15 million euros for violations of the bonus ban.
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) has imposed a fine of 15 million euros on ABN Amro for violating the bonus ban. For years, the bank has deliberately awarded and paid out bonuses to officials who should not have received them.
The bonus ban was introduced after the credit crisis and means that directors and officials directly below the board of directors of banks that receive state support may not receive bonuses. The bonus ban has applied to the board of directors of ABN Amro since 2012. Since 2015, the ban has also applied to the so-called second echelon, the bankers who work directly below the top.
DNB has determined that ABN Amro violated the ban by awarding and paying out bonuses to seven second-tier officials in the period from 2016 to 2024. This concerns awarded bonuses totaling more than 1.5 million euros. DNB holds ABN Amro heavily responsible for the fact that the bank ‘deliberately allowed the violation of the bonus ban to continue for a long time and went against the explicit instructions’ of the supervisor.
According to the supervisor, she pointed out to ABN Amro that awarding and paying out bonuses to second-tier officials is not permitted. After this, the bank initially stopped paying out the bonuses.
ABN Amro says that the bank ‘interpreted and applied the legislation in good faith’, but later acknowledges that its view was incorrect. The bank therefore says it accepts the fine of millions.
The bonus ban was intended to prevent state aid, or income earned from it, from being partly paid out to the top management of banks in the form of bonuses.
BUT
ABN AMRO has launched a new digital bank, called BUUT, aimed at young people. The platform was developed in collaboration with the team behind Tikkie and offers a fresh user experience. BUUT is designed to help young people get a better grip on their finances, and the app will be available after the summer. With this, ABN AMRO is competing with other online banks such as bunq and Revolut. BUUT is specifically designed for young people. Here are some of the key features:
- Completely digital: BUUT works via an app and is designed to seamlessly connect with the digital world of young people.
- Built by the Tikkie team: The app is developed by the team behind Tikkie and offers a fresh, interactive user experience.
- Financial education: BUUT helps young people save, budget and manage their money. Parents can watch via a separate login.
- Innovative and visually driven: The app is easy to use, interactive and completely visually oriented.
- Available after the summer: BUUT will be launched after the summer and can then be downloaded from the app store
The Dutch State sold its ABN AMRO shares at an accelerated pace via NLFI and the stake was reduced to approximately 30 percent in a short time. This makes the bank interesting for takeovers. Deutsche Bank is said to be one of the possible candidates and is said to be informally investigating this. The rumours were reason enough for Silchester International Investors to take a 3.01 percent stake. The British now hold 26 million shares. ABN Amro took over one of the oldest German banks, the German private bank Hauck Aufhauser Lampe (HAL) from the Chinese owner Fosun Internation for 672 million euros.
Marguerite Bérard succeeds Robert Swaak as CEO of ABN AMRO
Robert Swaak stepped down as CEO of ABN AMRO at the end of March 2025 and will not complete his term. Marguerite Bérard (47) is his successor and became the first woman to take the helm of one of the three major banks in the Netherlands. According to ABN AMRO, the French woman, who was a board member at BNP Paribas between 2019 and 2024 and previously worked at Groupe BPCE, is busy learning Dutch. Marguerite Bérard has already been cutting staff within a month. She is going to reorganize within the business division. ‘A small number’ of employees will be affected by this. The reorganization will take place within the division that offers financial services to other companies, such as business loans. The reorganization follows an unexpected reorganization that ABN Amro implemented just before Bérard joined. In April, temporary workers were told that their contracts would not be extended. In addition, external hiring was banned. Thousands of people are said to have been affected by this operation. At De Telegraaf, a spokesperson reports that it now concerns ‘a small number’ of people who are affected. A specific number has not been given. The staff involved have been informed about this reorganization on Wednesday. French Bérard joined the bank’s board on April 23.
Acquisition and strategic growth
The European Commission has given the green light for the acquisition of HAL, an asset management company founded in 1796. ABN AMRO, which is already active in Germany via Bethmann Bank for wealthy clients, wants to merge the two entities. With the acquisition, ABN AMRO will manage approximately 70 billion euros in assets for German clients. HAL has its headquarters in Frankfurt and offices in several European cities and China.
State participation and finances
NLFI, the foundation that manages the state’s stake in ABN AMRO, will retain influence on the remuneration policy and the composition of the board of directors and supervisory directors as long as the state’s stake remains above 10%. The state’s stake was recently reduced from 40.5% to 30%, and the sale of further shares will start at the end of November 2025. Minister of Finance Eelco Heinen indicated that the share price should be at 31.49 euros to prevent losses for the state. On 27 November 2025, however, the share was trading at around half that value.
In order to achieve the cost targets for 2025, ABN AMRO has imposed a hiring freeze. This measure should help to not exceed the financial targets.
In February 2022, shares and share certificates in ABN AMRO Bank NV (“ABN AMRO”) were sold back to ABN-AMRO as part of the buyback programme that the bank had previously announced. The sale of the shares yielded more than EUR 1.1 billion for the state treasury in 2023. As a result, the state interest fell below 50 percent for the first time since the bank was nationalised. In the penultimate round of sales, 58.5 million (share certificates) were sold. These shares yielded a total of EUR 842.3 million for the state treasury. In addition, the bank bought back EUR 281.3 million worth of its own shares from the state, a total of approximately 18 million shares. According to the Ministry of Finance, the rescue of ABN AMRO cost a total of EUR 27.7 billion, including interest charges at the time. The share sales over the years have yielded EUR 9.6 billion so far. In addition, the state has also earned from the dividend (the profit distribution) that its stake has yielded, now a total of 5.8 billion euros. Together, this has earned the state 15.4 billion euros. The Dutch State is prepared to quickly sell its stake in ABN AMRO with a loss of 5 billion euros. In order to recoup the total capital expenditure, the entire remaining stake would have to be sold at a price of 31.49 euros, but it is not realistic that such a price will be reached in the short term. The price of ABN AMRO is on average half of this, namely 15.65 euros. A further 9 percent stake has been sold since 30 November 2023. JPMorgan removed ABN AMRO from the sales list. After the sale of the stake in Commerzbank, analysts at the American investment bank labelled ABN AMRO as a potential takeover target.
ABN Amro has acquired the heavily loss-making investment platform Bux. Through Bux, the bank gained half a million, mainly young, customers spread across eight countries. In addition to the Netherlands, these are Belgium, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain and Ireland. BUX grew strongly but suffered a loss of 16 million euros in 2022. In 2021, there was also a loss of 17.7 million euros. BUX has raised a lot of money from investors, including ABN, in recent years for further expansion in Europe. In total, this amounts to 103 million euros between 2015 and 2021 and has grown into a large neobroker with mobile applications with 500,000 customers in 8 European markets. After the acquisition, ABN AMRO and BUX together became the largest provider of products for investors in the Netherlands. The combination is also a welcome addition for Deutsche Bank. The acquisition became official on 1 July. The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) has fined BUX 1.6 million euros because the company paid finfluencers, among other things, to bring in customers. The fine was imposed on 18 November 2024, before the takeover by ABN. The company used a ‘friends program’ and an ‘affiliate program’ to attract new customers. Existing customers received a ‘free share’ for bringing in a new customer. This meant that BUX deposited money into the existing customer’s account and used it to buy a share for the customer. Bux also determined which share was purchased, and targeted shares offered in the BUX app with a value between 1 euro and 200 euros. In an oral explanation to the AFM, BUX indicated that the average value in various countries was between 3 euros and 15 euros. Exceptions of shares of 200 euros were also included. BUX recruited almost 21,000 new customers with the friends program between January 1 and December 1, 2022. In the affiliate program, BUX worked with finfluencers and comparison websites via affiliate marketing agencies. The finfluencers and websites received banners and tracking links with which they could refer visitors to BUX. Visitors who clicked on them were redirected to a BUX registration page where the potential customer could fill in details. After entering a full name, the visitor was counted as a lead for which the marketing agency was paid. The amounts varied, but in an example case, the finfluencer kept 30 euros from this. If the entire process was completed and an investment account was opened, the visitor became a new customer. Through the affiliate program, BUX recruited a total of 5,635 new customers in 2022 (3,251 via finfluencers and 2,384 via comparison websites). In December 2021, the AFM pointed out to investment firms that the commission ban also applies to fees paid to finfluencers.BUX’s violations came to light earlier that year during a baseline measurement among investment firms by the AFM, in which companies had to complete a questionnaire. BUX stated in a press release that it ended the referral fees in April 2023 and that ABN AMRO was aware of the discussion with the AFM when it announced the takeover of the online broker in December 2023. BUX Director Yorick Naeff also said that the fees came from the company’s pocket and that customers were not disadvantaged. Naeff told news agency ANP that the case had been brought before the court, but that the court saw no reason to withdraw the punishment. According to Naeff, much is still unclear about the scope of the ban on commission, which makes the Dutch situation different from that of other countries. BUX is considering initiating further substantive proceedings.
