1. RBS is under a contractual obligation for the ABN trust preferreds; however, the obligation is under the propectus requirements of each and this does require a declaration of dividend by the Board.

2. The Dutch Government and Santander are not liable for the divi, cause they are stockholders (as is RBS), but ABN AMRO in total is still liable, and moneys or assets of all of ABN AMRO must be applied to the dividend in the event that RBS cannot for some reason;

3. The ABN trust preferreds are a subordinated liability on ABN's books, they are not an "equity" class preferred, and payment of coupon is non-discretionary and that payment is booked as interest expense (page 116 ABN ARMO annual report, and page 158 lists them as a subordinate liability);

4. The glossy cover version of the Annual, page 282, indicates payment to Consortium members (for instance, that dividend to Santander) is under their dividend policy. If that is paid, then the ABN trust preferred divi must be paid for 4 subsequent quarters (my conclusion) unless ABN is capital short as per the trust preferred prospectus;

5. RBS does not own these securities yet;

6. When RBS closes the deal the new entity will be a sub licensed under the Dutch Central Bank. Per separation presentation on ABN website;

7. It is my strong opinion that the ABN trust preferreds will remain under that Dutch Central Bank licensed entity (or they'd have to call em or exchange em).

8. I currently rank the risk on these as less than the RBS equity preferreds.

9. I currently rank the risk equal to or less than the RBS debt preferreds (the L, F, H). The L's for instance are dependent on distributable profits of RBS Group; the ABN, the RBS G's for instance will be dependent on the Dutch segment of RBS and its equivalent of distributable profits -- this is not quite accurate given the prospectus but close enough for discussion.

cheers,

jack