ABN AMRO Completes Channel Islands Business Sale

Editorial Staff

16 July 2019

, the Netherlands-based banking group, has concluded the sale of its business in the Channel Islands to Butterfield.

The agreement to sell ABN AMRO (Channel Islands) Limited was originally announced in April this year.

The sale of ABN AMRO’s Channel Islands operations concludes the planned divestment of several of the bank’s private-banking activities.

The bank has consolidated its business in recent years, such as spinning off its Asian private bank to Liechtenstein's LGT Group (that deal concluded in 2017). On the other hand, and as part of an intensified focus on its core European markets, ABN AMRO in late 2013 bought the German private banking unit of Credit Suisse.

ABN AMRO Private Banking operates under local brands such as ABN AMRO MeesPierson in the Netherlands, Neuflize OBC in France and Bethmann Bank in Germany, overseeing a total of more than €197 billion ($222.3 billion) in client assets. Most recently, ABN AMRO bought the activities of Societe Generale Private Banking Belgium.

The lender added that the deal will slightly increase its Common Equity Tier 1 ratio, a standard measure of a bank's capital buffer.