Former Dutch finance minister Zalm to resign as ABN Amro CEO

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - ABN Amro said on Tuesday that CEO Gerrit Zalm, the former Dutch finance minister who led the bank in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, will resign next year.

Zalm "has announced that he does not wish to complete his term of office," which was due to end in May 2018, the bank said in a statement, without giving details. The bank said it would release information on Zalm's exact departure date and the search for a replacement as it becomes available.

Zalm was the Netherlands' finance minister for much of the 1990s, and is considered one of the architects of the euro.

He took the top job at ABN Amro at a difficult moment. The bank, once a major international player, had been acquired in 2007 in an 71.9 billion euro ($80.74 billion) hostile takeover and was in the process being sliced up between Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and the now defunct Fortis of Belgium.

The Dutch state stepped in to nationalise the rump ABN and Fortis operations in the Netherlands as they hurtled toward an insolvency in October 2008 that would have crippled the country's banking system. Zalm, now 64, was asked to oversee the merger of the two operations.

In November the Dutch state sold a 30 percent stake as ABN Amro returned to the stock market, advertising itself as a stable, well-capitalised bank focused on the Netherlands, albeit with limited growth opportunities.

Many observers thought Zalm would step down shortly after the listing, but through the company's second quarter earnings this year he either deflected questions about his future or indicated he intended to serve out his term.

In July, daily newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad reported that Zalm intended to depart early and that board member Chris Vogelzang would likely be named later this year as his successor. The bank declined to comment.

($1 = 0.8905 euros)

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Louise Heavens)