The Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on June 4th an invitation to submit comments on the alleged aid to Fortis Bank Nederland and the ABN Asset, following the formal investigation procedure open on such operation. Interested parties may submit their comments to the Commission up to one month after the publication on the announcement.

The first beneficiary of the alleged aid is Fortis Bank Nederland (FBN), which is the 4th biggest bank on the Dutch market. At the end of 2008, it had a workforce of 9.793 FTE (full time equivalent). The bank is active on the retail, private and corporate market. The second potential beneficiary of the alleged aid is ABN, which is the third largest bank on the Dutch retail market and the largest bank on the markets for banking services to small and medium size firms. On September 30th 2008, it had a workforce of 23.300 FTE

On October 3rd 2008 the Dutch State purchased FBN, provided loans to it, and purchased the long term loans made to it by Fortis Bank. These measures were notified as non-aid measures on October 7th 2008.

By decision of December 3rd 2008 the Commission found the measures implemented by the Netherlands on October 3rd 2008 constitute aid to Fortis Bank but did not assess the existence of aid to FBN, which is now assessed. On December 24th 2008 the Dutch State purchased the activities of ABN AMRO which were held by FBN, notifying this transaction as non-aid measure on February 2nd 2009.

The European Commission find that the measure of October 3rd 2008 provides a significant advantage to FBN. In particular, FBN received access to EUR 45 billion of financing, which it could not have obtained from the market. It seems therefore that this measure constitutes aid to FBN.

At this stage, it can not be excluded that the ABN earmarked activities also benefited of it. The purchase of the long term loans by the State may also conveys an advantage to FBN. The compatibility of these alleged aid measures with the Banking Communication is therefore doubtful in Commission's opinion. There is no clear end-date to the facility and the interest rate charged by the State seems inferior to the guarantee fee charged in the framework of the approved guarantee scheme. In addition, there seems to be no safeguards to avoid undue distortions of competition.

Interested parties may submit their comments on the measure in respect of which the Commission is initiating the procedure within one month of the date of publication of this summary and the following letter, to:

European Commission
Directorate-General for Competition
State aid Greffe
1049 Bruxelles/Brussel
BELGIQUE/BELGIË
Fax: +32 22961242