British group Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), one of the top ten in the world in terms of financial power, could take over the Romanian operations of Dutch ABN Amro bank, which it acquired this autumn through a syndicate with Fortis and Santander, banking sources reveal.
Lately, British delegations have been inspecting the Bucharest branch of ABN Amro evaluating its operations.
Carolyn McAdam, head of RBS' communication department says that a consultation process will be held with the regulation authorities and with the employee organisations of ABN Amro branches, on a number of markets in Europe and Asia.
"The deal that involved the takeover of the ABN Amro group created a series of very attractive options to boost our retail operations on new markets in Europe and Asia," Carolyn McAdam stated.
Out of ABN Amro's branches in the region, the Romanian branch is the most developed, given that it has also tapped into the consumer market over the last two years, whilst remaining focused on corporate segments on other markets.
Early in October, the syndicate led by the Royal Bank of Scotland, received CNVM's approval to take over the controlling interests in ABN Amro Securities Romania, the specialist division that the Dutch re-established earlier this year.
The result of the evaluation of the bank branch remains to be seen. This would be the first time since 1990 when a major British bank has set foot in Romania.
Prior to the deal with ABN Amro, RBS had announced it had no interest whatsoever in establishing a local presence, although it had taken steps to notify the NBR with a view to providing financial services directly. RBS, however, has participated in a number of financing projects in Romania.
This summer, when the prospects of ABN Amro's takeover by the syndicate comprising RBS, Belgian-Dutch group Fortis and Spanish bank Santander had taken shape, banking circles were expecting the Romanian operations of ABN Amro to become subordinated to Fortis.
Fortis opened a branch in Bucharest this summer and acquired control of one of the biggest local leasing companies, at the end of 2006, which it named Fortis Lease. Royal Bank of Scotland (established in 1727) totalled 1,011.3 billion pounds in assets (almost 1,459 billion euros) at the end of H1. It grew in strength in 2000 when it took over National Westminster Bank in the biggest transaction in British banking history.
RBS also owns an insurance division and several wealth management companies.
ABN Amro opened its branch in Romania in 1995, which has been among the top ten banks in terms of assets until this year. Concentration on the corporate segment, however, caused it to lose ground. It posted 12.8 million-euro profit in 2006, an increase of nearly 30% compared with 2005, whilst assets stood at 1.56 billion euros. The only major deals made public over the past year are the bond issues in RON it handled for the World Bank (August 2006) and for the European Investment Bank (spring 2007).
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