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Banco Santander and Fortis are part of a three-way consortium with the Royal Bank of Scotland which is trying to outbid Barclays in the race to buy ABN Amro. The consortium offer was agreed on 20 July and involves three separate notifications to the commission.
The Royal Bank of Scotland is also expected to be submitting its notification today, however, a spokesperson could not confirm the exact status of its filing.
The consortium bid would lead to the splitting up of ABN Amro's assets between the three members. RBS will acquire the international banking business, Belgo-Dutch bank Fortis will buy the Dutch retail banking unit and Spain's Santander will swallow the Italian and Brazilian subsidiaries.
Today's notification by Santander and Fortis follows a spending spree over the last few days by the consortium which resulted in it raising its stake in ABN Amro to 3.25 percent.
The European Commission cleared Barclays' bid for ABN Amro on 6 August in the first phase. Yesterday, the Dutch finance ministry and central bank also cleared Barclays' offer.
The commission has assigned case number M.4845 to Santander's notification