Interview with our Chief Executive Officer

2024 will mark the end of your first four years as ABN AMRO’s CEO and the start of your second term. How is the bank different from when you arrived back in 2020?

“We have a very different profile now. In November 2020, we made clear choices about who we wanted to be, and we have done what we said we would do. As a result, we are now a bank with a focus on the Netherlands and Northwest Europe with client and people centricity at our heart. Our purpose ‘Banking for better, for generations to come’ shows our long-term commitment to our stakeholders and underlines our focus on long-term value creation. As we continue to change the bank, we have to make sure that we do not leave anyone behind.”

How is the bank bringing this commitment to life in day-to-day practice?

“In many, many ways. As a personal bank in the digital age, we always need to bear in mind that some clients struggle to keep up with changes in digital banking. That is why I am very pleased that we now have an expanding pool of financial coaches who have been specially trained to support them. Another example is our effort to promote equal opportunities for female entrepreneurs. In 2023, we launched an alliance of more than 60 leading organisations aimed at helping more women to start, fund and grow their businesses.

Our commitment to inclusion can also be seen in our climate strategy. As we work towards net zero emissions, we need to keep an eye on clients who are struggling to keep pace with the transition. Think about young couples who don’t have enough money to buy an energy label-A home or small businesses that are excluded from serving customers in climate-neutral zones because they don’t have the means for electrically driven vehicles. It’s easy to say ‘Look, we are not going to finance these activities anymore because we have to meet our climate objectives’. But if we are to make this transition a success, we need to ensure that the costs and benefits are spread fairly, so that everyone can participate. If the transition cannot be fair, the world may very well not transition at all.”

How do you look back on the past year?

“2023 was very much a year of uncertainty. Geopolitical tensions increased and GDP growth was lagging, and these factors obviously translated into uncertainty for our clients. That said, it was a highly profitable year for ABN AMRO as we continued to benefit from higher interest rates and the improvement in our risk profile. We also did really well commercially. At Corporate Banking, we had a very good year because our focus on our three transition sectors – new energy, mobility and digital - continued to pay off. In terms of portfolio size, we have now completely replaced the loan book that we put into wind-down, and that is something to be very proud of. I am also happy with how our other client units performed: our mortgage book worked its way through difficult market conditions, while Wealth Management continued to position itself as a market leader.

Another milestone this past year was the continuation of our share buyback programme. We owe investors a healthy return based on clear capital framework. I continue to value our strong capital position, which allows us to continue to operate and grow the bank, to weather crises and to do what’s right for our owners, which is to pay dividend and to return capital if and when we are able to.

The announcement of the acquisition of BUX, one of Europe’s fastest growing neo-brokers was another highlight. We have always said that we are open to acquisitions that allow us to accelerate the execution of our strategy, and that is exactly what BUX does. It will strengthen the bank’s IT capabilities and provide us with access to a client segment we really want to serve.”

The bank’s increased profitability triggered a public debate about lagging deposit rates. What’s your view on this?

“Of course I understand that clients would like to earn more interest on their savings. But, as a bank, we always have to balance those needs with our responsibility to safeguard our long-term financial stability and ensure we can continue playing our key role in society. I think the discussion focuses too much on the short term. Before ECB rates started rising in 2022, we faced many years of unusually low rates. What people sometimes forget is that it was a longtime before we eventually started passing on these costs to consumer clients.”

Let’s talk about the execution of your strategy. How are you progressing?

“I am pleased with the progress we have made. Over the past 3.5 years, we have de-risked the bank significantly and created a solid platform to deliver on our strategy. We have implemented a new service model that provides convenience supported by expertise at lifecycle moments to our clients and we are working to improve our client offering with more simple financial solutions. An important milestone last year was the Dutch State’s decision to start reducing its shareholding again. To me, that is a sign of confidence in our strategic direction. If the State had not believed that we were on the right track, it would never have taken this step.”

What else needs to happen for ABN AMRO to become a personal bank in the digital age?

“My message is simple: we need to stay the course. First of all, we have to continue to focus on improving our Net Promoter Scores, which are still not where we would like them to be. We will also continue redesigning our digital propositions so that we are available to clients whenever and wherever they need us.

We will continue to invest in our expertise and offer the best products and services to support our clients. We will also keep investing in areas such as generative artificial intelligence; these investments allow us to optimise our internal processes while freeing up staff to serve clients better.

We also need to combine this consistency with speed of execution. We live in an ever-changing world. This means we need to execute what we say we will and do it within a timeframe that allows us to change again as necessary. If we do that, I am confident that we will be able to deliver high client and people satisfaction and contribute to the climate transition, while also returning to our shareholders what they are due.

As we continue to execute our strategy, it is important for our people to feel connected to the bank and our purpose. I am very proud of our employee engagement scores in 2023, which were much better than last year. It is really thanks to our more than 20,000 colleagues that we have been able to do what we have done, and that is something I can only be grateful for. Even though the journey is by no means complete, we have created an ability for the bank to move forward.”