ABN AMRO Bank Receives Branch License for Beijing.

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 1998--ABN AMRO (NYSE:AAN), a leading international banking group, today announced that it has received approval from the People's Bank of China (the central bank) to open a branch in Beijing.

With branches already established in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and representative offices in Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Wuhan, ABN AMRO anticipates opening its new Beijing branch in the first quarter of 1999.

ABN AMRO is the first Dutch bank to open a fully-fledged branch in Beijing and is among a select group of international banks. In February 1998, Jan Maarten de Jong, member of the Managing Board of ABN AMRO Bank, participated in the Dutch trade mission to China. At that time, he had already received positive signals about the license from the governor of the central bank.

De Jong stresses the importance of the Beijing license: "As the national capital of China, Beijing is an important economic and political center. It is home to all the major Chinese banks and the largest state-owned enterprises that are China's prime industrial forces. We are therefore delighted to be able to open a branch in Beijing."

ABN AMRO's history in China dates back to 1825, when its forefathers, the Netherlands Trading Society, established a trading agency in Shanghai to act as a tea-purchasing office. In 1906 the first banking and deposit-taking branch was opened in Hong Kong.

In 1997 ABN AMRO was named "Best Foreign Commercial Bank in China" by financial magazine Finance Asia.

Based in The Netherlands, ABN AMRO is a leading international bank group with nearly $500 billion in assets, active in 72 countries with 80,000 employees worldwide. ABN AMRO is the sixth largest bank in Europe and the largest foreign bank in the US, with The LaSalle Group and Standard Federal in the MidWest and European American Bank in New York accounting for some $100 billion in assets. ABN AMRO shares trade in the US on the NYSE in ADR form, and are listed on the principal stock exchanges in Europe. The ordinary shares may be accessed on the Reuter Equities 2000 Service under the symbol AAH.AS and on Quotron under the symbol AABN.EU. Additional information is available on ABN AMRO's home page: http://www.abnamro.com.