A ransomware attack on Addcomm also hit ABN Amro in May 2024
ABN stopped processing tens of thousands of business payment orders itself and outsourced this to payment service provider Buckaroo
ABN AMRO reported a net profit of almost 1.9 billion euros in 2022, an increase of half compared to the more than 1.2 billion euros in 2021. As a shareholder, the government earned more than 700 million euros from this. The bank’s top executives also saw their remuneration increase by 3 million euros, meaning they now each receive more than 7 million euros, an increase of almost 73%. Departing director Gerard Penning received a severance payment of 164,000 euros, bringing his total remuneration to 1,364,000 euros. Robert Zwaak received 1 million euros. A total of 53 million euros in bonuses was paid out among the Board of Directors, of which 3 employees received amounts between 1.5 and 2 million euros. In 2023, ABN Amro achieved its highest profit in years at 2.7 billion euros. Approximately the same result is expected for 2024. The net profit for the first quarter was 674 million, for the second quarter 642 million and for the third quarter a net profit of 690 million was achieved. The net profit for the whole of 2024 amounted to 397 million euros, more than a quarter less than the same period last year. The return on equity fell from 9.5% in the last quarter of 2023 to 6.2% in the last quarter of 2024. Costs are rising sharply at the institution. €0.72 is spent to earn one euro. This makes ABN Amro the least efficient of the three major banks. The bank hired more people for IT, data analysis and supervisory tasks, including anti-money laundering control. In total, this concerns more than 1,100 employees. This brings the total to 21,976. Personnel costs rose by 284 million euros to 2.77 billion.
The ABN AMRO head office at the Amsterdam Zuidas was closed as a precaution on Friday 11 April 2025 due to an announced pro-Palestine demonstration. The bank chose to do this with an eye to the safety of colleagues and visitors in and around the building. The Regus and Symphony Offices offices were among those closed for the demonstration at the Zuidas that started at 2:00 PM. Demonstrators are also said to have targeted the banks Mizuho and BNP Paribas, insurer AXA and investment management company VanEck.
History
It started with a merger of the banks ABN and AMRO Bank in 1990. The merged bank then went on a hunt to grow and eventually became prey to the consortium RBS , Fortis and Banco Santander, which took the shares off the stock exchange for 72 billion euros.
ABN-AMRO originates from Hope & Co (Hope & Co was a banking house at Keizersgracht 444-446 in Amsterdam. The trading and banking house was founded in 1762 by the Amsterdam banker Thomas Hope together with his son Jan Hope and his nephew Henry Hope. They provided loans and investments throughout Europe. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the banks mainly earned their money from the slave trade, plantation slavery and the trade in products that originated from slavery. Hope & Co played a pivotal role in the international slavery economy in the 18th century and was also active in the management of plantations. Mees & Zoonen was a broker in insurance of slave ships and the transport of products that were harvested by slaves. Hope & Co was the largest financial and trading company in the Netherlands at the end of the eighteenth century. Slavery-related activities were a core activity of this company. Mees & Zoonen was a smaller player. The branches in Amsterdam and Rotterdam had a direct influence on the lives of thousands of slaves and remained active despite movements for the abolition of slavery. slavery involved here until the end.
The ABN AMRO bank was taken over in 2007 by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Fortis and Banco Santander, who together paid more than 70 billion euros to take the bank off the stock exchange. Due to the financial crisis, things quickly went wrong and the bank had to be rescued by the Dutch State, which cost a total of 27.7 billion euros, including interest charges.
In 2008, the rescue operation gave the Dutch State a majority stake in the bank. The company was re-listed in 2015, with the aim of gradually selling shares. To date, the share sale has yielded 9.6 billion euros. In addition, the state has earned 5.8 billion euros in dividends from the stake. In total, the proceeds for the state amount to 15.4 billion euros.
ABN AMRO was nationalised in 2008 for 16.8 billion euros and later cost the State another 6.5 billion. Until recently, NLFI still held 56.3 percent of the shares (8.7 billion euros). In February 2022, shares and share certificates in ABN-AMRO Bank NV (“ABN AMRO”) were sold back to ABN-AMRO as part of the buyback programme that ABN AMRO had previously announced. The sale of the shares yielded the state treasury another 1.1 billion euros in 2023. As a result, the state interest fell to less than 50 percent for the first time since the bank was nationalised. In the last round of sales, 58.5 million (certificates of) shares were sold. These shares yielded a total of 842.3 million euros for the state treasury. In addition, the bank bought back 281.3 million euros worth of its own shares from the state, a total of approximately 18 million shares. According to the Ministry of Finance, the rescue of ABN Amro cost a total of 27.7 billion euros, including interest charges. The sale of shares over the years has yielded 9.6 billion euros so far. In addition, the state has also earned from the dividend (the profit distribution) that its interest has yielded, now a total of 5.8 billion euros. Together, this has yielded the state 15.4 billion euros. The market value of the remaining state interest at that time, 49.5 percent, is 5.7 billion euros, based on the current price of 13.20 euros per share. The loss is therefore still 6.7 billion euros.
More than 240 bankers received a variable bonus after the IPO because the bonus law would not apply to the top layers of the bank as long as the Dutch state had a stake in the bank. Twenty percent of ABN-AMRO was sold for €17.75 per share. Based on this price, ABN would yield a total of approximately €17 billion, while for the Dutch state it would have to yield at least €22 billion to break even. Zalm bought 11,800 shares for €15.57 per share and board member Van Dijkhuizen bought 1,650 for €16.84 each and later in another transaction 5,850 for €16.93 each. On 16 November, the state’s stake was further reduced from 77 percent to 70 percent. To this end, 65 million share certificates were sold at a price of €20.40 per certificate, which yielded €1.3 billion. At the end of June 2017, a third package of shares (7%) went public. Investors could immediately subscribe for the 65 million certificates. The Dutch state’s stake in the bank fell to 63%.
The proceeds of the nationalised ABN Amro went to the repayment of the national debt. The State then owned 63 percent of the bank via NLFI . NLFI then sold another 7% of the shares. That was worth 1.6 billion euros. This involved 65 million certificates of ordinary shares, together good for 7% of the bank’s share capital. This reduced the State’s stake in the bank, which has been supported since the credit crisis, from 63% to approximately 56%. Rijkman Groenink, under whose leadership ABN AMRO was sold to RBS, Santander and Fortis at the time, is now an advisor for a private equity fund of Wealth Management Partners. The sale of ABN earned him a bonus of 26 million euros plus two annual salaries.
ABN-AMRO finally went public on 20 November 2015 via NLFI with an issue of 216 million shares. For solvency reasons, the Bank Nederlandse Gemeente (BNG) was transferred by NLFI to ASR and later sold. For the purpose of financing, ASR Vastgoed Ontwikkeling was sold to Meijer Realty Partners (MRP). During and before the IPO, secret talks were also held with the much larger Scandinavian bank Nordea, which was keen on a merger. Nordea is said to have made a concrete proposal that was kept quiet and rejected by the Dutch state. Chairman of the Supervisory Board Björn Wahlroos of Nordea is said to have discussed this with Gerrit Zalm and he also wanted to speak to Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem. A leaked memo is said to show that NLFI advised Dijsselbloem to reject the rapprochement attempt because the plans were ‘financially unattractive and extremely risky, if not practically impossible to implement’.
The bank changed its terms and conditions on 1 October 2016 due to “changed market conditions” in order to be able to charge negative interest on business accounts from that time onwards. Customers who had a total balance of more than 150,000 euros in their bank accounts on 1 July 2021 had to pay 0.5% interest on the amount above this threshold. This applied to both private and business customers. For total balances below 150,000 euros, the interest remained unchanged at 0%. Approximately 15,000 private customers who permanently live outside Europe and use their banking services in the Netherlands were also discharged. This also includes many emigrated pensioners. Expats were excluded. Approximately a quarter of them have Dutch nationality. The bank also stopped investing in the tobacco industry and is the first bank to make cash withdrawals more expensive. If customers withdraw more than €12,000 in cash within a year, they will have to pay a few euros each time plus a percentage of the amount withdrawn for each subsequent ATM withdrawal.
In 2020, ABN AMRO made a loss of 45 million euros for the first time in ten years. A share buyback program was started for shareholders who did not receive a profit distribution in 2020. The annual profit distribution to investors was resumed. A possible takeover by BNP Paribas failed, because without a European banking union there was too little room to realize cost advantages due to a lack of geographical overlap. BNP Paribas has no significant activities in the Netherlands, while ABN AMRO has 78 percent of its loans outstanding in the Netherlands.
In December 2021, ABN AMRO sold its head office on the Amsterdam Zuidas to real estate investor Victory Group for 765 million euros. The bank then rented the building until the renovation of a building in the Bijlmer is completed in 2025. ABN AMRO made a pre-tax profit of 338 million euros on the sale. The majority of the employees moved to the new building on the Foppingadreef in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. A small number of the employees, including the main board of directors, will continue to work on the Zuidas after the completion of that building. The building that has now been sold will remain the bank’s official head office. The building on the Gustav Mahlerlaan was put into use by ABN AMRO in 1999. In addition to the office building, it also included a circularly built pavilion called Circl. but activities were already stopped there in June 2023. ABN AMRO has made agreements with Victory, which forms a consortium with G&S Vastgoed for the deal, about the reuse of the pavilion. The dismantling of Circl will take nine months. On the site of the pavilion, the rebirth of a new, sustainable office building will take place. Construction is scheduled to start in the first half of 2025. Owner Victory Group wants to present the design to the area in the coming months. Circl, located at Gustav Mahlerplein 1B, opened its doors in 2017 as a circular and Paris-proof example project. It served as a meeting center until the summer of 2023, after which ABN Amro left the building and the rental of rooms was stopped. In accordance with the circular principle, the elements from Circl are now being given a new purpose in other buildings or will serve as raw materials for products and materials.
