Dutch ABN AMRO bank apologizes for historic links to slavery

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch bank ABN AMRO has apologized for historic links to the slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, including the involvement of one of the bank’s predecessor institutions in “day-to-day business” of plantations. The bank is the latest institution to apologize for historic ties to slavery, following the Bank of England in 2020 and the municipality of Amsterdam last year amid a global Black Lives Matter reckoning over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. ABN AMRO said in a statement Wednesday that research it commissioned into operations of banks that were its direct predecessors uncovered the dark side of its history.