Aegon, the Dutch insurance company, on Tuesday took a €3bn capital injection from the state, becoming the latest Benelux financial company to accept government cash after its shares lost 75 per cent of their value over the past year.

The deal came a day after Belgium pumped €3.5bn into KBC, its biggest lender, and just over a week after ING, the Dutch banking and insurance group, accepted a €10bn government investment.