The ABN AMRO office also almost completely left Limburg. Only one office remained open in Maastricht. The office in Venlo was already closed at the end of August 2022. ABN AMRO closed the branches in Roermond, Heerlen and Weert. ABN-AMRO is not the only bank closing branches. Rabobank and ING have also regularly closed offices in recent years. Rabobank currently has eight branches in Limburg, ING has four offices and fifteen service points and SNS Bank is the only one that is not closing offices, but is actually opening more. The counter in the province now stands at 16 offices, which SNS Bank calls ‘advice shops’. SNS wants to become the Volksbank of the Netherlands.
Customers who paid too much interest on their consumer credit in the past were compensated for the excess amount paid. The Consumers’ Association and ABN-AMRO have agreed on a compensation scheme. The bank has set aside a total of around 250 million euros for this purpose. The compensation scheme applies to various revolving consumer credits from ABN-AMRO, ALFAM and ICS. These are loans with a variable interest rate or current accounts with the option to overdraw. The interest on these is supposed to fluctuate with the market interest rate, but at ABN-AMRO the interest rate remained high in a number of cases, while the market interest rate fell. According to Kifid, this is an undue payment and, unlike in the case of compensation, no interest on interest has to be paid on this. Other banks have reimbursed this interest in their compensation scheme in similar cases. The amounts to be repaid varied between 50 and 1750 euros per customer.
In the period 2014-2020, the bank, according to the Public Prosecution Service, seriously failed to fulfill its role as gatekeeper in combating money laundering. ABN AMRO settled with the Public Prosecution Service for 480 million euros to avoid prosecution. The amount consisted of a fine of 300 million euros and 180 million euros to confiscate illegally obtained profits. (savings on personnel costs). The Public Prosecution Service had designated Gerrit Zalm, Joop Wijn and Chris Vogelzang as suspects, because they held a management position at the parts of the bank that committed violations. The verdict resulted in a total claim for damages of approximately three billion euros for the bank. The bank also lost the appeal. In December 2024, criminal cases against Zalm and three other former ABN Amro directors were discontinued by the Public Prosecution Service . It could not be established that the managers deliberately did nothing or too little to stop the criminal conduct”. ABN Amro reached a settlement of 480 million euros for failure to properly comply with anti-money laundering legislation.
ABN AMRO Chairman Tom de Swaan was forced to close his private investment structure via the Virgin Islands after he was named in the Pandora Papers . It concerned the safari park project Asilia.
The bank cut about 15 percent of all jobs, making the staff responsible for the money laundering practices that took place under the management of Gerrit Zalm . The bank employs about 18,000 people, 14,800 of whom are in the Netherlands. ABN Amro was already in the process of laying off about 800 employees. The bank wants to significantly scale back the global ambitions of the Corporate & Institutional Bank (CIB), with the exception of the Clearing division, and is withdrawing completely worldwide in those three to four years and is focusing on Northwest Europe, while trade and commodity financing was also discontinued. Due to Corona , among other things , extra reserves had to be made for bad loans. The provisions amounted to a total of 1.1 billion euros. At the end of March 2020, it was already announced that the bank had lost 235 million euros with a customer of the ABN AMRO Clearing department. 225 million euros also had to be set aside for a major customer in the oil trade, whose loan might not be repaid. Furthermore, 511 million euros was already set aside for possible losses on loans and mortgages that might not be repaid. Another 140 million euros was booked as a regular provision.
Buildings
The number of bank offices has been reduced to 60. Today, ABN AMRO’s head office is located in Amsterdam on Gustav Mahlerlaan. At 105 metres high, the office is the second tallest building on the Zuidas. In December 2021, the building was sold to real estate investor Victory Group for 765 million euros. The building will be rented for a number of years until the renovation of the Foppingadreef building is completed in 2025. Most of the employees will then move, but the main management will not move because the building remains the bank’s official head office.
The Foppingadreef 22 building, located in Amsterdam-Zuidoost (on the Amsterdam-Utrecht railway line), is ABN AMRO’s second largest office building with its 56,792 m² (VVO). The building dates from 1985 and was originally the head office of the Amro bank at the time. In addition to the management of the Business Unit Netherlands, the office building houses many other business units, including ABN AMRO Groenbank. The building is particularly striking because of the white tiling on the outside. The design is based on a synthesis of functionality and liveability. This resulted in a cluster-shaped building with ypsilon-shaped floors. Since the third quarter of 2023, the Foppingadreef has been closed for more than three years to expand and make it more sustainable in order to achieve the Paris climate target. After the renovation, the building will be able to accommodate twice as many people because the space between the Ys will be filled. It will then become the unofficial head office. All operations will be managed from there, but larger clients will still be welcomed at the official head office on Gustavmahlerlaan in Amsterdam. The office at Coolsingel 119 in Rotterdam is owned by ABN AMRO and consists of two parts. Construction of the low-rise building with its striking copper roof, the head office of the former Rotterdamsche Bank, began in 1941 (the original office on the Boompjes was destroyed during the bombing of Rotterdam). In 1942, a general construction freeze halted activities and it was not until 1948 that the building as it stands today was completed. The modern high-rise building dates from the early 1970s. Both sections together measure 27,669 m² (GFA). The building houses several business units and also contains a bank shop and an indoor parking garage.
New course
ABN AMRO had a total of over 22,000 employees in 2015, but has since been in the process of laying off 975 to 1375 employees in order to structurally save 200 million euros per year. There were also almost 4000 external employees working for the bank. Temporary employees whose contracts expire will not be replaced. When permanent employees leave, the bank will assess whether a replacement is needed. The bank does not want to incur costs of more than 5.3 billion euros this year. In addition, Christmas packages were no longer distributed. The cancellation of the annual Christmas package costing 70 euros per employee saved more than 1.3 million euros per year with the intended number of almost 19,954 full-time employees. Approximately thirty of the hundred highest managers of ABN Amro were told on 20 March 2017 that there was no more room for them. Together they received 11 to 12 million euros in severance pay, based on a maximum of one year’s salary or the amount previously agreed in the contract.
ABN-AMRO doubled its savings interest rate from 0.25 to 0.5 percent in March 2023, and from 1 May 2023, it became 0.75 percent. The bank is following competitors ING and Rabobank in doing so. The increases apply to amounts up to 1 million euros. The interest rate for business accounts and children’s savings accounts is also still rising.
In 2023, there was attention for a takeover of the bank. This time it was Deutsche Bank that was investigating the possibilities behind the scenes. ABN is currently said to be worth 12 billion euros.
NLFI sold shares again in 2023. The shares are being marketed via a trading plan, which was executed by Citigroup. The maximum number of shares that could be sold reduced the state interest to just under 50 percent. Citigroup was instructed not to let the shares be sold below a certain price.
ABN-AMRO completed its EUR 500 million share buyback program, which started on February 9, 2023, in early April.
Ferdinand Vaandrager has been appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and member of the Executive Board of ABN AMRO effective the end of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders on 16 November 2023. In addition, Ton van Nimwegen has been appointed Chief Operations Officer (COO) and member of the Executive Board of ABN AMRO effective 1 December 2023. Ferdinand Vaandrager has extensive experience in the financial sector, with over 25 years of experience in banking, both in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. He has been Head of Investor Relations since 2020.
ABN AMRO invests in SET Fund IV , a fund that invests in companies that use digital technology and data to help accelerate the energy transition to a carbon-free society. The fund is managed by SET Ventures, an investment company that finances innovative players in the market to grow into successful market leaders. This is the third climate-related fund investment by ABN AMRO Corporate Investments.
Irregularities and claims
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- ABN-AMRO was sued in October 2018 by the Antwerp diamond group Eurostar Diamond Traders of the Indian Mehta family, for derivatives fraud via UVL on Jersey and irresponsibly turning off the credit tap. EDT is demanding damages of a total of 720 million dollars. EDT is in financial difficulty and according to CEO and co-founder Kaushik Mehta, with an estimated fortune of hundreds of millions, the bank even brought its operations to a standstill because control of EDT was taken over by special management. Accounts were frozen and payments had to be approved.
- ABN AMRO Belgium turned out to be doing business with Israeli diamond billionaire Daniel Steinmetz, who has been linked to money laundering for years because of business partners and his brother Beny, who is involved in a bribery and corruption scandal in Guinea. Portuguese Hélder Bataglia dos Santos also does business with ABN AMRO. He was charged last year with money laundering and forgery in a corruption scandal surrounding former Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates.
- ABN AMRO failed to report transactions to the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) on time. The AFM imposed two administrative fines for this. ABN AMRO Bank was fined 400,000 euros. ABN AMRO’s clearing division must pay 500,000 euros.
- The bank briefly suspended around ninety employees after it emerged that they had copied the signatures of customers in order to be able to close mortgage files. The quotes from the bank to the customers in the relevant files deviated from previously provided advice from the advisors or were incomplete. The forged signatures were intended to pretend that improved advice was given and discussed. The majority of the mortgage advisors returned to work after a few weeks. They were reprimanded and did not receive a performance bonus for this year. A small group of advisors was dismissed. The bank informed the supervisors DNB and AFM and reviewed all mortgage files from 2013 onwards.
