NETHERLANDS – Northern Trust says it is aiming to open an office in Amsterdam within the first quarter of 2006.

It has appointed three new Dutch-speaking relationship management officers as part of the project.

“This office will represent the firm’s asset servicing and asset management businesses and will provide enhanced client service capabilities,” the Chicago-based bank said.

“We are trying to generally increase our language cover, but because we have a big client base in the Netherlands, we have been recruiting Dutch nationals for a while,” said Nigel Bloomer, the senior vice president who manages the client-servicing group in London.

Bloomer told IPE that Northern had not yet selected a head for the Amsterdam office. It was not yet clear whether the job would go to an internal candidate.

The new team members are Frans Hofkens, Christophe De Brabanter and Dennis Presburg.

Hofkens joined the eight-strong team as vice president and senior relationship manager in May. He was previously at Citibank, which was not available for comment.

De Brabanter joined as account manager in November 2004 from State Street’s client services department in London, while Dennis Presburg, also account manager, joined on July 4 from KAS Bank in Amsterdam. Neither State Street nor KAS were available for comment.

The new appointees report to Paul Cutts, senior vice president and head of the asset servicing group’s relationship management team for Europe.

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