Deutsche Bank, which has expanded in the Dutch market in recent years, said it plans to stop doing business with the bulk of its small corporate customers  and focus on big companies instead.

Deutsche Bank said Thursday it will notify about 2,000 retail customers and 16,000 small businesses of the decision.

They represent about 70 percent of Deutsche Bank's total customers in the Netherlands and are all former ABN AMRO clients who were transferred to Deutsche Bank when it bought some ABN operations in 2010.

"In the next few months, we will contact the customers for whom Deutsche Bank Nederland NV is no longer the suitable bank to discuss the transfer to a different bank," Deutsche Bank said in a statement.

The German banking group announced a restructuring in September, including job cuts and asset sales, to meet tougher capital rules.

Plans to stop dealing with small Dutch customers was a consequence of this operation, a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman in the Netherlands said.

Reuters