- Bert Meerstadt stepped down as a commissioner at ABN Amro in April after his name, like the bank itself, surfaced in the Panama Papers. ABN acts as a shareholder in 25 (hidden) companies on the British Virgin Islands with at least six subsidiaries. At least five of the companies of the controversial Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz have accounts at ABN-AMRO, which in 2014 also granted 36 million euros in credit to one of these (BSGR) companies, namely diamond company Diacore of Beny’s brother Daniel Steinmetz and business partner. Steinmetz bought the concession for a large iron ore mine for 60 million with the help of bribes and then sold half of it for 500 million. Corruption investigations against Steinmetz are ongoing in Switzerland and the US, among other countries.
- ABN-AMRO Dubai helped Indian clients set up companies, took care of their administration and allowed them to open asset accounts. ABN had to dismiss nine employees involved from the Dubai office. The bank was fined 625,000 euros by De Nederlandsche Bank and a fine of 640,000 dollars by the Dubai Financial Services Authority.
- A relationship manager of ABN AMRO Clearing Bank (AACB) is suspected of money laundering and tax fraud. The bank manager turned out to own two villas in Putten that were not mortgaged and he turned out to have bought 4.6 million euros worth of real estate in the last week of 2014. The Public Prosecution Service has seized the personal real estate of the relationship manager and the business assets of his investment company Scarlet Holding.
- ABN AMRO, as the main creditor, accepted a private bid of 750,000 euros for the recreation park Camping De Bergvennen in Lattrop. ABN AMRO decided to sell the 14-hectare campsite by execution because Bergvennen Recreatie bv allegedly failed to meet its payment obligations. Just before the auction, ABN AMRO accepted the “private bid” from Scarlet bv. Scarlet Holding, a subsidiary of Scarlet Caribbean Investments in Curaçao, is said to have been involved in Partrust and to have played a major role behind the scenes, causing investors to lose 30 million euros. In the Partrust affair, the judiciary prosecuted three directors in 2009 for offering an investment product without the required permit. The tax authorities and the Public Prosecution Service are now trying to map out the money flows around the suspected manager.
- Entrepreneur Bram Hage of refrigerated storage company Partner Logistics has filed a claim with the bank for 205.5 million euros because his successful company went bankrupt in 2012 due to the bank’s actions. ABN-AMRO allegedly conspired with two other shareholders to obtain all shares in order to be able to sell the company at a profit for approximately 300 million. Partner Logistics is involved in the storage and distribution of frozen products and has approximately 400 employees. Partner Logistics, which had regular customers such as Unilever, Iglo and McDonald’s, had been a client of the bank for 16 years, initially via MeesPierson of Fortis. The bank provided tens of millions in credit because the company had a value of at least 242 million euros. When MeesPierson was absorbed by ABN-AMRO, Partner Logistics was transferred to the special management department, which froze the credits and demanded the loans at once, causing the company to go bankrupt in 2012. ABN-AMRO’s loans were converted, making the bank the major shareholder. ABN AMRO is said to have suffered significant losses due to the bankruptcy and denies having steered bankruptcy in order to gain control of the company.
- ABN-AMRO was ordered by the Amsterdam District Court to pay over 925 thousand euros for breach of duty of care. The bank invested in World Online shares for the client, among other things, which resulted in significant losses since 2000. The bank was ordered to compensate over 547 thousand euros in damages that had arisen due to the incorrect investments plus the statutory interest of over 377 thousand euros.
- ABN-AMRO settled with Vestia and will pay the housing corporation 55 million euros for the settlement of all derivatives transactions. In addition, the bank was fined 2 million euros by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) for failing to maintain sufficient data on interest rate derivatives for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The directors, including Gerrit Zalm, were designated as suspects.
- Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, ABN AMRO, ING, RABO, Merrill Lynch, Citi, JP Morgan, RBC and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods received a total of €4.5 million in bonuses for the successful IPO of ABN AMRO. The first 23 percent of the shares that were brought to the stock exchange generated €3.838 billion.
- ABN AMRO has not reduced its financing of fossil fuel companies in the past two years. More than 80 percent of energy loans go to companies that are active in oil, gas or coal. This was revealed by the Fair Banking and Insurance Guide, an initiative of Amnesty International, Animal Protection, FNV, Milieudefensie, Oxfam Novib and PAX. ABN AMRO financed a total of 3 billion euros from the beginning of 2016 to the end of 2017.
- ABN-AMRO has sold a majority stake in its private equity firm ABN-AMRO Participaties (AAP) to a consortium led by AlpInvest . The name AAP will change to Capital A. The legal advisors were Allen & Overy and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek.
- Fortis, the bank that went bankrupt in 2008 and was absorbed into ABN AMRO, was involved in fraudulent CumEx trading for years, which seriously disadvantaged the Italian tax authorities, among others. ABN AMRO informed the Ministry of Finance in April 2010 and reached a settlement. Until February 2016, ABN AMRO was allegedly involved in CumEx trading, also known as dividend stripping, while the Dutch government, as the owner, knew about it. This fraud caused millions of euros in damage to tax authorities in several countries, including the Netherlands. International partnerships of banks and brokers stole at least 55.2 billion euros between 2001 and 2016. German authorities are still investigating suspicious CumEx transactions by ABN AMRO from before 2012, in which shares were sold around the dividend date and both buyer and seller claimed back dividend tax. These transactions were carried out by ABN AMRO and several subsidiaries, which were sold to management in May 2010. ABN AMRO claims to have ceased its activities and contacted the German authorities in Frankfurt and Cologne in 2016 and 2017. The bank is taking possible legal costs into account, but claims to have met obligations to the German tax authorities. Nevertheless, the German police raided ABN AMRO’s office on Mainzer Landstrasse in Frankfurt again on 27 February 2020. In a major international investigation into dividend fraud, a Dutch banker, ex-Fortis employee Frank V., was arrested for the first time. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) convicted him for deliberately filing incorrect dividend tax returns and dividend stripping, in which he collaborated with partners in Canada and Dubai. The OM describes dividend stripping as a serious form of white-collar crime, as a result of which the Tax Authorities lost more than 4 million euros. Frank V., who is seen as the inventor of dividend stripping, earned considerably more than the board of directors thanks to a lucrative bonus scheme at Fortis. Fortis tried to reduce his bonus through legal action, but V. won. Shortly afterwards, he left for trading house Van der Moolen, where he continued his dividend stripping. With an estimated net worth of 170 million euros, V. has often successfully fought regulators in recent years. In 2021, he won a legal battle against a director of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), who had made incorrect and defamatory statements about him after providing information to a South African business partner of V. The court ruled that DNB had shared misleading information, after which DNB apologized and withdrew previously imposed fines on V.’s asset manager Global Securities Finance Solutions (GSFS) and the related pension fund. The Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (CBb) quashed DNB’s allegations of violation of the pension law and cancelled fines for GSFS, the pension fund and four directors,resulting in compensation from the Dutch State. In the Netherlands, there was still a case pending about dividend stripping in the period 2009-2013, linked to the CumEx Files and Morgan Stanley. This American bank had to repay millions of euros to the Dutch tax authorities in 2024 for wrongly reclaimed dividend tax. ABN AMRO paid a fine of 14 million euros in 2025 for dividend stripping and accepted the sanction to avoid lengthy legal proceedings. At the same time, the Public Prosecution Service sent a summons to the European division of Morgan Stanley and an employee on suspicion of tax evasion. The case started in 2018 when the Tax Authorities started a legal battle about dividend payments, which was initially lost but won on appeal. In a broader European perspective, the University of Mannheim estimates that 141 billion euros were defrauded between 2000 and 2020. European governments are said to have been defrauded of a total of 150 billion euros by bankers, traders and hedge funds. An investigation into ABN AMRO’s involvement is still ongoing in Germany. A British banker was previously convicted of CumEx fraud and must repay Denmark 1.7 billion dollars plus 5 percent interest. A suspect was arrested in Finland, and together with another suspect they are said to have defrauded governments of 17 million euros, also in Germany. Eurojust supported a day of action and a joint investigation team (JIT) between Finland, the Netherlands and Germany. The judiciary sees dividend stripping as organised white-collar crime that costs hundreds of millions of euros annually. In 2016, ABN AMRO Clearing Bank wrongly refused stock market transactions by Frank H., which may cost the bank millions of euros in damages, while the Netherlands may have missed out on 26 billion euros in dividend tax.A British banker was previously convicted of CumEx fraud and must repay Denmark $1.7 billion plus 5 percent interest. A suspect was arrested in Finland, and together with another suspect they are said to have defrauded governments of 17 million euros, also in Germany. Eurojust supported a day of action and a joint investigation team (JIT) between Finland, the Netherlands and Germany. The judiciary sees dividend stripping as organised white-collar crime that costs hundreds of millions of euros annually. In 2016, ABN AMRO Clearing Bank wrongly refused stock market transactions by Frank H., which may cost the bank millions of euros in damages, while the Netherlands may have missed out on 26 billion euros in dividend tax.A British banker was previously convicted of CumEx fraud and must repay Denmark $1.7 billion plus 5 percent interest. A suspect was arrested in Finland, and together with another suspect they are said to have defrauded governments of 17 million euros, also in Germany. Eurojust supported a day of action and a joint investigation team (JIT) between Finland, the Netherlands and Germany. The judiciary sees dividend stripping as organised white-collar crime that costs hundreds of millions of euros annually. In 2016, ABN AMRO Clearing Bank wrongly refused stock market transactions by Frank H., which may cost the bank millions of euros in damages, while the Netherlands may have missed out on 26 billion euros in dividend tax.
