Our history

Click on our History timeline to see where we have come from or read about our predecessors.  Click here to read about the historical collection of the bank.

ABN AMRO

Rob Hazelhoff (ABN) and Roelof Nelissen (Amro) signed the ABN AMRO merger contract on 21 September 1991, creating the then largest bank in the Netherlands, the sixth largest in Europe and the sixteenth in the world. The new bank remained the main sponsor of the Rotterdam World Tennis Tournament, continuing the tradition ABN had started in 1973. Architect Henry Cobb, known for the pyramid he designed for the Louvre, designed the head office at Gustav Mahlerlaan in Amsterdam, where ABN AMRO has been established since 1999.

Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN)

The head office of ABN (at the time Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij) was formerly located at the current premises of the Amsterdam City Archives. Designed by Karel de Bazel and Dolf van Gendt, the building opened its doors in 1926. ABN significantly expanded its US operations with the acquisition of LaSalle National Bank. ABN acquired LaSalle under the leadership of André Batenburg, Chairman of the Managing Board from 1974 to 1985. Mr Batenburg was known as a stylish banker with an interest in culture.

Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank

A key figure in the history of Amro Bank is Jan van den Brink. He played an important part in rebuilding the Netherlands after 1945 as the Minister of Economic Affairs. In 1952, he made the switch to banking and from 1952 to 1978 he was on the Board of Amsterdamsche Bank and Amro. Amro Bank relocated from the city centre to its new head office in southeast Amsterdam in 1987. With the upcoming expected European integration, the bank decided that year to team up with Belgium’s Generale Bank, although the two never merged.

Amsterdamsche Bank

The head office of Amsterdamsche Bank was built from 1926-1932 under supervision of Hendrik Berlage. Frits van Nierop was director of this bank for fifty years, from 1871 until 1920. Amsterdamsche Bank acquired Incasso-Bank in 1948, vastly expanding its network in the Netherlands.

Fortis Bank Nederland

Fortis was created in December 1990, when Hans Bartelds (AMEV/VSB 1990) and Maurice Lippens (Belgian insurer AG) signed a merger agreement. From 1995, the bank’s head office was located on Archimedeslaan in Utrecht, in a building designed by Van Mourik Vermeulen Architects. A year later Generale Bank Nederland, another predecessor of Fortis Bank Nederland, started sponsoring the Rotterdam Marathon.

Hope & Co

The Amsterdam-based banking firm Hope & Co. was one of the world’s biggest banks at the end of the eighteenth century and specialised in large government loans. Its clients included the French Emperor Napoleon and several Russian tsars. Recent independent historical research shows that it was also closely involved in slavery-related activities.

Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij

For a long time the trading and plantation business in the Dutch East Indies was more important to Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij than its Dutch activities. From 1880 the East Indies branches turned to banking, followed around 1900 by its Dutch branches. As a historic curiosity, the Shanghai agency issued its own dollar bills from 1909 to 1946. After nationalization of its plantation business in 1958, NHM became a full-fledged bank.

Nederlandse Overzee Bank

Nederlandse Overzee Bank was established in 1954 by a merger between the Netherlands Bank of South Africa and the Amsterdam Commodities Bank (Amsterdamsche Goederenbank), both of which were established in 1888. The flag in the logo underscored the connection between the activities of these banks and the overseas trade in the time of the Dutch Republic.

Pierson Heldring Pierson

Besides a banker, Jan Lodewijk Pierson was also an author and the founder of the Allard Pierson archaeological museum in Amsterdam, named after his father. The building at Rokin 55, close to the museum, was home to Pierson, Heldring & Pierson from 1989 and, later, the MeesPierson and Fortis offices. Pierson & Co. (Boissevain & Co. before 1917) was a dealer in bonds and shares of US railway companies. As a sign of appreciation, a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway was named after Pierson.

