vennootschap under public ownership industry financial services founded 1991 ; 25 years ago 1991 headquarters amsterdam netherlands key people gerrit zalm ceo products asset management commercial banking investment banking private banking retail banking operating income 7.794 billion euros 2011 1 profit 689 million euros 2011 1 aum 183.7 billion euros 2014 2 total assets 404.682 billion euros december 31 2011 3 total equity 11.420 billion euros december 31 2011 3 owner kingdom of the netherlands 80 % number of employees 22 215 2014 4 website www.abnamro.com abn amro bank n.v. is a dutch state owned bank with headquarters in amsterdam . abn amro bank is the third largest bank in the netherlands . 5 it was re established in its current form in 2009 following the acquisition and break up of the original abn amro by a banking consortium consisting of royal bank of scotland group santander group and fortis . following the collapse of fortis who acquired the dutch business it was nationalized by the dutch government along with fortis bank nederland . 6 the bank is a product of a long history of mergers and acquisitions that date to 1765 . in 1991 algemene bank nederland abn and amro bank itself the result of a merger of the amsterdamsche bank and the rotterdamsche bank in the 1960s agreed to merge to create the original abn amro . by 2007 abn amro was the second largest bank in the netherlands and the eighth largest in europe by assets . at that time the magazine the banker and fortune global 500 placed it 15th 7 in the list of world s biggest banks and it had operations in 63 countries with over 110 000 employees . in october 2007 a consortium of the royal bank of scotland group fortis and banco santander known as rfs holdings b.v. acquired the bank in what was the world s biggest bank takeover to date . consequently the bank was divided into three parts each owned by one of the members of the consortium . however rbs and fortis soon ran into serious trouble the large debt created to fund the takeover had depleted the banks reserves just as the financial crisis of 2007 2010 started . as a result the dutch government stepped in and bailed out fortis in october 2008 before splitting abn amro s dutch assets which had primarily been allocated to fortis from those owned by rbs which were effectively assumed by the uk government due to its bail out of the british bank . the operations owned by santander notably those in italy and brazil were merged with santander sold or eliminated . the dutch government appointed former dutch finance minister gerrit zalm as ceo to restructure and stabilise the bank and in february 2010 the assets it owned were legally demerged from those owned by rbs . 8 this demerger created two separate organisations abn amro bank n.v. and the royal bank of scotland n.v. 9 10 the former was merged with abn amro private banking fortis bank nederland the private bank meespierson formerly owned by the original abn amro and fortis and the diamond bank international diamond & jewelry group to create abn amro group n.v. with the fortis name being dropped on 1 july 2010 . the remaining parts of the original abn amro still owned by the royal bank of scotland n.v. meanwhile were renamed sold or closed . 11 the dutch government has said that abn amro would remain state owned until at least 2014 after which it would consider a public stock market listing for the bank . contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 reaching a cross roads 1.3 acquisition battle 1.4 acquisition and break up 1.5 impact of the 2008 financial crisis 1.5.1 rbs 1.5.2 fortis 1.5.3 disposals and renaming 1.5.4 dutch government ownership 1.6 goldman sachs sec lawsuit 1.7 default on gold delivery contracts 2 bank operations 3 financial data 4 alumni 5 marketing 5.1 name usage and spelling 5.2 logo and style 5.3 sponsorships 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit see also the articles on amro bank and algemene bank nederland early years edit in 1824 king william i established the nederlandsche handel maatschappij nhm a trading company to revive trade and financing of the dutch east indies and it would become one of the primary ancestors of abn amro . the nhm merged with the twentsche bank in 1964 to form algemene bank nederland abn . in the same year the amsterdamsche bank established in 1871 merged with the rotterdamsche bank established in 1873 as part of merger that included determeijer weslingh & zn . from 1765 to form amro bank . in 1991 abn and amro bank agreed to merge to create abn amro . through these mergers and acquisitions abn amro gained a large number of overseas companies and branches . from nhm it owned a significant branch network in asia and the middle east . one of these the saudi hollandi bank was owned by the nhm jeddah branch and in which abn amro still had a 40 % stake caused questions in the dutch parliament from the political party for freedom . another the hollandsche bank unie hbu which grew from the merger of the hollandsche bank voor de middellandsche zee hbmz and the hollandsche zuid amerika bank in 1933 gave abn amro an extensive network of branches in south and central america . in 1979 abn expanded into north america with the acquisition of chicago based lasalle national bank . after the merger of abn and amro bank in 1991 the corporation continued to grow through a number of further acquisitions including the 1996 purchase of suburban detroit based standard federal bank followed five years later by the acquisition of its detroit based competitor michigan national bank which was rebranded as standard federal . in 2005 standard federal became lasalle bank midwest to unite the two components . abn amro purchased the chicago corporation an american securities and commodities trading and clearing corporation in fall 1995 . 