Fortis rapidly merging ABN AMRO fund unit - paper

ZURICH (Reuters) - The merger of the asset management divisions of ABN AMRO and Fortis is proceeding faster than planned, a senior Fortis banker was quoted as saying.

The merger of ABN AMRO Asset Management into Fortis Investments would yield annual synergies of around 160 million euros ($237.1 million), Richard Wohanka -- the head of Fortis Investments -- told a Swiss newspaper.

"We're pleased to see that only very few clients have left us," as a result of the merger, Wohanka told the twice-weekly Finanz und Wirtschaft business newspaper.

Some 500 jobs would be cut out of a total of 2,850 in the combined two fund units, Wohanka also said. The combined unit will manage client assets of some 340 billion euros.

Fortis bought the retail and commercial banking operations of ABN, plus its wealth and asset management arm, as part of the 70 billion euro takeover of the Dutch bank by Fortis, Royal Bank of Scotland and Spain's Santander.

(Reporting by Douwe Miedema, editing by Anthony Barker)