AMRO Bank was a major Dutch bank that was created from the merger of the Amsterdamsche Bank and the Rotterdamsche Bank in 1964. Its name comes from the first two letters of the two originating banks. It went on to become one of the two main predecessors to ABN AMRO bank when it agreed to merge with Algemene Bank Nederland in 1991. The bank could trace its roots back to at least 1765 and both the Amsterdamsche Bank and Rotterdamsche Bank had a long complex history.
History
AMRO bank was established in 1964 as the result of the merger of the Amsterdamsche Bank and the Rotterdamsche Bank, but the banks were not integrated until the following year. The Amsterdamsche Bank had been established in 1871 and had expanded rapidly from its base in Amsterdam to other cities in the Netherlands. It followed its main rival, the Rotterdamsche Bank, which was established in 1863, in acquiring other banks and financial institutions to create a national bank. As early as 1939 there had been plans to merge the two banks but the banks shelved these plans in anticipation of Dutch involvement in World War II. It was not until 1964, therefore, that these plans were finally fulfilled. As soon as the AMRO Bank was set up, it set about gaining market share in business lending, leasing and factoring as well as in medium to long term credit. To do this it established the Nationale Bank voor Middellang Kredietbusiness unit to provide medium to long term credit. It established or acquired companies such as Mahuko and Amstel Lease for its leasing business. The financing of factoring was brought together under the International Factors Nederland B.V., the oldest factoring company in the Netherlands. In the 1960s and 1970s, like many other banking companies, AMRO saw growth in retail banking and this became a much bigger part of the business. Its wholesale banking was also strengthened by the acquisition of Pierson, Heldring & Pierson in 1975. AMRO operated PHP as an independent unit under its existing name. Another acquisition was Utrecht based Bank Flaors & Ko, which had been in existence since 1691. This bank was absorbed under the AMRO Bank brand. In 1967 AMRO Bank was one of the founders of the consortium bank Banque Européenne de Crédit à Moyen Terme based in Belgium. The aim was create an entity that was large enough to work at an international level. Soon after this, with their sights on European integration, AMRO Bank announced plans to collaborate with BelgianGenerale Bank with the aim of building a European international bank. However, this project was too ambitious and never managed to get off the ground. It was only when the Dutch Government announced that it was relaxing its merger rules for financial institutions that ABN and AMRO Bank were able to seize the opportunity to merge and to create a bank large enough to fulfill these ambitions. On 24 August 1990 ABN AMRO was created by the conversion of the shares of both banks into shares of the newly established ABN AMRO Holding N.V.
