The row over the €100,000 pay rises recommended for six board members at state-owned ABN Amro continued to rumble on at the weekend.

Research for television show Kassa showed four in 10 people have thought about changing banks because of the way senior executives have been given massive pay rises to get around the restrictions on bonuses.

Banking union FNV Finance also entered the dispute, saying it wanted all pay increases for financial sector executives to be reversed.

It says the pay rises go against the banking code of conduct, which is aimed at restoring public faith in the banking sector.

Although the ABN Amro board members said they would forgo their pay rise because of the outcry, ING has made no such move. For example, its chief executive Ralph Hamers has had a pay rise of 28%, taking his basic salary to €1.63m this year.

Banking unions say the pay rises are also inappropriate given that thousands of banking workers are losing their jobs.

Calm

Meanwhile, VVD parliamentary party leader Halbe Zijlstra told television current affairs show Buitenhof on Sunday that MPs had voted in favour of the ABN Amro pay arrangements by a large majority.

Nevertheless, events surrounding the pay rise were unfortunate, Zijlstra said, adding that the board should have been more restrained.

However, enough is enough and the discussion should now end, the VVD MP said. ‘There needs to be a period of calm.. then ABN Amro can be launched on the stock exchange in a good, lean and successful way.’

Despite the delay ordered by finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, this could still be an option before the end of the year, prime minister Mark Rutte said on Friday.

Divide

In its analysis of the latest events, the Financieele Dagblad says there is huge divide between politicians in The Hague and bankers in Amsterdam’s Zuidas district.

‘Bankers have underestimated how long the financial crisis would continue to sour public opinion’ the paper said. ‘They find it difficult to accept that politicians have the last word.’

The situation is complicated in the Netherlands because finance minister Dijsselbloem has taken an activist approach, the paper states. For example, he qualified the ABN Amro pay rises could be ‘defended legally’ but not morally.