The Dutch Finance Ministry and the Dutch Central Bank should never have agreed to the splitting up of ABN Amro.

The former chairman of ABN-Amro's supervisory board, Rijkman Groenink told the De Wit inquiry, that the Dutch Central Bank should have prevented a take over of ABN-Amro by Fortis, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Banco Santander. The De Wit inquiry is the Dutch parliamentary commission charged with investigating the causes and government handling of the credit crisis.

"I reported that Fortis was not strong enough,"  says Mr Groenink. At the time, he told the authorities that the offer by the three banks was bizarrely high and not based on a proper investigation.

Mr Groenink said the offer was too irresponsible to imagine, besides being hostile.

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