tried to stop the takeover and break-up of ABN AMRO, Het Financieele Dagblad reports.
A consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) bought the bank in October 2007. However, according to the Dutch daily, the DNB’s President, Nout Wellink, was opposed to the deal, allegedly attempting to garner political support in order to stop the move.
In February 2007 a call for the break-up of ABN from British hedge fund TCI was criticised by Wellink who warned that the financial system may suffer if the bank was broken up. The paper suggests that if the European Central Bank had supported Wellink’s views, the RBS consortium would not have formed in April 2007.
Now that the deal has gone ahead the Dutch Finance Ministry has insisted that the RBS consortium must provide regular updates to the market regarding the break-up of ABN.
The deal means that ABN’s wholesale and investment banking unit and its Asian operations will go to RBS while Santander will assume control over the Italian and Brazilian operations and Fortis will control the Dutch business.