Fortis was Benelux finance's giant — it took three states and BNP to bury it

Fortis, the Belgian-Dutch banking and insurance group, had grown through acquisition, and its purchase of the Dutch ABN AMRO operations left the integration running as what the rescuers would call a cash drain. When Lehman Brothers fell on 15 September 2008, funding froze across European banks. On Friday 26 September the head of Fortis Luxembourg told his treasury minister the bank was on the brink of collapse and might not reopen on Monday.

The Benelux rescue landed on Monday 29 September: an €11.2 billion part-nationalisation in which Belgium took 49% of the Belgian banking arm for €4.7 billion and Luxembourg put in €2.5 billion — on condition that the ABN AMRO integration be halted. It was not enough. On 3 October the Netherlands nationalised the Dutch arm of Fortis outright, and fears turned to what would be left of the Belgian and Luxembourg parts when markets reopened.

On 5 October BNP Paribas took the rest in a €14.7 billion operation: it bought the banking businesses — up to 75% of Fortis Belgium and 66% of the Luxembourg unit — and €5.7 billion of insurance activities, paid in its own shares, while €10 billion of toxic assets were carved out into a structure held by the Belgian and Luxembourg states. The Belgian state in turn received about 11.7% of BNP Paribas, becoming its largest shareholder. Fortis shares had lost nearly 70% of their value that year.