EU clears Barclays 89.10 bn bid for ABN AMRO

British bank Barclays Plc has received the approval of the European Commission on Monday in its bid to buy Dutch rival ABN AMRO for $89.10 billion.

The Commission said it "concluded that the operation would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it." The clearance has no bearing on who may actually win a bidding war pitting Barclays against a consortium also seeking control of the Netherlands'' largest bank. The rival consortium is made up of Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis, Royal Bank of Scotland and Spain''s Santander, which have offered 71 billion euros. Fortis shareholders in Brussels on Monday backed a 13-billion euro share issue for the Fortis portion of the bid.