Barclays, RBS elbow for ABN

Barclays and RBS plans for integrating ABN's wholesale business differ in detail but are broadly the same; they can offer their leading financing and risk management products to new clients and also strip out costs. "Applying the people, the processes, the procedures, the risk control systems that both Royal Bank and Barclays have to ABN's wholesale business should deliver a better profit," said Mark Thomas, analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

 
Barclays and a consortium, led by RBS, are fighting to buy ABN in what would be the biggest bank takeover. Attention is fixed on a key Dutch court ruling in the next two weeks on the sale of ABN's U.S. arm, LaSalle Bank, which will swing the outcome. But both Barclays and RBS are expected to continue the fight even if the LaSalle decision goes against them, and each is increasingly talking up its investment bank story.