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Euro Bank Giants to Merge
RBS, regulators may rain on Barclays-AMB AMRO parade
By Sam Gale Rosen
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Posted Apr 23, 07 9:23 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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Britain's Barclays Bank and Dutch bank ABN Amro have agreed to merge, creating one of the world's largest banks. The $90 billion deal is far from a sure thing, however—it requires approval by shareholders and regulators, and a group led by Barclays' archrival, the Royal Bank of Scotland, has expressed interest in ABN.
The new bank would be headquartered in the Netherlands and led by current Barclays CEO John Varley, who told the BBC the deal is a "unique opportunity." Some analysts predicted that the RBS consortium would outbid Barclays, and shares in the British bank dropped 2.5 percent on the news, which potentially affects 47 million customers.