Rijkman Groenink, the embattled chief executive of ABN Amro, has bowed to investor pressure and decided against joining the board of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell.

The ABN Amro boss, at the centre of the world's biggest financial services takeover, had been due to stand for election as a non-executive director at the Shell annual meeting tomorrow.

But the oil giant said today that Mr Groenink has now requested that his nomination be withdrawn, as he "wants to fully dedicate his attention to ABN Amro, given the current corporate activities around the company".

Mr Groenink has been widely criticised for his handling of the bid battle for the Dutch bank. It has agreed a £45bn takeover from Barclays but a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland is pressing ahead with a £49bn break-up bid proposal.

Leading institutional shareholders in Shell had been preparing to vote against Mr Groenink's appointment to the oil giant's board and shareholders in ABN Amro have been fiercely critical of his decision to consider taking on another role while the bid battle is at its height.

As well as being blamed for underperformance of ABN Amro in recent years, the chief executive has been criticised for mis-management of the bank's sale of its US arm, LaSalle. The $21bn (£10.6bn) sale of the business to Bank of America must now be put to a vote of shareholders in the Dutch bank, following a ruling in the local courts.

If shareholders reject the move, it could scupper the takeover by Barclays and open the door to the RBS-led consortium.

ABN suffered another blow last week with the surprise resignation of its finance director, British-born Hugh Scott-Barrett.

Meanwhile, the RBS-led consortium today issued a statement saying its proposals are not subject to any financing conditions, nor on making any disposals.

The consortium will make its intentions known by May 27.