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ANTONVENETA: ANTITRUST SAYS ABN AMRO OPERATION IS GOOD FOR COMPETITON


PRESS RELEASE



PRESS RELEASE


ANTONVENETA: ANTITRUST SAYS ABN AMRO OPERATION IS GOOD FOR COMPETITON


The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting of 20 April 2005, decided not to request for referral from the EC the ABN Amro-Antonveneta case.

However the markets may be defined (banking services for private clients, banking services for corporate clients, financial services and insurance services), the overlap in the banking and financial sectors is, in the Authority’s view, marginal. As regards financial activities, the presence of the operators in question is not significant, either singly or as a whole. The combining of the market shares of the two institutions has no significant impact, from an antitrust point of view, on the structural makeup of the relevant markets.

The Authority concluded that the concentration of the activities of ABN Amro and Antonveneta raises no anti-competitive problems in the Italian financial markets, but rather could lead to greater competition for the control of banks with positive consequences for market forces.

So, as regards Article 9 of the EC regulation, which allows national competition authorities to request for referral from the Commission cases coming under EU jurisdiction which could possibly cause anti-competitive effects in domestic markets, the Authority has determined that, as far as its own  area of responsibility is concerned, there is no basis for launching such a procedure.

Rome, 20 April 2005