ABN AMRO’s origins date as far back as 1824, when its predecessor Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij was founded in the Netherlands. More recently the Dutch-based international bank is the result of the 1991 merger of ABN bank and AMRO bank. Today, ABN AMRO ranks 10th in Europe and 22nd in the world based on tier 1 capital. It has over 3,000 branches in more than 60 countries, a staff of over 1105,000 full-time equivalents and total assets of EUR 560 billion (as per end 2003). The firm is listed on several exchanges, including the Amsterdam, London and New York Stock Exchanges.
ABN AMRO focuses on three principal customer segments: Consumer & Commercial Clients, Wholesale Clients and Private Clients & Asset Management. Its stated objective is to maximize the value of each of these businesses as well as the synergies between them. In 2003, ABN AMRO had total revenues of 18.793 billion euros (US$ 21.443 billion)3 and a net profit of 3.161 billion euros (US$ 3.607 billion).