Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has called off a scheduled meeting with ABN Amro following the Dutch bank's surprise decision to sell LaSalle, its US operation, at the same time as announcing a €67 billion (£45.5 billion) merger with Barclays.

Bank of America will pay $21 billion (£10.5 billion) for LaSalle and the newly combined Barclays and ABN are hoping to return €12 billion to shareholders following the deal.

In a tersely worded statement, RBS and its consortium partners Banco Santander, owner of Britain's Abbey, and Fortis, said it had lined up a meeting with ABN Amro at 2.30pm today so their proposals for a deal might be considered alongside Barclays' offer.

The banking trio added: "The banks' proposals include the retention of LaSalle Bank. In view of ABN Amro's decision to sell LaSalle Bank to Bank of America, the banks need to understand the circumstances under which this sale can be terminated. The banks are requesting this information today.

"Accordingly, the banks do not consider it appropriate to meet with ABN Amro today," the statement said. RBS had hoped to retain LaSalle to help to bolster its own US operation, Citizen Financial Group, which it acquired in 1988.

Rijkman Groenink, the chairman of ABN Amro's management board, said this morning that LaSalle would have been sold off even if the bank had remained independent. He added that ABN was actively seeking other bids for LaSalle.

He said that the time of the meeting with RBS and its partners would have to be changed as he was tied up in City meetings alongside John Varley, the chief executive at Barclays.

Standard Life Investments, an ABN shareholder, has already rounded on the Dutch bank's decision to sell LaSalle.

The Scottish-based Standard Life, which owns 0.3 per cent of ABN and 1.8 per cent pf Barclays, also appeared to throw its weight behind possible counter-offer for ABN led by RBS, which could reach as high as €40 per share.

Euan Stirling, investment director in UK equities at Standard Life Investments, said: "The $21bn consideration is a higher price than the market had expected, and this has allowed Barclays to offer more to ABN shareholders.

"We expect the RBS-led consortium to maintain its interest in ABN and would not be surprised if the consortium was able to offer a higher price than Barclays, while still being able to justify the deal to its own shareholders.”

Mr Varley refused to comment this morning on whether Barclays would raise its offer if RBS offered a higher price for ABN. He said: "I am not spending a lot of time thinking about anyone but ABN Amro and Barclays."

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