Dutch bank ABN AMRO said on Saturday a $270 million claim filed against it by a trustee seeking to recoup money for victims of Bernard Madoff related to operations now owned by British bank RBS .

Irving Picard, the trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, is seeking to recoup more than $1 billion from seven financial groups for victims of convicted U.S. swindler Madoff.

State-owned ABN AMRO was one of the seven groups named in the complaint, but spokesman Hans van Zon said a claim sent to ABN AMRO for $270 million relates to the company's wholesale banking business that was bought by RBS.

We are aware of this action and will vigorously defend our position. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage in the process, RBS spokeswoman Sarah Small said.

ABN AMRO, however, is still facing a claim of $230 million, which it received via its unit Fortis Prime Fund Solutions, spokesman Van Zon said. He reiterated earlier comments that the bank would defend itself vigorously.

The seven firms earlier named in the claim are Citigroup's Citibank, Natixis SA , Fortis, ABN AMRO, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria , Nomura <8604.T> and Merrill Lynch, now owned by Bank of America .

The financial institutions received transfers of money from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) through numerous Madoff feeder funds when they either knew or should have known of Madoff's fraud, the trustee said on Wednesday.

ABN AMRO was bought in 2007 and later split up by a consortium of three banks including RBS, Spain's Santander and Belgium's Fortis.

In October 2008 at the height of the global credit crisis, the Dutch government nationalized Fortis's Dutch banking and insurance activities, including its interest in ABN AMRO for 16.8 billion euros.

(Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block)

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