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Jan Peter Schmittman, CEO ABN AMRO
Bank Nederland.
(Photographer: Peter
Boer, Hollandse Hoogte/Redux)
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Former ABN
Amro Netherlands Chief Executive Officer Jan Peter Schmittmann committed
suicide after killing his wife and one of his daughters, Dutch police said, as
his family said he suffered from depression.
The Dutch
forensic institute has “confirmed suspicions” of a murder-suicide, the police
said in a statement today. Schmittmann’s family was cited as saying in the
statement that “we knew Jan Peter struggled with severe depression.”
Schmittmann,
57, and his wife and daughter were found at their home in Laren, 32 kilometers
(20 miles) southeast of Amsterdam, on April 5 after the police received a call
from an acquaintance who said something might be wrong at the property. Dutch
newspaper De Telegraaf identified the dead women as Schmittman’s 57-year-old wife,
Nelly, and their daughter Babette, 22.
“A farewell
letter has been found inside the house,” the police said in the statement. The
authorities declined further comment on the letter’s contents and time and
cause of death.
Schmittmann,
who was born in Maartensdijk, Netherlands, is survived by one daughter, who
wasn’t at home and was informed by officers of the death of her family, the
police said on April 5.
“We are
deeply shocked and devastated by this incomprehensible news,” Schmittmann’s
family said in the police statement. “Our first concern now is supporting the
remaining daughter in coping with this indescribable grief.”
De
Telegraaf reported today that Schmittmann hanged himself, citing two people it
didn’t identify.
Nationalization,
Dismissal
Schmittmann
joined ABN Amro Holding NV, once among Europe’s biggest banks, in 1983 as an
assistant relationship manager and was named head of the lender’s Dutch unit in
2003. As a member of the bank’s executive board, he was responsible for
restructuring it along the lines agreed by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc,
Fortis and Banco Santander SA in their three-way takeover of the lender in
2007.
A year
after the biggest financial-services takeover in history, the credit crunch
drove Fortis to the verge of collapse, forcing the Netherlands to take over its
Dutch banking and insurance units, including assets of the former ABN Amro in
2008. The Dutch asked Gerrit Zalm to lead the company now called ABN Amro Group
NV.
On the eve
of the nationalization, Schmittmann was dismissed by the Dutch Finance
Ministry, he told lawmakers in a 2011 hearing. He received an 8 million-euro
($11 million) severance payment, less than what he was entitled to under his
contract and more than the Dutch government sought to pay.
London
Deaths
Schmittmann
owned 2phase2, a management company for investments and financial transactions,
according to information on LinkedIn Corp.’s professional social-networking
website. He’s also co-founder of 5 Park Lane BV, and last year returned to
banking as a supervisory board member at Delta Lloyd Bank NV.
Recent
deaths by finance workers around the world have raised concerns of mental
health and stress levels in the industry.
A coroner
in London last month started an inquest into the apparent suicide of William
Broeksmit, 58, a retired Deutsche Bank AG risk executive found dead in his
London home in January. The inquest for Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old vice
president in technology operations at JPMorgan Chase & Co., who died after
falling from the firm’s 33-story London headquarters, is scheduled for late
May.
In 2009,
former ABN Amro Holding NV Chief Financial Officer Huibert Boumeester, 49, took
his life while suffering from depression, according to the coroner
investigating his death. The banker was found dead from gunshot wounds by
police that June in woodlands 25 miles west of his London home.
To contact
the reporters on this story: Maud van Gaal in Amsterdam at
mvangaal@bloomberg.net; Martijn van der Starre in Amsterdam at
vanderstarre@bloomberg.net
To contact
the editors responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at
fconnelly@bloomberg.net; Mariajose Vera at mvera1@bloomberg.net Keith Campbell,
Steven Crabill
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