The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) has levied an administrative fine of €2 million on ABN AMRO Bank because in the period between 18 July and 13 September 2016 it failed to divulge inside information on time.

An article on the early retirement of the chairman of the board of ABN AMRO was published on the website of het Financieele Dagblad (FD) on 18 July 2016. The article provided an accurate picture of the situation: the ABN AMRO supervisory board had embarked on a procedure to replace him and it was expected that this would result in the announcement of his departure before the end of 2016.

This information concerned inside information that ABN AMRO should have disclosed after the FD article was published. The bank failed to do so and did not comment on questions asked pursuant to the article.

ABN AMRO is a listed company, so its investors were unable to know for almost two months that the information in the FD article was truthful and was therefore relevant to them.