Rival group tries to stop $91B merger

LONDON, April 24 (UPI) -- An agreed-upon $91 billion merger of ABN Amro and Barclays of Britain reportedly could be derailed.

A rival consortium of Dutch-Belgian Fortis. Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano and Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland Group is said to be looking for ways to block the deal.

The actual target, however, is an agreement by ABN, the largest Dutch bank, to sell its Chicago-based LaSalle Bank to Bank of America for $21 billion, The New York Times said. A meeting with ABN management was canceled Monday in order to review the consortium's options.

Even without LaSalle, a combination of ABN Amro and Barclays would create one of the world's largest banks by total assets, about $3.1 trillion, the Times said.

It would cover a wide geographical area, including Brazil and South Africa, with 217,000 employees and 47 million customers.