ABN Amro’s CFO to become new CEO

Bloomberg

ABN Amro Group NV promoted Kees Van Dijkhuizen to chief executive officer to help complete the Dutch bank’s privatization, succeeding Gerrit Zalm, who returned the firm to the stock market last year.
Van Dijkhuizen, 60, a former state official who has been the lender’s chief financial officer since 2013, will assume the CEO role by mid-February at the latest, when regulators should have approved the appointment, ABN Amro said after markets closed Tuesday. The new CEO will “create the conditions for the Dutch government to further sell down the remaining shareholding,” the Amsterdam-based bank said.
Zalm, 64, took the reins of ABN Amro in the wake of the financial crisis in 2009, after the icon of Dutch finance was nationalized following an ill-timed takeover by a group including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. Amid Dutch public anger against bankers, Zalm sold businesses and eliminated jobs, creating more of a domestic -focused lender out of a company that had once been among the biggest banks in the world. “Over the past 11 years, Kees van Dijkhuizen has proven himself as an outstanding banker and a good executive with a strong sense for society,” said Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem about the appointment, according to Dutch newswire ANP.
The stock has gained about 16 percent since the lender’s initial public offering almost a year ago. The shares closed at 20.60 euros on Tuesday in Amsterdam, up 0.3 percent.

Job Cuts
Before announcing his departure, Zalm set out a plan to cut as many as 1,375 jobs to reduce expenses. The firm plans 200 million euros ($220 million) of cost cuts amid increasing competition, regulatory pressures and low interest rates that are crimping earnings across European banks.
Van Dijkhuizen and the bank’s board will “give form and content to the strategy, the organization and the composition of senior management,” the bank said. “ABN Amro, in this next stage, should stand for an entrepreneurial culture, client focus, sustainable growth and sensitivity to society.”
Zalm, a former Dutch finance minister, said in September that he would step down in 2017 because the bank needed a longer-term leader after its return to the stock market. The country’s government still owns about 77 percent of the lender. e
Van Dijkhuizen had served as CFO of NIBC Bank NV from 2005 to 2013, and previously held positions at the Dutch ministries of finance and economic affairs, including budget director and treasurer general.
The new CEO “has held multiple senior executive positions in the banking industry and the public domain,” Olga Zoutendijk, chairman of the bank’s supervisory board, said in the statement.
“His experience, combined with his personal integrity and leadership style and extensive network, make him well-suited to lead ABN Amro.”