Itau Buys ABN AMRO Private Banking

Brazilian holding company Itaúsa, which owns Bank Itaú, is to buy the international private banking business of ABN AMRO in Miami and Uruguay for $150m. The acquisition gives Itaú assets under management of around $3.3bn, taking its total up to $23bn. Itaú began expanding its private banking business outside Brazil in 1995. Last year, the São Paulo-based bank bought the BankBoston operations in Chile and Argentina from Bank of America for around $630m.