If everything had gone according to plan, ABN Amro would not officially exist. Back in 2007, when RBS, Fortis and Santander undertook an audacious €70bn acquisition of the bank, their intention was to dismantle it for ever, bolstering their respective positions in the process. That was before the financial crisis intervened, sending RBS and Fortis to the point of collapse and exposing the hubris of their Dutch acquisition.
In October 2008, the Dutch government was driven to intervene, acquiring all of Fortis’s Dutch operations, including the ABN Amro assets the group had bought only a year previously. In July 2010, the banking businesses of Fortis and ABN Amro were merged and ABN Amro Bank was reborn – smaller, under state ownership, but a recognised entity nonetheless.
