ABN Amro has completed its acquisition of Banco CR2 in Brazil, a process which began in October last year.

With this move, ABN Amro will now be able to offer its energy, commodities and transportation (ECT) clients in Brazil a full range of onshore banking products.

CR2 will be renamed ABN Amro as soon as all regulatory requirements have been met. The intention is to adapt the CR2 set-up, which previously focused on providing credit to small and medium companies, to ABN Amro’s focus on ECT. The bank has not adopted the CR2 loan book.

Rick Torken, who has been appointed the new CEO of the bank explains to GTR that the bank will soon be offering ECT customers domestic pre and post-export finance, financial markets products, such as foreign exchange, as well as working capital loans in the Brazilian market.

The bank will service its existing customers, but will also be expanding its customer base “quite significantly in the coming years”, says Torken.

“Our clients are very happy,” says Torken. “Several of them have already asked us for limits in the domestic market, and we already have limits in place already for a large number of them.”

Staff-wise, the bank will be manned by the existing team of 30 ECT professional, who will team up with the 45 staff members from the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo branches of Banco CR2. The headquarters of the new, combined bank will move to São Paulo.