It is hard not to feel sympathy for the thousands of Fortis small shareholders who are all joining forces to file multiple lawsuits against the management and directors of the banking and insurance group, and against the Belgian and Dutch governments. They have seen the value of their Fortis holdings collapse to practically nothing following the emergency carve-up of the company.

They have many legitimate reasons to feel angry. After all, the board, the management and the respective Belgian and Dutch governments never consulted them over a rescue that in normal times would have had to be put first to a shareholders’ vote. They woke up one Monday to find that the Dutch government had nationalised the Dutch assets of the group, including a recently acquired part of ABN Amro, and that the Belgian authorities had sold the bulk of the Belgian business to France’s BNP-Paribas.