R. Mees & Zoonen

The Rotterdam-based firm R. Mees & Zoonen started out in the eighteenth century as a cashier and insurance broker, developing into a bank only at the end of the nineteenth century. As a result of various mergers, it eventually became a part of ABN AMRO – as Bank Mees & Hope in 1975, and later as MeesPierson. Recent independent historical research shows that it was also involved in slavery-related activities starting from the second half of the eighteenth century.

Rotterdamsche Bank

The head office of Rotterdamsche Bankvereeniging, later Rotterdamsche Bank, was housed at Coolsingel 119 in Rotterdam. William Westerman, CEO until 1924, was at the helm during the bank’s many acquisitions and played a key role in the banking concentration in the Netherlands. In response to the growing number of female clients, Rotterdam Bankvereeniging founded the Vrouwenbank (‘Women’s Bank’) in Amsterdam in 1928. This closed its doors in 1971.

Slavenburgs Bank

Slavenburgs Bank was founded in 1925 en was renamed Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland (CLBN) in 1983. That year, NCB Bank launched the innovative Direktbank. With this forerunner of online banking, consumers conducted their banking business by telephone. CLBN also took over NCB Bank in 1987 and, five years later, began construction of the head office in Rotterdam, designed by architect Helmut Jahn. Princess Margriet opened the building in 1996 as the head office of Generale Bank Nederland, which CLBN had acquired the previous year.

Twentsche Bank

Willem Blijdenstein was the driving force behind Twentsche Bank, which had its head office at Spuistraat in Amsterdam and originally conducted banking business for the textile industry in the Dutch province of Twente. Twentsche Bank was unique in its innovative banking products, such as the Personal Loan in 1958.

Verenigde Spaarbank

In 1784, the Baptist minister Jan Nieuwenhuyzen established the Maatschappij tot Nut van ‘t Algemeen in Edam. The purpose of this association was to develop individuals and society, primarily through education. Local chapters of ‘t Nut founded the first non-profit savings banks in the Netherlands in 1817. Years later, in 1983, these united to become VSB.

Access to the ABN AMRO archives

Once archiving has taken place, records are transferred to the appropriate public depository. The archives of the following predecessors have already been deposited elsewhere:

• Firma Hope & Co. and Spaarbank voor de Stad Amsterdam at Stadsarchief Amsterdam;

• Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij, Nederlandsch-Indische Handelsbank, Amsterdamsche Bank and Rotterdamsche Bank at Nationaal Archief in The Hague;

• Firma R. Mees & Zoonen at Stadsarchief Rotterdam;

• Twentsche Bank at Historisch Centrum Overijssel in Zwolle.

These archives have been deposited on a permanent loan basis and are freely accessible, barring some restrictions for reasons of confidentiality. Archives of other smaller predecessors can be consulted at other public depositories.

The more recent archives are stored in the ABN AMRO Archives of the Art & Heritage Department. Access to the archives, or parts thereof, can be granted for the purpose of historical research in consultation with the relevant department.

The darker side of our bank’s history

ABN AMRO has a rich and varied history going back more than 300 years, marked by acquisitions, mergers and demergers. There is much in its past for the bank to take pride in, but there is a darker side to it as well.

The International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam was commissioned by ABN AMRO to research the involvement of the bank’s predecessors in slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The study showed that some of its predecessors were involved intensively and over a long period of time in activities related to slavery. They financed slave plantations, traded in slavery-related products such as coffee, sugar and wood used for making paints, or brokered insurance for slave ships.

In this video, CEO Robert Swaak, company historian Jaap Jan Mobron and others talk about the darker side of the bank’s past and about how ABN AMRO is promoting equal opportunities today.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In 2022, ABN AMRO apologised or the actions and activities of its predecessors and for the pain they caused in the past. It is recognition of the untold suffering at the time and the negative impacts suffered by the descendants of enslaved persons to this very day.

With a purpose – Banking for better, for generations to come – rooted in social engagement, ABN AMRO has been promoting equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion for years, both within the bank and in society in general. We leverage our expertise to help tackle social issues, for example through our Social Point programme, ABN AMRO Foundation and our sponsorships, but also through our services and our role as an employer.