12 other major acquisitions included the brazilian bank banco real in 1998 and the italian bank antonveneta in 2006 . it was also involved in the controversial acquisition of the dutch local government mortgage and building development organisation the bouwfonds in 2000 . 13 abn amro sold the bouwfonds as a going concern in 2006 . reaching a cross roads edit abn amro had come to a crossroads in early 2005 . the bank had still not come close to its own target of having a return on equity that would put it among the top five of its peer group a target that the ceo rijkman groenink had set upon his appointment in 2000 . from 2000 until 2005 abn amro s stock price stagnated . financial results in 2006 added to concerns about the bank s future . operating expenses increased at a greater rate than operating revenue and the efficiency ratio deteriorated further to 69.9 % . non performing loans increased considerably year on year by 192 % . net profits were only boosted by sustained asset sales . in 2006 research findings were publicly released regarding abn amro bank n.v. predecessors and connections to african slavery . an examination of 200 predecessors of abn amro bank n.v. founded before 1888 determined that some had connections to african slavery either in the united states or elsewhere in the americas . 14 there had been some calls over the prior couple of years for abn amro to break up to merge or to be acquired . on 21 february 2007 the children s investment fund management tci hedge fund called to ask the chairman of the supervisory board to actively investigate a merger acquisition or breakup of abn amro stating that the current stock price did not reflect the true value of the underlying assets . tci asked the chairman to put its request on the agenda of the annual shareholders meeting to be held in april 2007 . events accelerated on 20 march when the british bank barclays and abn amro both confirmed they were in exclusive talks about a possible merger . acquisition battle edit on 28 march 2007 abn amro published the agenda for the shareholders meeting of 2007 . it included all items requested by tci but with the recommendation not to follow the request for a breakup of the company . 15 abn amro insurance headquarters in zwolle . however on 18 april another british bank the royal bank of scotland rbs contacted abn amro to propose a deal in which a consortium of banks including rbs belgium s fortis and spain s banco santander central hispano now banco santander would jointly bid for abn amro and thereafter divide the components of the company among them . according to the proposed deal rbs would receive abn s united states operations lasalle and abn s wholesale operations ; banco santander would take the brazilian operations ; and fortis the dutch operations . on 23 april abn amro and barclays announced the proposed acquisition of abn amro by barclays . the deal was valued at 67 billion and included the sale of lasalle bank to bank of america for 21 billion . 16 two days later the rbs led consortium brought out its indicative offer worth 72 billion if abn amro would abandon its sale of lasalle bank to bank of america . during the shareholders meeting the next day approximately 68 percent of the shareholders voted in favour of the breakup as requested by tci . 17 the sale of lasalle was seen as obstructive by many as a way of blocking the rbs bid which hinged on further access to the us markets in order to expand on the success of the group s existing american brands citizens bank and charter one . on 3 may 2007 the dutch investors association vereniging van effectenbezitters with the support of shareholders representing up to 20 percent of abn s shares took its case to the dutch commercial court in amsterdam seeking an injunction against the lasalle sale . the court ruled that the sale of lasalle could not be viewed apart from the current merger talks of barclays with abn amro and that the abn amro shareholders should be able to approve other possible merger acquisition candidates in a general shareholder meeting . however in july 2007 the dutch supreme court ruled that bank of america s acquisition of lasalle bank could proceed and bank of america absorbed lasalle effective 1 october 2007 . on 23 july 2007 barclays raised its offer for abn amro to 67.5 bn after securing investments from the governments of china and singapore but it was still short of the rbs consortium s offer . barclay s revised bid was worth 35.73 a share 4.3 % more than its previous offer . the offer which included 37 % cash remained below the 38.40 a share offer made the week before by the rfs consortium . the revised offer did not include an offer for la salle bank since abn amro could proceed with the sale of that subsidiary to bank of america . rbs would now settle for abn s investment banking division and its asian network . acquisition and break up edit on 30 july 2007 abn amro withdrew its support for barclays offer which was lower than the offer from the group led by rbs . while the barclays offer matched abn amro s strategic vision the board couldn t recommend it from a financial point of view . the us 98.3 bn bid from rbs fortis and banco santander was 9.8 % higher than barclays offer . barclays bank withdrew its bid for abn amro on 5 october clearing the way for the rbs led consortium s bid to go through along with its planned dismemberment of abn amro