Dutch bank ABN AMRO NV and KPN Telecom said today they had scrapped plans for a joint venture to sell financial services over the Internet.
Last July, the two firms announced plans for a website called Money Planet, which was to launch in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
"Although financial services are and will remain an important theme on the Internet... offering online products and services from various parties, cannot provide the required return on their investment quickly enough," a joint statement said.
"Circumstances in the market have changed to such an extent that the parties decided to reconsider Money Planet on the basis of already worked out business plans," it added.
The two firms spent a "few million euros" in developing the business plans for the Internet initiative, mostly in personnel costs, ABN AMRO spokesman Mr Tanno Massar said.