Fortis Bank chairman Filip Dierckx said the number of ABN Amro clients who switched banks during the takeover battle for the bank was kept down to a minimum. "The uncertainty that we saw during the summer ebbed away in the autumn," he told Het Financieele Dagblad. The newspaper had reported that rival banks, such as the unlisted Rabobank and private banking group F. Van Lanschot Bankiers, had previously said they had detected a higher number of new customers. But Mr Dierckx said the recovery in the retention of ABN Amro clients was especially noticeable in the mortgages market, as the number of mortgages sold increased by 7 per cent. The savings activities had also had a positive result despite trailing the average market increase. Fortis was part of the consortium, together with Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander, which last year secured shareholder approval to acquire the Dutch bank. Under the terms of the agreement, Belgian bank Fortis will get ABN Amro’s operations in the Netherlands, the global private banking business - excluding Latin America - and also the global asset management business. The three banks are awaiting permission of the Dutch regulator for the final deal to go through.