Monday, March 19, 2007

ABN AMRO confirms talks with Barclays...

See this press-release in which ABN AMRO confirms exploratory discussions with Barclays plc: As part of its continuous strategy to explore value creation for all stakeholders, ABN AMRO confirms that it is in exclusive preliminary discussions with Barclays plc concerning a potential combination of the two organisations.

It's all very early day and may lead to nothing. But it does help the Dutch realize that the end of domestic banking and big Dutch banks is over. It will all be multi-domestic and/or cross-border in the end. And the upside of all this.... may be that once Dutch parliament realizes this, they will also stop asking their questions from the strictly domestic perspective.