ABN AMRO is a Dutch bank, currently owned by RFS Holdings B.V., a consortium of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, the Government of the Netherlands, and Banco Santander. The bank was created as the result of the 1990-91 merger between Amsterdam-Rotterdam (AMRO) Bank and ABN, whose history dated back to the founding of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij in 1824.

Between 1991 and 2007, ABN AMRO was one of the largest banks in Europe and had operations in about 63 countries around the world.

In the biggest banking takeover in history, a consortium comprising RBS, Fortis, and Banco Santander acquired ABN AMRO in 2007.

Due to the 2008 financial crisis, the Dutch government nationalised the divisions owned by Fortis, while the UK government is now in effective control over the divisions allocated to RBS due to its financial bail-out of the Scottish bank. The process of integrating some of ABN AMRO's divisions into the new owners, and divesting others, continues. On April 7, 2009 the UK state-owned RBS unveiled plans to fire upwards of 9000 staff.

2007 acquisition of ABN AMRO

ABN AMRO had come to a crossroads in the beginning of 2007. The bank had still not come close to its own target of having an ROE that would put it among the top 5 of its peer group, a target that the CEO, Rijkman Groenink had set upon his appointment in 2000. From 2000 until 2006, ABN AMRO's stock price stagnated.

Financial results in 2006 added to concerns about the bank's future. Operating expenses increased at a greater rate than operating revenue, and the efficiency ratio deteriorated further to 69.9%. Non-performing loans increased considerably year on year by 192%. Net profits were only boosted by sustained asset sales.

There had been some calls, over the prior couple of years, for ABN AMRO to break up, to merge, or to be acquired. On February 21, 2007, the call came from the TCI hedge fund which asked the Chairman of the Supervisory Board to actively investigate a merger, acquisition or breakup of ABN AMRO, stating that the current stock price didn't reflect the true value of the underlying assets. TCI asked the chairman to put their request on the agenda of the annual shareholders' meeting of April 2007.

Events accelerated when on March 20 the British bank Barclays and ABN AMRO both confirmed they were in exclusive talks about a possible merger. On March 28, ABN AMRO published the agenda for the shareholders' meeting of 2007. It included all items requested by TCI, but with the recommendation not to follow the request for a breakup of the company.

However, on April 13, another British bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) contacted ABN AMRO to propose a deal in which a consortium of banks, including RBS, Belgium's Fortis, and Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano (now Banco Santander) would jointly bid for ABN AMRO and thereafter break up the different divisions of the company between them. According to the proposed deal, RBS would take over ABN's Chicago operations, LaSalle, and ABN's wholesale operations; while Banco Santander would take the Brazilian operations and Fortis, the Dutch operations.