Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank

Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank 

(abbreviated as Amrobank), the biggest joint-stock commercial bank of the Netherlands. It was formed in 1964 through a merger of the Amsterdam Bank (founded 1871) and the Rotterdam Bank (founded 1863); each of the two banks had previously absorbed several smaller credit institutions (including the Incasso-Bank N. V. in 1948 and the National Bank of Trade in 1961).

At the end of 1968 the capital stock of the Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank was 200 million guilders and the deposits amounted to more than eight billion guilders. From 1962 to 1967 the bank paid dividends of 14 percent on each stock. It has two main offices, in Amsterdam and in Rotterdam, and 550 branches in the country. The Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank owns a subsidiary bank, the Bank of Amsterdam for Belgium, which is in Antwerp, with 325 million Belgian francs of assets and 1.5 billion Belgian francs of deposits.

The Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank is a partner to several industrial, transportation, and trade associations and enterprises. It has especially close ties with the diamond industry of the Netherlands and Belgium; the Anglo-Dutch soap, perfume, and lubricants concern Unilever; the electronic and radio firm Philips; and the big navigation companies. The bank acts as a promoter as well as a broker in the issue of stocks and bonds. About 25 percent of the resources the bank enlists are placed in treasury notes and in bonds of provincial and municipal agencies. The Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank grants short-term and medium-term credits to all branches of the economy, finances foreign trade, buys, sells, and exchanges currency, and acts as a clearing house for the settlement of international accounts. It maintains business correspondence with banks of the USA, Britain, and other capitalist countries. The Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank is a correspondent of the Bank for Foreign Trade of the USSR (Vneshtorgbank) and banks of other socialist countries.

M. G. POLIAKOV