ABN AMRO ( , ) was, in the period of 1991 to 2007, one of the largest banks in Europe and had operations in about 63 countries around the world. A Dutch bank, it was the result of the merger in 1990-91, of two banks, AMRO and ABN, whose history dated back to the founding of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij in 1824.
A consortium of three European banks, Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), Fortis, and Banco Santander, announced on October 8, 2007, that an offer for 86% of outstanding ABN AMRO stock had been accepted, making way for the largest ever bank takeover in history. On November 1 2007, an extraordinary shareholder meeting was held to change the bank's management. Mark Fisher from RBS took over as CEO. At that meeting the consortium stated that 97% of all shares were in their hands.
Fortis will use the ABN AMRO brand name for Fortis's retail banking operations in the Netherlands.