- ABN AMRO settled with the Public Prosecution Service for 480 million euros for failing to combat money laundering. This brought an end to the criminal investigation into structural gaps in ABN AMRO’s anti-money laundering controls. The Public Prosecution Service is now only investigating individual directors who led the bank in the past, including former CEO Gerrit Zalm. Since spring 2021, the Fiod has been investigating whether three former ABN Amro directors, including Gerrit Zalm, played a culpable role in structural violations of the law that is intended to prevent money laundering or terrorist financing. In the follow-up investigation , the Fiod has an important witness in the person of Olga Zoutendijk, former chairman of the supervisory board. An anonymous letter writer claims that Zoutendijk stated at a dinner in early 2020 that she had added incriminating notes to her notebook at a later stage in order to strengthen the suspicions against Zalm in particular. During her time as chairman of the board at ABN Amro (2014-2018), Zoutendijk recorded conversations and meetings in this booklet. Parts of this were added to the criminal file. Together with the minutes of meetings, these form supporting material for the investigation. In her interrogation in February, Zoutendijk denied all allegations in the anonymous letter. The follow-up investigation is said to be in a final phase. The Public Prosecution Service must decide whether to prosecute Zalm and his then colleagues Chris Vogelzang and Joop Wijn. No directors were prosecuted in the Libor fraud at Rabo either.
- According to two reports by Milieudefensie, ABN AMRO is structurally involved in abuses in the palm oil sector, such as land grabbing, human rights violations and the logging of rainforest, and is said to have invested at least 4.9 billion euros in fourteen palm oil companies that are involved in 118 abuses in nine countries between 2010 and 2018. This year, ABN AMRO bought 10.8 million euros worth of shares in the company POSCO. Its parent company owns 85 percent of another company that is responsible for logging rainforest in Papua New Guinea. Between 2012 and 2017, that company was involved in the logging of more than 27,000 hectares of rainforest in the country. Rabobank and ABN AMRO also have ties with the palm oil company GAR in Liberia. In recent years, the banks have provided hundreds of millions of euros in loans to subsidiaries of GAR, who in turn are logging large areas of rainforest. ING is also mentioned in the report. For example, the bank lent to a company that intimidated the local population of West Sumatra and drove them off their land. ABN AMRO indicates that alternatives to palm oil are often even more harmful and that a boycott is therefore not realistic.
- More than 1.3 million leaked bank transactions, e-mails and contracts from the now closed banks Snoras AB and Ukio Bankas showed that the Russian Troika Bank channeled billions of Russian money via Lithuania to banks in Western Europe. Bank accounts of ING and ABN AMRO were also used for transactions amounting to more than 190 million euros. The money came from major fraud cases that were mixed by the Troika with the private assets of prominent Russian politicians and oligarchs. The Financial Services Complaints Institute (Kifid) has ruled that in certain cases ABN AMRO did not allow the interest on the revolving consumer credit with a variable interest rate to fluctuate sufficiently with the market interest rate. ABN AMRO made a compensation arrangement for all customers of ABN AMRO, ALFAM and ICS who were disadvantaged as a result.
- Foundation demands billions back on behalf of entrepreneurs due to excessive interest charged by the bank on the loans of business customers. The Foundation for Mass Damage and Consumer will demand the excess interest paid on behalf of 200,000 entrepreneurs. Various broadcasts of Kassa led to ABN Amro ultimately spending no less than 460 million euros in recent years to compensate approximately 250,000 affected consumers who paid too much interest on their consumer credit. However, not only consumers, but also entrepreneurs paid too much variable interest on their credit. ABN AMRO confirms that the bank has received letters from the Foundation for Mass Damage & Consumer. As far as ABN AMRO is concerned, the accusations made are unfounded. The foundation relies on statements by the Kifid that, according to ABN AMRO, do not apply to business SME customers. ABN AMRO also does not recognise the amount of billions of euros in excess interest paid as mentioned by the foundation. The proposed collective action seems to focus primarily on the product OndernemersKrediet. ABN AMRO stopped offering this product in 2021 and this portfolio is currently being phased out. The number of complaints about this product has been limited over the years and we have resolved these complaints together with the customers or we are in discussions with them about this.
Loss-making investments
Certitudo
The real estate company Certitudo (Latin for certainty), founded in 2002 , which had been experiencing liquidity problems for several months, was declared bankrupt on September 19, 2023 due to a lack of certainty and additional financing. Several important real estate projects have come to a standstill as a result. In Amsterdam South East, the group was busy building 1,600 homes and creating 28,000 m2 of office space. A project in Delft to convert a business park into homes has also come to a standstill. The bankruptcy is said to be due to increased costs and a shortage of materials, partly due to the war in Ukraine, but that does not appear to be the real cause. Peter Kuiten, founder and owner of Certitudo Capital, put his precious superyacht up for sale at the beginning of this year after 2 years. The Noor II, which was delivered in 2020 by the Italian shipyard Sanlorenzo, had to be sold after two years. The ship, with a length of 31 meters, was offered for 9,750,000 euros. after the asking price of 10,350,000 euros turned out to be too high. Kuiten wanted to sell his yacht at all costs to save his company from ruin. Noor II was offered as a charter ship with five crew members and was rented out to wealthy holidaymakers for 105,000 euros as a starting price for a week of sailing and bathing in a jacuzzi. Despite a reorganization, the sale of buildings, the termination of projects and the layoff of staff, bankruptcy could not be avoided. On September 18, a subsidiary with 95 employees was granted a moratorium. After the subsidiary went bankrupt, the parent company decided to file for bankruptcy itself. The group leaves creditors with approximately 100 million euros in assets. The construction company managed large housing and area development projects throughout the Netherlands and is developing Amstel III in Amsterdam, where 1,600 homes and 28,000 square meters of office space are planned. The area development on the Delftse Schieoevers-Noord of 82,000 square meters of office and residential space has come to a standstill. Project developers, architects and suppliers in the construction sector also indicated this spring that they were in difficulties. Certitudo previously indicated that important projects were at a standstill due to uncertainty about the rent regulation of caretaker minister Hugo de Jonge (Housing, CDA). In Den Bosch, 12 expensive properties were purchased in 2020, as well as the Helftheuvelpassage shopping centre, etc. The money was spent too easily by Tessa Kuiten, the founder’s daughter, and many ambitious projects were planned that were also double-financed and over-financed. At the beginning of 2022, PropertyNL valued the group at 615 million euros. Certitudo also owns the former head office (the Apenrots) of insurer Centraal Beheer, one of the city’s architectural highlights that was built in 1972 to a design by architect Herman Hertzberger. The building is regarded by architectural historians as an internationally leading example of structuralism: a building style in which geometric structures predominate and was one of the first to have “office gardens”. The so-called “Apenrots” was nominated for demolition after ten years of vacancy. The building, which was bought in 2015 for 2.5 million euros, was burdened with a mortgage of 10 million and investors paid another 25 million for it. The building would be redeveloped and converted into homes by architect Winy Maas.Because the building consists of stacked and linked cubes of nine by nine meters, it turned out that these were not ideal dimensions for residential construction and the poor insulation and possible concrete rot also delayed the project. Due to a disagreement about the design with architect Hertzberger, the implementation of the transformation project had been at a standstill for eight years. The creditors, including institutional investors, can now seize the building, which means that the residential destination is far from certain. If the building goes to one of the creditors, the municipality of Apeldoorn is ready to take over the building. The municipality of Apeldoorn has established a preferential right on the building, which means that it has the first right to buy the building. However, reconstruction will cost approximately 50 million euros. Since 2007, TCN Property Projects, Propertize, ARRA, Certitudo Capital have tried to sell the building, losing tens of millions on project and plan development. The design by the Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger dates from 1972 and is considered to be structuralism. It was built of concrete and is characterized by the use of cube-shaped elements of nine by nine meters. In 2023, a glass intermediate building, the so-called Atrium building, was already demolished. At the end of 2022, liquidity became tight and several buildings were sold. The annual accounts of 2021 were only filed in 2023 and were already mentioned in them of doubts about the continuity. Inge Lakwijk of Watson Law must visualize the complicated BV structure for the curators. ABN AMRO is going down the drain for enormous amounts.The 2021 annual accounts were only filed in 2023 and there was already mention of doubts about the continuity. Inge Lakwijk of Watson Law has to visualize the complicated BV structure for the curators. ABN AMRO is going down the drain for huge amounts.The 2021 annual accounts were only filed in 2023 and there was already mention of doubts about the continuity. Inge Lakwijk of Watson Law has to visualize the complicated BV structure for the curators. ABN AMRO is going down the drain for huge amounts.
Foodlogica
Foodlogica, founded in 2014 by two Italian entrepreneurs (Franscesca Miazzo and Jessica Spadacini), was declared bankrupt on 31 January 2024. The company delivered refrigerated food to customers in Amsterdam and other cities using electric cargo bikes and electric vehicles. The electric vehicles were used for the last part of the transport of refrigerated food, ’the last mile’. The court declared both the company and the holding company – both located at the Food Center in Amsterdam-West – bankrupt. Difficult market conditions and the lack of stability within the customer base played tricks on the company. In 2018, Foodlogica received growth financing from ifund and AA the SIF Sustainable Impact Fund (ABN) and was in the process of restructuring. Last year, the company had around thirty electric vehicles on the road in the Randstad and is also active in Paris and Milan.
