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Barclays is looking to relocate its headquarters to Amsterdam as part of plans to takeover Dutch bank ABN Amro.

The bank, Britain's third largest, announced yesterday it was in preliminary talks with regard to a potential combination of the two organisations.

While stressing the talks were "at an early and exploratory stage", there has been feverish speculation over the potential implications for Barclays and those who work for the bank.

Yesterday Barclays said the holding company of the proposed new entity would be a UK firm, with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and reports emerged today that suggested it could be looking to relocate to Amsterdam.

Experts say the proposed move, which the bank has stressed is a decision which has not yet been taken, could be a positive one for tax purposes.

Speaking on the Today programme this morning, John Whiting, senior tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said moving operations to the Netherlands for tax reasons was becoming increasingly popular.

"What the Netherlands does is say 'we will set out our stall to attract business, to attract people to base themselves here'; more formally perhaps than the UK does," he commented.

"There is certainly this feeling that the UK's tax system is becoming less and less competitive," he added.

"It was looking as a good tax system, quite attractive, we had cuts in tax rates quite a few years ago but in recent years other countries have rather overtaken us and gone past us."

Meanwhile, there remains concern in some quarters about the implications of the £80 billion negotiations, particularly whether they will threaten the future of the thousands of employees based in Barclays' new headquarters in Canary Wharf.

Barclays has so far played down suggestions that there will be any threat to British jobs, while trade union Amicus says it has been in contact with the company and will be seeking assurances about the future.

Regulators are expected to keep a close eye on the proposed deal, as are other major banks, many of whom have expressed interest in buying out ABN Amro.

ING and BNP Paribas are among those to have already signalled their willingness to enter negotiations on the right terms, while Royal Bank of Scotland and Capitalia have also been touted as a possible investors.