Last year, the Dutch bank expanded its private banking footprint in Germany. This year, it is readying for the arrival – subject to regulatory clearance – of a new CEO.

Netherlands-headquartered ABN AMRO yesterday reported a 27 per cent year-on-year fall in fourth quarter profit for 2024, standing at €397 million, with a big rise in income tax costs and a rise in costs offsetting improved operating income.

The bank said income tax expenses stood at €220 million in Q4, up 88 per cent on the same quarter from a year before. Operating expenses rose 10 per cent to €1.614 billion. At the end of December 2024, it had a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio – its capital shock absorber – of 14.5 per cent, up slightly from a year ago.

In a brief reference to its private banking arm, ABN AMRO said it is “making a significant investment in Germany with the intended acquisition of Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe, a private bank with a long-standing history, positioning ABN AMRO as a leading private bank in the German market.” In May 2024, the bank built out its northwest European wealth management and corporate banking services by buying Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe. ABN AMRO acquired the business from China-based Fosun for €672 million. It already operates a German private banking business, Bethmann, headquartered in Frankfurt.

The lender also stressed its sustainability credentials. “We have continued embedding sustainability in our operations and the asset volume of client loans with a sustainability component (including mortgages and corporate loans) and ESG and impact investments rose from 34 per cent to 37 per cent in 2024. We remain focused on the decarbonisation of our loan portfolio. Additional targets for passenger cars, mortgages, as well as the upstream and midstream part of our oil and gas portfolio will be disclosed in our integrated annual report,” it said. 

ABN AMRO also flagged that it is using AI – a key topic in banking and wider financial services. “We added further use cases of Gen-AI in the fourth quarter with the introduction of an AI chatbot for Tikkie and a voicebot for incoming calls from our credit card clients,” it said.

New CEO
In January, ABN AMRO said it intended to propose Marguerite Bérard (pictured below) as its new CEO. The proposed appointment of Marguerite Bérard is subject to regulatory approval.

Marguerite Bérard

Last August, Robert Swaak (pictured below), chief executive, said he would not be completing his term of office at the bank. In consultation with the supervisory board, it was decided that he would step down in the first half of 2025. Bérard will be appointed as CEO as of 23 April.


Robert Swaak

Bérard was the head of BNP Paribas French Commercial and Personal Banking and a member of the executive committee between January 2019 and March 2024. Before this, she was a member of the management board of BPCE Group between 2016 and 2018, where she was responsible for finance, strategy, legal affairs and compliance.