The Belgian government on Thursday offered to guarantee all new bank financing for one year after it joined forces with France and Luxembourg for the second time in a fortnight to come to the aid of Dexia, the Franco-Belgian bank.

Dexia said liquidity problems in the face of all-but closed money markets had caused it to turn to the governments, which became shareholders last week when they clubbed together for a €6.4bn ($8.7bn) bail-out of the lender.