Leap
Nobel Capital paid a total of almost 1.3 million euros for the takeover of the bankrupt retail chain Leapp. Leapp sells refurbished second-hand Apple products such as iPhones via a network of its own stores and a webshop. After investor Gilde refused to inject new money into the company and ABN Amro turned off the money tap, Leapp went bankrupt . Nobel Capital paid over 1 million euros for the stock and 100,000 euros for the inventory of the stores and the head office in Duivendrecht. Another 120,000 euros was paid for the intellectual property and goodwill. ABN Amro filed a claim of 6.5 million euros with the trustee and had the valuable parts of the company as the stock as collateral and ultimately lost over 5 million euros.
The Unlimited Footwear Group (UFG)
The Unlimited Footwear Group (UFG), also trading under the name The Heritage Footwear Company from Waalwijk, had been in suspension of payments since February 16, 2024, but went bankrupt on February 27, leaving behind a debt of 17.8 million euros with 574 creditors. In addition, ABN AMRO and ING would also be owed another 23 million euros. 180 employees lost their jobs. 18 subsidiaries including Unlimited Footwear Midco BV, Trend Design Shoe Fashion BV, Shoes Unlimited BV, Bullboxer BV, Next Level Brands BV, Oakland Bay BV, Huntington Beach BV, Rehab and Hawick 1874 BV are also included in the bankruptcy, but Nubikk bought back the shares and continued independently. A rescue plan was to be decided on May 14, but that failed at the start. The website of Unlimited Footwear Group of all brands that fall under the group, such as Bullboxer, Rehab, Nubikk, Gaastra, Braend, Levi’s, GAP and Supertrash, are already inactive. The court of Breda has appointed Mr. HJ Alberts as curator. The group produced private labels for, among others, the Deichmann group, the owner of VanHaren. Until 2019, UFG also had interests in the Dutch shoe chains Invito and Le Ballon.
Macintosh, the former parent company of shoe store chains Dolcir, Manfield, Scapino and Invito, also went bankrupt at the time. At the time, around 5,500 employees worked in 550 branches. In mid-December 2015, house bankers Rabobank and ING decided to turn off the money tap. Macintosh lost more than 67 percent of its stock market value when they announced in October that they expected a large book loss on the sale of the British store branch. The price plummeted from more than 2 euros to a few cents. Stockbroker Nyenburgh increased its stake to 14.6 percent just before the bankruptcy on 9 December 2015. Initially, they had a stake of 3.6 percent. In January 2016, Nyenburgh increased its stake again in several steps, to almost 15 percent on 19 January. Macintosh had previously sold its British activities, the interior design stores of Kwantum, BelCompany and Halfords. At the end of 2014, the group, which was active in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom, still employed around 10,461 people. In total, the company had over 550 stores in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Macintosh Retail Group had a turnover of around four hundred million euros and a net debt of 37 million euros with a negative EBITDA of five million euros. Curators Ben Meijs and John Huppertz sold the Macintosh divisions Brantano, Scapino and Manfield from the bankrupt estate in recent weeks.
Unlimited Footwear Group restarted the Invito division, but it went bankrupt again in May 2023. Family business Ziengs, which had founded Scapino in 1974, took Scapino back. The stock and inventory of all 128 shop-in-shops of Macintosh Aktiesport were taken over by Ziengs. The receiver of Halfords is demanding 16.5 million euros from Macintosh. Under the leadership of the now departed director Theo Heemskerk, there were more and more complaints about deliveries and the website was functioning downright badly. Heemskerk also spent millions on a new prestigious distribution center. An independent restart in the De Ridderhof shopping center in Alphen aan den Rijn in 2015 ultimately failed in June 2018. The majority of the real estate was sold to IEF Capital in 2005, only to be rented back for a lot of money, including maintenance obligations. The proceeds of 1.3 billion went to the then owner KKR . Inflation Exchange Fund (IEF Capital) is the co-owner of a real estate portfolio of 2.5 billion euros, which includes not only retail properties in prime locations of V&D but also those of Bijenkorf and Hema. IEF Capital started in 2001 as a joint venture with Bouwfonds Investment Management (IM Bouwfonds). ASR is the owner of the six properties in Haarlem, Bergen op Zoom, Assen, Leiden, Amersfoort and Amstelveen. Four of these properties have been given a different tenant. The Canadian Hudson’s Bay rented a large number of properties to furnish them as Galeria Inno branches. Hudson bought the company last year for around 2.8 billion euros. The Kwantum division was continued in 2015 by Gilde Equity Managementand was sold again in 2022 after having become profitable. Unlimited Footwear Group (UFG) sold its shares in the retail formulas Le Ballon and Invito to director and co-shareholder Peter van den Hurk. The two stores of the shoe and clothing chain Invito in Arnhem and Nijmegen went bankrupt again in 2023 after this restart by Passato management of Peter van den Hurk. According to Van den Hurk, Passato’s bankruptcy was the result of the aftermath of the corona crisis. No turnover was generated during the closure of the stores, which resulted in them starting 2022 and 2023 with a backlog. There was also outdated stock and the stores had to close temporarily due to a shortage of staff. This also caused income to stagnate. The rent increase for the building in Nijmegen was the last straw. After the bankruptcy of Macintosh Retail Group in 2016, Invito made a fresh start under Unlimited Footwear Group, which at the time also owned the women’s fashion chain Le Ballon. Director Peter van den Hurk became the sole owner in 2019. That same year, the curtain fell for the Invito store in The Hague. The store in Den Bosch also closed later. CEO Henrik Bunge wants an independent continuation for the division of the Björn Borg brand. The orders that have already been placed for the spring collection are currently ready for delivery in Europe. The distribution of shoes is already an integrated part of Björn Borg’s activities in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. In 2022, the shoe product category accounted for a turnover of approximately SEK 76 million for the Björn Borg Group. Of the Björn Borg Group’s profit (EBIT) for 2022, approximately SEK 5.5 million was attributable to the footwear product category. The brand was founded in 1984 by former tennis player Björn Borg. In the 90s and early 2000s, the brand became known for its underwear collection and this style was also focused on again. Bullboxer, like former sister brands Nubikk and Rehab, is making a fresh start.
Office Centre
In the spring of 2022, Office Center went bankruptand 438 employees lost their jobs and 32 branches closed, after which the online part and customer contracts were taken over by Staples, which in turn went bankrupt in October 2023. An investigation will be launched into the failed takeover that ultimately led to the company’s demise. The investigation focuses on the three years that Office Centre was owned by two entrepreneurs. Office Centre was a Dutch office supplies retailer that emerged from Makro and was acquired by the large American industry peer Staples in 1999. Seven years ago, the Americans sold the Dutch company with 39 stores, 550 employees and a turnover of 80 million euros at the time to the much smaller KantoorExpert, which was owned by entrepreneurs Frans Davelaar and Goswin Fijen. At that time, the company had 125 employees and a turnover of less than 14 million euros. Initially, the future seemed bright. In September 2019, the two entrepreneurs even acquired several German parts of Staples for 13 million euros. But the company soon ran into trouble. At the beginning of 2020, Office Centre was placed under special administration by house bank ABN Amro. That year, the wholesaler posted a loss of more than 19 million euros, on a turnover of 186 million euros. The following year, turnover plummeted to 130 million, and the loss amounted to more than 15 million euros. At the time of the bankruptcy, the company still had 32 Dutch stores, an online store and around 350 employees. Office Centre’s German sister company also went bankrupt. The bankruptcy ultimately also led to problems at professional football club FC Groningen, of which Office Centre had been the main sponsor. The Eredivisie club suffered a loss of 1 million euros. Curator Rinke Dulack was appointed to settle the bankruptcy and at the end of 2024 he went to the Enterprise Chamber because of the course of events with a laundry list of accusations. According to the curator, the entrepreneurs had no idea how to make Office Centre healthy after the takeover. The receiver also accuses them of not using the profits from the sale of real estate and cheap stocks to get the company back on track. The receiver also suspects a conflict of interest in several transactions, in which the entrepreneurs wore two hats. And in the German takeover, financiers may have been misinformed, which put pressure on the relationship with the house bank. Finally, the directors allegedly had no idea of the risks of the company, and how to limit them, which resulted in mismanagement. Former directors Davelaar and Fijen argued before the Enterprise Chamber that an investigation into the failed takeover was not necessary. According to them, they did indeed have a clear strategy to make the company healthy again, and they also implemented it. In doing so, they were assisted by well-known advisors. Davelaar had previously written about the failure of the takeover of Office Centre,in an interview at the end of 2021, partly due to the corona crisis. As a result, the German stores had to close temporarily, other products with lower margins were sold, and a lot had to be sent by post. A recently published ruling shows that the Enterprise Chamber is not sensitive to the arguments of the directors and has ordered an investigation. According to the judges, there are indeed ‘serious doubts’, for example about the method of financing the takeover. The takeover of the ailing German activities, at a time when the Dutch company was already in trouble, also raises questions, according to the Enterprise Chamber. In the ruling, the judges write, among other things, that ’the financial policy was not adjusted’ and that the company ‘continued on the path taken by making new risky takeovers’. The investigation, which is being conducted by lawyer Hanneke De Coninck, is limited to the three years that Office Centre was managed by Davelaar and Fijen. It therefore does not focus on the nine months immediately before the bankruptcy, when investor Standard was at the helm. According to the receiver, the total deficit in the bankruptcy of Office Centre is ‘in the tens of millions’. Former director Davelaar says he is looking forward to the investigation ‘with confidence’. “My partner and I regret that the receiver has not asked us any questions in recent years. We could have already given many answers.” Davelaar says he will do so now. “We have nothing to hide. At the time, everyone thought those takeovers were a good idea. It will surprise no one that you end up in a difficult situation if corona breaks out afterwards and you do not receive any support. We can substantiate all decisions very well, also in light of the spirit of the times. It is up to us to explain that now, and up to the judges to have their say about it.”It therefore does not focus on the nine months immediately before the bankruptcy, when investor Standard was at the helm. According to the receiver, the total deficit in the bankruptcy of Office Centre is ‘in the tens of millions’. Former director Davelaar says he is looking forward to the investigation ‘with confidence’. “My partner and I regret that the receiver has not asked us any questions in recent years. We could have already given many answers.” Davelaar says he will do so now. “We have nothing to hide. At the time, everyone thought those takeovers were a good idea. It will surprise no one that you end up in a difficult situation if corona breaks out afterwards and you do not receive any support. We can substantiate all decisions very well, also in light of the zeitgeist of the time. It is up to us to explain that now, and up to the judges to have their say about it.”It therefore does not focus on the nine months immediately before the bankruptcy, when investor Standard was at the helm. According to the receiver, the total deficit in the bankruptcy of Office Centre is ‘in the tens of millions’. Former director Davelaar says he is looking forward to the investigation ‘with confidence’. “My partner and I regret that the receiver has not asked us any questions in recent years. We could have already given many answers.” Davelaar says he will do so now. “We have nothing to hide. At the time, everyone thought those takeovers were a good idea. It will surprise no one that you end up in a difficult situation if corona breaks out afterwards and you do not receive any support. We can substantiate all decisions very well, also in light of the zeitgeist of the time. It is up to us to explain that now, and up to the judges to have their say about it.”
