New owners nominate ABN Amro boss

The new owners say they want to boost leadership focus in key areas

The new owners of Dutch bank ABN Amro have nominated Mark Fisher, a senior executive with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), to be next chairman.

The appointment of Mr Fisher, who joined RBS in 2000, must be backed by shareholders in a special vote likely to take place in the next few months.

Current chairman Rijkman Groenink is stepping down after the RBS consortium successfully bid to take over the firm.

ABN first supported the rival Barclays bid but then pledged its neutrality.

ABN Amro is expected to be broken up following the 71bn-euro ($98.5bn; £49bn) deal, the largest banking takeover in Europe.

The battle to buy the firm took many months following a legal row over the future of ABN's US subsidiary, but was concluded when Barclays withdrew its offer.

Mr Fisher is a member of the RBS board, in charge of IT, property, purchasing and back-office services departments.

He joined RBS when it bought National Westminster Bank in 2000.

The RBS bid was backed by Spanish bank Santander and Belgian-Dutch firm Fortis.