The Netherlands' Finance Minister Wouter Bos may soon announce the cancellation of the merger between Dutch bank ABN Amro and the Dutch arm of the forme Fortis group, local media reported Friday.
According to various sources with information on Bos' plans, the two banks will eventually be sold separately, the report in the De Volkskrant newspaper said. The main reason to stop the merger process is to save about 8,000 jobs.
Fortis, together with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Banko Santander, bought the ABN Amro group last year for 71 billion euros (U.S. dollars?). Fortis had been trying to integrate ABN Amro's Benelux arm into its own operations.
But this was no longer possible after Fortis was broken up in October, with its Dutch operations nationalized by the Dutch state and most of the other parts acquired by France's BNP Paribas.
If the merger goes ahead, almost 8,000 jobs would be lost in the Netherlands. This would cause too much political damage to Bosand his Labor party when the country is facing an economic recession as a result of the worldwide credit crisis, De Volkskrant said.
The integration process has already proved to be more difficult than earlier thought because of the culture clash between Fortis and ABN Amro. Relations between directors and employees of the two banks have been poor since they were nationalized. The works councils of the two banks have also called for an end to the integration.
Source: Xinhua
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