WHERE Netherlands
Fair trade organization “WAAR Nederland” of ABN AMRO’s Sustainable Impact Fund BV, Stichting Cordaid and Kasals Holding BV and SBG II BV, went bankrupt on December 7, 2023 despite substantial investments and reorganization . The director of the Bankrupt was Social Business Group BV, of which Mr. AP Clement was the director.
Wirecard
State banks ING and ABN AMRO each lent around 180 million euros to the collapsed German fintech company and payment processor Wirecard , which was emptied just before the bankruptcy. Wirecard was able to invest heavily for years with the help of a credit facility worth around 1.75 billion euros. This facility was provided by a group of fifteen banks including ABN AMRO and ING, which together with Commerzbank and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg are among the largest financiers. All four of them applied a ceiling of 200 million euros in borrowing credit. For example, Singapore’s Ocap received almost 100 million euros in the first quarter. Wirecard used partners in countries where it did not have a license to process payments. This system was set up by former COO Jan Marsalek, who has been missing for three years and works for intelligence services. In July 2023, Marsalek wrote a letter to his lawyer and contacted the Munich District Court, where the Wirecard trial is now taking place. He would mainly accuse Oliver Bellenhaus, who was in Dubai for Wirecard. According to Marsalek, he would have lied several times in court as a key witness. KPMG was already checking whether the company’s accounts were correct at the time. Wirecard collapsed when it turned out that almost 2 billion euros on the balance sheet had disappeared, or that it had possibly been fictitious. In addition, there were 3.5 billion euros in debts. Former minister and ex-CEO of ABN Gerrit Zalm still has some explaining to do in addition to the bank’s failure to supervise fraud and money laundering. After his career as Minister of Finance, Zalm also received negative press as CFO at the bankrupt DSB . For example, he tried to keep the highly critical Scheltema report on the demise of DSB out of the news. In addition, it seems that Zalm used his 12-year former ministership to keep the supervisors DNB and AFM at bay, because of the structural violation of the duty of care at DSB. Gerrit Zalm resigned from Dankse Bank because of the criminal investigation. The bank settled with the Public Prosecution Service for 480 million euros to avoid further prosecution. 300 million euros as a fine and 180 million euros for confiscation.
The Public Prosecution Service also launched a criminal investigation into the bank after it emerged that ‘unusual transactions had not been reported or had not been reported on time for a long period of time. A total of seven cases were investigated. One of them concerned the merger with Fortis in 2010, in which the bank failed to screen more than 5 million private customers and considered them reliable and classified them in the lowest risk category without any investigation. In the second quarter of 2020, the FIOD questioned the entire board of directors in the ongoing money laundering investigation. During the questioning, the prosecutors allegedly threatened to personally summon the bank directors and take them to court if they did not cooperate sufficiently with the investigation. In addition, they were put under pressure to give up their legally enshrined right to remain silent, as representatives of the suspect bank, during the questioning. The questioning was held via a video link due to the corona outbreak. The bank’s board of directors, led by Gerrit Zalm, repeatedly ignored the advice of the supervisory board in 2015 and 2016 to better tackle money laundering controls. The ongoing judicial investigation has been completed and showed that the bank and its responsible directors can be accused of criminal offences. Due to the criminal investigation and its results, CEO Chris Vogelzang and commissioner Gerrit Zalm resigned from Dankse Bank. Zalm took office at the end of 2008 and officially became chairman of the board a few months later. His contract was extended by four years in 2014. In July 2016, the FD reported on the departure and the bank appeared to be looking for a successor at the time, but kept this secret. ABN Amro was fined 2 million euros by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) for this. At Danske Bank, there was also a money laundering affair between 2007 and 2014, in which billions of euros in dubious cash flows were processed. It would have involved criminal money from Russia that was laundered via the subsidiary in Estonia. Vogelzang had been brought in by Dankse to clean house. ABN did not do enough research into dubious customers and did not refuse them in time when it turned out that they were involved in money laundering. When presenting the quarterly figures, the bank announced that it had to re-examine all customer files. The FIOD investigation was started following the report by DNB. Gerrit Zalm left a year earlier than planned due to the scandal and was succeeded by Van Dijkhuizen, who had been the bank’s chief financial officer since 2013. Before that, he held this role at NIBC as a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Finance. Chris Vogelzang was passed over for this appointment and resigned. Investors remained in the dark for almost two months after the article. The AFM considered the violation serious and reprehensible. Enough to impose a fine. Kees van Dijkhuizen’s successor as of May 2020 is Robert Swaak, who came from accountant PwC. Swaak was appointed for a period of four years. Tom de Swaan was formally appointed as the new chairman of the supervisory board as successor to Olga Zoutendijk, the key witness in the ongoing investigation against Gerrit Zalm.
Tinker
Owners Gerben Abbink and Rob van Strien founded Tinker Travel in 2012. There may have been unusual, possibly culpable or even unlawful business done at Tinker. An independent committee is investigating this. Tinker has a lot of debts to taxi companies and is no longer served by the taxi services. As a result, Tinker had to cease its operational activities and is almost bankrupt. Shortly before the downfall, some money was found in football coach Henk ten Cate. The coach unsuspectingly invested a million euros and did not know that Tinker was already under special management at ABN-AMRO, which was more than happy to collect his million. Tinker provides airport transfers by taxi and that went well until Tinker invested in an IATA code, with which they could also offer airline services. This was expected to increase turnover, but the IATA code has still not been issued. The staff is also no longer being paid. At least two carriers are known to be owed at least 50,000 euros, and the remaining creditors are said to have outstanding debts of around 2.5 million euros. In mid-April 2017, management consultant Theo Terdu of Partners & Terdu was called in by the certificate holders to put things in order. He tried to obtain a bridging loan, which would enable some of the obligations to be met. The investigation committee is currently headed by Terdu, who was hired by the certificate holders of Tinker. In November 2016, Henk ten Cate, Dutch football coach, former professional footballer and head coach of the Al-Jazira Club since December 2015, is said to have stepped in as an ‘informal investor’, resulting in an almost inevitable bankruptcy. Tinker was allegedly deliberately brought down by him in order to subsequently relaunch the concept via his Arab connections. Lawyer Oscar Hammerstein is going to start legal proceedings on behalf of some of the shareholders to hold Ten Cate personally liable. Ten Cate denies the accusations and calls the investigation a shameful act. The trainer says he is a shareholder for a million euros. A week after he became a shareholder, it turned out that the company was in bad weather, according to Ten Cate as a result of mismanagement. “I was brought in under false pretenses.” On Tuesday 25 April, stakeholders asked Bas van den Heuvel to perform a quick scan together with crisis manager Theo Terdu, which raised serious questions regarding the managerial involvement of the informal investor, the limitation of powers and the possible undue influence of the statutory board and that in relation to the possible detriment of consumers, suppliers and private financiers. The investigation will continue on 10 May, during which all managerial actions and decisions of the past six months will be examined.At the same time, the company’s chances of survival are being assessed. Some 600 taxi entrepreneurs will not be getting back into the business anytime soon now that they still seem to have lost a lot of money. Hundreds of customers who have booked and paid are also no longer being helped. It has not been possible to book via the site for some time now. Tinker Travel, as a counterpart to Uber, has been providing taxi transport to and from airports since 2012. The company was founded by Rob van Strien and Gerben Abbink. Van Strien is managing director with a background in aviation logistics and a graduate pilot. Gerben Abbink (34) is the commercially responsible person and Cees de Wildt (43) is the marketing director. In addition, two developers have been involved from the very beginning and work is carried out from offices in Enschede and Schiphol. Among the approximately eighty employees, many are mathematicians who use algorithms to organise a cheap taxi return to the airport. Tinker Travel BV (trading as Tinker, Tinker Travel, Tinker.travel, Home N Fly and Tinker Ground) has finally been declared bankrupt by the court of Haarlem (North Holland). The company leaves behind approximately 600 taxi companies and a lot of customers with debts. Mr. KJ Willemse has been appointed as trustee. More than 50 people were employed. Tinker Travel BV (trading as Tinker, Tinker Travel, Tinker.travel, Home N Fly and Tinker Ground) has finally been declared bankrupt by the court of Haarlem (North Holland). The company leaves behind approximately 600 taxi companies and a lot of customers with debts. Mr. KJ Willemse has been appointed as trustee. More than 50 people were employed. Henk ten Cate only had an investigation done after he had become a shareholder for 15% and then it turned out to be too late and there was a deficit of 2.3 million euros. Lawyer Oscar Hammerstein will investigate Ten Cate’s liability on behalf of the other shareholders. The court rejected Ten Cate’s claim, after which he appealed.(trading as Tinker, Tinker Travel, Tinker.travel, Home N Fly and Tinker Ground) has finally been declared bankrupt by the court of Haarlem (North Holland). The company leaves behind approximately 600 taxi companies and a lot of customers with debts. Mr. KJ Willemse has been appointed as trustee. More than 50 people were employed. Tinker Travel BV (trading as Tinker, Tinker Travel, Tinker.travel, Home N Fly and Tinker Ground) has finally been declared bankrupt by the court of Haarlem (North Holland). The company leaves behind approximately 600 taxi companies and a lot of customers with debts. Mr. KJ Willemse has been appointed as trustee. More than 50 people were employed. Henk ten Cate only had an investigation done after he had become a shareholder for 15% and then it turned out to be too late and there was a deficit of 2.3 million euros. Lawyer Oscar Hammerstein will investigate Ten Cate’s liability on behalf of the other shareholders. The court rejected Ten Cate’s claim, after which he appealed.(trading as Tinker, Tinker Travel, Tinker.travel, Home N Fly and Tinker Ground) has finally been declared bankrupt by the court of Haarlem (North Holland). The company leaves behind approximately 600 taxi companies and a lot of customers with debts. Mr. KJ Willemse has been appointed as trustee. More than 50 people were employed. Tinker Travel BV (trading as Tinker, Tinker Travel, Tinker.travel, Home N Fly and Tinker Ground) has finally been declared bankrupt by the court of Haarlem (North Holland). The company leaves behind approximately 600 taxi companies and a lot of customers with debts. Mr. KJ Willemse has been appointed as trustee. More than 50 people were employed. Henk ten Cate only had an investigation done after he had become a shareholder for 15% and then it turned out to be too late and there was a deficit of 2.3 million euros. Lawyer Oscar Hammerstein will investigate Ten Cate’s liability on behalf of the other shareholders. The court rejected Ten Cate’s claim, after which he appealed.
