LaSalle Bank history

In 1964, Amsterdamsche Bank and Robaver merged to become the Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank, or AMRO.

By 1965, deposits exceeded $300 million and the bank employed over 500 people.

In 1972, the bank formed ABN Corporation to represent its North American subsidiaries.

The bank secured a firm foothold in the Midwest in 1979 when it purchased LaSalle National Bank, the sixth largest bank in the Chicago area with 700 employees.

Before he joined IIT in 1990 Asprooth was city manager of Evanston and assistant village manager of Glenview.

In 1992, ABN AMRO had acquired Hoare Govett, a U.K.-based international corporate investment bank.

In 1993, it merged its two independent Dutch--AMRO-owned Pierson, Heldring & Pierson and ABN-owned Mees & Hope--into a new bank called MeesPierson.

1994: Peter Jan Kalff becomes chief executive.

In 1995 it announced plans to buy the Nordic investment bank Alfred Berg from Sweden's Volvo group, and also The Chicago Corp, a New York-based securities operation.

ABN AMRO finally established a small foothold in a Western European financial center in 1999, taking a 10 percent minority position in Italy's Banca di Roma.

Groenink painted a fuller picture of the changes coming later in the year when he reported a 21 percent decline in the bank's second-quarter profit for 2001.