ABN Amro set for flotation

THE Dutch lender which crippled Royal Bank of Scotland during the financial crisis is set to float on the stock market by the end of the year, writes James Salmon.

Seven years after it received a €22bn bail-out from Dutch taxpayers, ABN Amro revealed it is preparing to return to the private sector.

The Amsterdam-based bank indirectly cost UK taxpayers a huge amount of money.

It was rescued in 2008 after a €71bn takeover by RBS, Banco Santander and Fortis which saw it carved up.

The acquisition in 2007 almost triggered the collapse of both RBS and Dutch lender Fortis the following year when the crisis hit and the risky loans on ABN Amro’s books turned sour.

The Dutch government bailed out the part bought by Fortis, before restructuring it so it is now almost entirely focused on serving customers and businesses in Holland.

The decision by RBS’s then chief executive Fred Goodwin to snap up ABN Amro was one of the most disastrous in UK corporate history. RBS was rescued by a £45.5bn bail out from taxpayers.

Goodwin and his colleagues were criticised by the now defunct City watchdog the Financial Services Authority for failing to vet ABN Amro’s finances properly before it struck the deal.

In a damning report published in 2011, the FSA described the takeover as a ‘gamble’, pointing out that the decision was taken on the basis of just two lever arch files and a CD’s worth of information. ÷ HSBC is selling both its private banking and investment management businesses in the tax haven of Bermuda to London-based Butterfield Private Bank.