VEKA Shipbuilding
The bankruptcy of VEKA shipbuilding in Werkendam was filed by ex-partner Erik van der Wiel of Vantage CV and was declared on March 26, 2024. The parent company of Veka Shipbuilding is Peter Versluis and his PMV Investments. The dispute was about De Volharding, a joint venture they entered into with shipping brothers Danny and Rino Werkman, who injected millions of capital into the new company, while Versluis himself did not. Versluis’ partner joined the brothers in this conflict. ‘The case also mentioned that Versluis had seriously threatened his partner Erik van der Wiel one day in November. Van der Wiel and Peter Versluis did good business, but in the summer of 2022 they wanted more and brought in Danny and Rino Werkman with their successful shipping company Dari. The four of them started “De Volharding”. 50 percent became Dari’s and 50 percent for CWL Line, from Van der Wiel and Versluis. Early this year, money was needed immediately to prevent the company, including 200 employees, from collapsing. Dari was the only one to invest millions in fleet renewal and a finishing quay, while Peter Versluis paid nothing. A share issue, which was supposed to provide rescue capital, was blocked by Versluis via his priority share. According to Versluis, Dari had hung the company with opportunistic investments in businesses that did not yield, in return for loans for which it charged generous interest rates. Van der Wiel turned against Versluis, who had allegedly threatened him, his wife and his children. Two independent directors had to restore order to the mess of the Enterprise Chamber. In the meantime, Versluis is still dealing with a case. Veka Scheepsbouw has a 3 million euro debt to Klaas Hummel ofship hull builder MSVA Marine Services BV Hummel had Veka seize the ship for this in February 2024. The VeKa Group originally came from the Versluis family. Father Piet Versluis saw more opportunities in trading in inland vessels than sailing on them. In 1988, Piet Versluis and Jan Kapel founded VEKA. After two years, partner Kapel decided to do something else and left the company. However, the name remained and the company grew into the VeKa Group of today: a shipyard with an extensive order portfolio plus seven allied companies and shipyards in Werkendam, Lemmer (Bijlsma shipyard) and Heusden (Afbouwbedrijf Teamco). VeKa Scheepsbouw specializes in the construction of various types of ships. The hulls are mainly sourced from foreign shipyards and then finished in the Netherlands. In 1995, when father and mother Versluis left the company, VeKa was asked to take on a new shipbuilding project, which resulted in the delivery of the first ship a year later. Successes followed each other quickly, not least because VeKa continuously invested in quality and knowledge, but also in competent and motivated employees. In addition, the company responded directly and efficiently to the needs and wishes of the market, which soon resulted in the expansion of the construction and finishing locations in the Netherlands. What started in 1995 with one ship, grew to 50 in 2009 and currently amounts to more than 200. VeKa has its head office in Werkendam, a village on the edge of the Biesbosch and the Merwede. Not only is the head office located here, one of the finishing yards is also located at the Biesboschhaven Noord. The logical consequence of a company like VeKa within the municipal boundary is that many employees also live in the same municipality, which further strengthens the mutual bond. Due to the growth of the past years, VeKa had realized a number of new construction projects on the quay, which would not have been possible without the cooperation of the municipality of Werkendam. The Veka shipyard in Lemmer is said to have hired dozens of Romanians around 2016 through bogus constructions set up by itself for an extremely low hourly wage. Eastern Europeans worked as welders, painters or metalworkers and were hired through employment agencies and subcontractors. There was a fuss about one of those subcontractors, DSW Maritiem, in 2016. The FNV trade union sounded the alarm at Veka because the Romanians were said to be working illegally through DSW and were being underpaid. Versluis paid an additional compensation separately in cash. That amount was on top of their official salary that they received through DSW. FNV went to court because there were bogus constructions to save on wage costs. In mid-October 2020, the subdistrict court in Leeuwarden ruledand partially agreed with the union: DSW Maritiem could hardly be qualified as a subcontractor, the Romanians were therefore in fact temporary workers who should have been paid in accordance with the collective labour agreement and Veka should have ensured that this was done. The verdict showed that DSW Maritiem had been set up specifically for Veka as a subsidiary of Seaway International from Romania. According to the FNV, Veka paid the Romanians 1.28 euros per hour. Versluis can get very angry about that claim. The union had also demanded that it could claim the wage claim from Veka on behalf of the Romanian workers, but the judge did not agree. The wage is a matter between Veka and the Romanians, in which the FNV can play no role. In 2004, Veka took over the shipyard from the Bijlsma Group. The requested ban on hiring Romanian steel workers did not come into effect either. VEKA had to pay the union 50,000 euros in damages. A few years ago in 2014, subsidiary Grond,- weg- en hydraulicbouwbedrijf Eendracht Holding from Werkendam also went bankrupt after having previously been granted a deferment of payment. The company employed 45 people. Director Coen van der Bijl had only been appointed by the Versluis brothers for a month. A claim for rent of a shipyard for 250,000 euros from Jongert Yacht also had to be collected through the courts in 2022. The nodding of the barge No Limit in the middle lock of IJmuiden in July 2004 also led to the bankruptcy of VeKa Scheepsbouw BV in July 2007. In April this year, the court in Breda largely ruled against VeKa in a lawsuit brought by insurer Schepen Onderlinge Nederland, Duikersloot and Zandtrans BV. IHC Holland BV had to settle a dispute through the courtsof €217,589.45. In 2013, a loss of €60 million was incurred. Peter Versluis and his brother Jan saw the total revenues in 2013 fall by more than 23% to €117.5 million. At the bottom line, Portsight, the umbrella company, wrote a loss of €60 million. The operating result was also more than €74 million negative. The reason was a depreciation of €61 million on ships that are already floating in the water or are still under construction, plus various loans and receivables. In addition, the Jongert shipyard was also depreciated. Due to the loss, the equity fell to €19.2 million and the solvency to only 13%. House banker ABN Amro was no longer prepared to finance the business activities any further and intensive discussions were held to arrive at a financing structure that fits the new strategic principles and structure of the company. In the course of 2014, a revision of the credit facility was agreed, with much more security for the bank, such as a second mortgage on many ships and a surety of €15 million, of which €5 million private. In addition, the total credit facility was reduced to €56 million. It is striking that the 2013 annual report states that at the end of 2012 the total credit facility amounted to €61.5 million, while the 2012 annual report states that ABN Amro was much more generous and made almost €105 million in credit available. The total remuneration for the three-person board of directors rose to over €1.1 million.
Ferdinand Vaandrager is the new Chief Financial Officer and Ton van Nimwegen the new Chief Operations Officer. Tanja Cuppen has announced that she will not be available for a third term as Chief Risk Officer and will leave the bank in April 2024.