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The bank is a product of a long history of mergers and acquisitions that date back to 1765. In 1991 Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN) and Amsterdam and Rotterdam Bank (AMRO) agreed to merge to create the original ABN AMRO. By 2007 ABN AMRO was the second largest bank in the Netherlands and eighth largest banks in Europe by assets. At that time the magazine The Banker and Fortune Global 500 placed the bank at number 15th in the list of world’s biggest banks and it had operations in 63 countries, with over 110,000 employees. In 2007 the bank was acquired, in what was at that time the biggest bank takeover in history, by a consortium made up of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Fortis bank and Banco Santander, of which the first two got into serious trouble as a result of the takeover. The large amount of debt that had been created to fund the takeover had depleted the banks reserves just at the time the Financial crisis of 2007 � 2010 started. As a result the Dutch government took over and nationalized the Dutch parts of the operations which had primarily been allocated to Fortis to stop it failing. The UK government took effective control over the divisions allocated to RBS due to its financial bail-out of the Scottish bank. The remaining parts of ABN AMRO held by the consortiums RFS Holdings B.V., notably the overseas businesses, were merged with RBS, Santander, sold off or shut down. The Dutch government appointed former Dutch finance minister Gerrit Zalm as CEO to restructure and stabilise the bank and in February 2010 the bank was split into two separate organizations. One owned by the Dutch government called ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and the other owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group named The Royal Bank of Scotland N.V. On this date the Dutch owned businesses legally demerged from those owned by RBS. The Dutch government owned the ABN AMRO name and used it for the parts of the bank they purchased while other companies within the Group were renamed or closed down. In 2010 ABN AMRO Group the owner of ABN AMRO Bank was created by merging the former sections of ABN AMRO Nederland, ABN AMRO Private Banking, together with Fortis Bank Nederland as well as formerly Fortis owned private bank MeesPierson and International Diamond and Jewelry Group. This started operating under the name ABN AMRO on 1 July 2010 at which time Fortis bank name officially ended. The Dutch government has said it would remain state owned at least until 2014 after which it would consider a public stock market listing for the new bank. |
