Tuesday, 31 March 2015 - 10:18
ABN Amro out of Central Bank's control: report
ABN Amro has "insufficient understanding" of the other positions and personal interest of its own board. The rules to prevent insider trading by the directors are also not in order. Only in the course of this year the bank hopes to meet the requirements set by the supervisor to prevent the mixing of private interests and the interests of the bank.
This is according to a letter that De Nederlandsche Bank sent the ABN Amro board in February. Het Financieele Dagblad has this letter in its possession, NOS reports.
This past Friday the cabinet intended to make a decision on the sale of the state bank, but the decision was postponed after the commotion about a massive salary increase for the ABN Amro executives. On Sunday the bank announced that it would cancel the salary increases. According to the bank, all the criticism is detrimental to clients, ABN employees and public confidence in the bank. Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem of Finance welcomed the decision, stating that the Board of Directors made an important contribution to the restoration of peace and confidence around the bank by cancelling the increases.
In addition to the commotion around the salary increases, the bank was also in the news this month when it was revealed that ABn Amro belatedly informed the government about fraud at a branch in Dubai. The bank had been informed about the fraud in the summer of 2014 already.