Dutch bank ABN Amro formally withdrew its recommendation of a takeover offer by Barclays today.
But ABN also made clear it still favours the bank's offer over a higher bid from Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) consortium.
The Netherlands' biggest bank, the target of a €64 billion offer from Barclays and a €70.6 billion bid from RBS, Belgium's Fortis and Spain's Santander, also reported a 7.1 percent decline in its second-quarter net profit today.
ABN originally backed Barclays when announcing their merger in April, in a friendly deal that would have kept ABN mostly intact and the combined group's headquarters in Amsterdam, but it withdrew its recommendation even after Barclays sweetened its all-share offer last week to include some cash.
But ABN did not endorse the rival RBS consortium's mostly cash offer, saying Fortis faced a challenge in raising the capital needed to fund its part of the bid for ABN.
"We continue to support Barclays' offer because we feel overall Barclays' merger plan is to the benefit of all stakeholders," Chief Executive Rijkman Groenink said, adding ABN was taking a neutral stance on the competing bids.