Spain’s Solbes chides Dutch central bank on ABN Amro

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Apr 20 : “The Dutch central bank should be more explicit in supervising the possible takeover of ABN Amro Holding NV, the biggest bank in the Netherlands,” Spanish finance minister Pedro Solbes said.

The Dutch central bank said this week an offer by a group,such as one including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Banco Santander Central Hispano SA and Fortis, would be more complicated and risky than a takeover by a single bank.

Amsterdam-based ABN Amro, whose exclusive talks with Barclays Plc are scheduled to end on Friday, will meet with the Royal Bank-led group on April 23.

“It’s not enough to say, I’m worried,” Solbes told reporters at a meeting of European finance ministers in Berlin on Friday.

“This position is not acceptable. The Dutch central bank has to be more explicit,” said Solbes, a former European Union (EU) economic and monetary affairs commissioner. Tobias Oudejans, a spokesperson for the Amsterdam-based Dutch central bank, declined to comment on Friday.

Barclays Plc has turned down offers from Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, BNP Paribas SA and Bank of America Corp to present a joint offer for ABN Amro Holding NV, the newspaper Expansion reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the process.

Dutch regulators should not play favourites with bids for ABN Amro Holding NV to prevent a break-up of the country’s biggest lender, EU financial services commissioner, Charlie McCreevy said on Thursday.

“All this should be assessed in a nondiscriminatory way,” Oliver Drewes, spokesperson for McCreevy, told reporters in Brussels on Thursday. “He is watching this very carefully.”