Latin America: ABN Amro keeps its core from its periphery

IN 2006, DUTCH bank ABN Amro had a fair-to-middling year, with its total operating income excluding the acquisition of Italy’s Antonveneta rising by €1.28 billion, or 6.8%, to €20 billion. However, more than 70% of that increase came from one far-flung outlier of the ABN Amro group: the Latin America operations, for which read Brazil’s hugely profitable Banco Real.

ABN Amro’s Latin American operating income ended 2006 up by €904 million – an impressive 32% – to €3.7